Proper Measuring Level BBB (Hot Tub)

[mjones0089]

Hot Tub chemicals for dumbies...We are cleaning out our 500 ga. hot tub and have used hot tub cleaner to clean the pipes of white tissue type floaters. Looks like skin.. Anyway I have read allot of information and we are going to start using the BBB, seems the simplist for someone that doesn't know much about chemicals. I also purchased the (Taylor Test Kit) to make sure that we are doing everything right. What levels should I be looking for ?
B= Bleach (how much)
B= Baking Soda (how much)
B= Borax (how much)
I have never used the taylor test Kit and really not sure what I am testing for and which level. Can someone send me (Ben's Best Guess chart)

Thanks

[Watermom]

Ben's Best Guess Chlorine Chart is in my signature below. We don't help too much with hot tubs but there is another forum where one of our members (Waterbear) is a moderator that does. You might want to check it out. www.poolspaforum.com.

Welcome to the Pool Forum, by the way!

[PoolDoc]

We don't actually support stand alone hot tubs here.

Operating them is equivalent, approximately, to operating a very high load indoor commercial pool, with a poor ventilation system and a weak cartridge filter system. Doing so is very, very different than operating an uncovered outdoor home (= low load per gallon) pool exposed to UV light (= enhanced oxidation).

The tissue stuff sounds like a major infestation of biofilm. Cleaning that up is NOT something you can do with normal BBB levels. Having the Taylor kit will allow you to take levels to the maximum shock level, and keep them there, which is needed to clear biofilms.

But I'll ask Chem_Geek and Waterbear to take a look.

[waterbear]

I am going to be unavailable for the next week or two but please feel free to check out poolspaforum.com. Read the stickies in the hot tub water chemistry section of the forum, particularly the one on decontamination and the ones on dichlor/bleach method and Nitro's approach to water maintenance (both are basically BBB for hot tubs) and bromine for beginners (which is a guide on how to PROPERLY use bromine). There are a lot of people over there that can give you some help and I will check in when I return. Send me a PM with your username over there so I know who you are.

If you decide on bromine you can still use your K-2006 test kit. You will not need to test for CYA and you will only need to do the free chlorine test and then multiply that result by 2.25 to convert it to a bromine reading. The only difference between the K-2006 and the K-2106 for bromine is that the K-2106 does not include the CYA test and the titrant for the FAS-DPD test is a different concentration so that each drop is either .5 or 1.25 ppm bromine. However, as I said, you can use the K-2006 just by multiplying the test results for FC by 2.25 to convert that reading to bromine.