My biggest problem today is getting the water chemicals adjusted in the spa. I have the MPS (monopersulfate) and the alkalinity in range, but the PH balance is a little high. I went on-line to find out how to lower the PH. The answer is to add a mild acid to the spa such as white vinegar or a commercially-available granulated acidifier.
I took a photo of a couple of water test strips showing the before and after results when I added chlorine today. You can see that the second strip (closest to the container) matches colors for in-range condition for the top two pads only.
The plan is to see if our local discount store has a granulated acidifier in stock. If not, plan B will be to order some on-line.
We have had spas in the past in California, but we never worried very much about the chemical composition until now. We want this spa to outlast us, so we better take care of both it and us. 😉
I have a pretty good size swimming pool and after a few years of trying to play the balancing act I simply gave up and just kept the chlorine up to snuff…a once a week shock treatment (bought at the Exchange or Wal-Mart for about three bucks) seems to work. Lets face it, some water is hard and some has more minerals than others so what’s wrong with that…a little high or low on the pH doesn’t concern me one way or the other…if it feels good for the swim, that’s OK with me. (Note: The only time I have problems is when I’m away for a few months. Seems as though I cannot get any reliable friends to check the chlorine once or twice a week. This past summer [ Jun, Jul, & Aug ] it happen again…like the year before….when I returned from my trip GREEN like you’ve never seen! …by the way, when this happens its cheaper to drain the entire pool than to try and correct it with chemicals.)
Believe it or not….22,000 gallons of water is less expensive than the chemicals it would take to clear up the algae.
Thanks for the information, Norm.
I still will get the acidifier stuff since we have well water here which has high mineral content. I’ll let you know how that works out in a future post.
Our pool cover just came in yesterday…we understand that a cover will help prevent algae but we got it mainly to keep out leaves and stuff over the winter months.