Getting yourself some “me time” in a luxurious hot tub over the weekend is one way to revive your senses, and freshen up your soul.
Choosing the right hot tub for your home spa is one thing that will make the entire experience better. Dealing with the alkalinity of the hot tub is another. This will require some time and effort, and expertise for some.
Part of it involves monitoring the water level from time to time, just to make sure that chemical compositions are appropriate.
Why Bring Down Alkalinity?
It is important to maintain balance in the hot tub’s alkalinity. Why is that so? If left unmonitored, there will soon be a rise of calcium levels in the water, which is not good.
This can result in cloudy water, clogged drains, and hot tub scaling. This will also render bromine, chlorine, and other water sanitizers ineffective. The worst is this can also be the cause of skin itchiness.
When bringing down the alkalinity of the hot tub, make sure that it will not go down as low as you think it should be. This is because it can lead to corrosion, which will later on attack the metal parts of the fixture. This can cause serious damage to the tub later on.
Testing the Alkalinity Level
Alkalinity testing kit or strips can help you do the job in no time. Check out pool supplies for these strips. Just simply follow the instructions that come with the pack, and you will be able to go through the process smoothly.
Alkalinity levels should be between 80ppm and 120ppm. Testing twice a week will be good to ensure that this level is maintained. Take it as a part of regular hot tub maintenance.
How to Bring Down Alkalinity
If the hot tub alkalinity reaches beyond 120ppm, the goal is to lower it to about 100ppm, just so you reach middle ground. Sodium bisulfate will help with that.
Make some calculations when doing this, depending on the amount of water in your tub. The rule of thumb is to use 3.5 ounces of sodium bisulfate for every one thousand gallons of water in order to lower alkalinity by 10ppm.
So, if your alkalinity is 130ppm, then you will need three times that amount, or 10.5 ounces.
In case your tub uses only five hundred gallons of water, divide the 10.5 ounces by two, and that will give you 5.25 ounces.
Once you are done with the measurements, allow the sodium bisulfate to circulate in the hot tub, before shutting it off. After that, you must give the tub another hour or a couple more before testing the alkalinity levels again.
Repeat the steps above in case you have not achieved the results yet. Test again the following day to ensure that the water is at the right alkalinity level.
Raising the Tub’s Alkalinity
In case you just had too much fun lowering the alkalinity that its level went below 80ppm, just use sodium bicarbonate to raise it up a bit.
The ratio is 2.25 ounces to raise to 10ppm for every 1000 gallons of water.
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