I'm in the process of switching from Baqua Spa products to dichlor. I have a 350 gal Leisure bay. This what I have done / plan to do -
- reconnected my ozonater
- drain and fill
- added 5 tsp dichlor to shock and ran overnight
- drain and fill
- replace filter
- balance PH to ~ 7.5
- add 3 tsp dichlor at startup and once per week
- add 1 tsp dichlor per use
- monitor and maintain PH (7.2 - 7.8.) and (free?) chlorine (1.5 - 3.0)

Sound OK? Am I missing anything?

sounds good but if your ozone is 24hr and a good quality CD version you won't need 1/4 of the chlorine

My spa is about 7 years old, and I think my ozonator is the type with a bulb in it and not CD. It is 24 hr though. Can I still cut down on the dichlor? If yes, how much per use and how much per week? We use it about 3 times per week with 2 bathers. What should be the chlorine range I maintain? Should I be monitoring total chlorine of free chlorine? Thanks for the help.

you need a new ozonator - upgrade to CD
UV lamps have an effective life of up to 3 years - their output typically drops off to approx 50% after 100 hrs (4 days!) and then slowly erodes away to approx 30% at around 3 years. it's at this point that the ozone concentration is no longer adequate to be of benefit - 2 choices (the first one being bad, but cheaper!) - replace the lamp (and starter if fitted) or upgrade to CD which in most cases has no drop off in performance until it dies. On top of that - they produce greater levels of ozone at higher concentration.
(figures above are debateable - different sources quote differnet values, but the general point of the argument is the same)

I'll probably go with the CD option. Searching a little I found the Del Eclipse for about $90, is that a good brand and price? I know I have an AMP plug, but how do I find out if I need a 120V or 240V? Is it fairly simple to remove the old one and install the new one? Also it looks like there is a $50 chip that needs to be replaced about once a year (9000 hours) is that normal for a CD ozonator?

this is a cheaper CD ozonator - pick one that operates with a high voltage 'lightning storm' uses a high voltage transformer and spark chamber - spark generator - known by a lot of different names - sorry, can't assist with model - we have del mcd50 which go by other names in USA - awesome unit - haven't seen any fail for 7 years yet.

It looks like I'll be switching back to Baqua and disconnecting the ozonator after all. After two short soaks I've started getting the rash that caused me to switch to Baqua in the first place. I was hoping to avoid the rash using a small amount of dichlor instead of the bromine and MPS shock that I used to use. Thanks for your help.

Have you tried silver with your ozone? It works well, doesn't cause rashes, and is a lot less work than using Baqua.

My 2 cents

Some people are actually allergic to ozone and can get rashes from it. It might not be the chlorine or bromine causing your rash?
You can test each by rubbing a little on your for arm to see if you get a rash.

If you do change back then you might want to also replace your filter.

As far as cd verse uv goes.......Alacy has made some good true points on the cd type. However I would be more apt to replace the uv back with a uv on a Leisure Bay Tub considering the way it's plumbed. My concern would be the total solubility of the ozone gas. I think you would be creating more off gas then desired on this system. Defiantly do not even consider it if you have a indoor installation. It would be ok if your spa install is outdoors and if you want to do some modification to the plumbing to assure proper mixing and depletion of the gas. I use uv ozone with 1 ppm bromine and a little chlorine shock on a leisure bay tub. No problems

The biggest problem I see however is the your trying to use a polymeric biguanide on a spa maybe not designed to handle it pending the year make and model. If it's a 24 hr filtration model with a mechanical pack then I don't think there are any filtration stir cycles or pump timers. Again a solubility problem. The grundfus pump doesn't have enough unff to keep things from precipitating like the calcium your going to have to add to keep the biguanide from foaming and the water balanced. It has a good turn over rate for a spa but every low psi. It's normally used with a uv ozone to produce good o2 to o3 transitions. Also the plastics on the spa like the light lens's may just crack or get mushy and leak over time....plus a few other things my go bad.........anyway good luck Pork

mogmios - Yes, at one point I tried one of the silver based systems, but I still got the rash.

Pork - (are you related to Swine?) Allergic to ozone? Now that is one thing I didn't consider. It's never made sense to me that I can spend all day in a chlorinated pool and not get a rash, but 15 minutes in my slightly chlorinated tub and I'm itching all over. I may have to try switching back to dichlor with the ozonator disconnected. Thanks for the tip. If there is any way I can stop shelling out the big $$ for Baqua, I'll try it.

polymeric biguanide = BaquaSpa sanitizer, right? Are you saying my tub may not be able to handle BaquaSpa? I've got a 1999 19300-S series Leisure Bay. It has 24 hour filtration and once a day it kicks into a full jets on, bubbles on cycle (is this a stir cycle?). Our water is relatively hard, so I only add a small amount of calcium. I've been running BaquaSpa for about 5 years now with pretty good results.

Time for my 2 cents....

Regarding the spa's inability to handle a CD ozonator... I tend to disagree. Here is why. 90% of the ozone generated is depleted before it even reaches the tub shell. This is because the halflife of ozone is so short, around 1-3 seconds, that by time it reaches the shell, it's already done it's work in the plumbing. People often talk about "outgasing", and while this is a potential threat, in all reality consumer based ozonators don't generate enough ozone to realistically cause this problem. If you were to get a high output model, and you have a short run from the ozonator to the injector and a very short plumbing run between your injector and the spa shell, then you may experience a minute amount of outgassing. I'm sure there are many people that will disagree here, so feel free to look up ozone on the net, and get a real scientific explaination...not some manufacturer's website for spas or ozone generators. They are in the business to make money.

Regarding the allergy to ozone, well, ozone is toxic. It's a poison, just like cholrine, and bromine. Any taken internally in mass quantity will cause all sorts of problems. As far as ozone causing problems directly to the skin though, that is one I haven't been made aware of as of yet.

If you use chlorine bleach in your laundry, and can handle chlorinated pools, I would strongly suspect you are having a reaction to another pollutant in the water. Perhaps chloromines.. those are used chlorine molecules that are no longer effective, cause the majority of the chlorine smell, can unbalance your PH levels, and can certainly cause skin reactions. The cure to these is to "burn" them off, by adding a shock dose of chlorine. Most test kits only check for total chlorine levels, and the test often includes chloromines. A good test kit will test "free" chlorine, or active chlorine. Many times people will test, see that the levels are adequate, and can smell the chlorine, and assume it's doing it's job, when in all reality there may be hardly any active chlorine in the spa at all. You should shock when your total chlorine is a bit higher than your free chlorine.

I hadn't though about anyone being sensitive to ozone either. I have seen folks get mystery rashes that generally get blamed on cholrine, but in most cases, I doubt the validity of most of those claims, since usually, the people will have more chlorine ppm in thier city drinking water than what's in the spa...

And charger has a point, off gassing isn't usually a concern, unless the spa is in an enclosed area, then, it's a serious issue. I'm not sure where Charger heard that O3 has a half life of only a few seconds, but that's a fallacy. Depending on the temp, it's half life is anywhere from a few hours, to several days...

link

Swine.....

You're killing me....

Taken from the link from your post:

As soon as ozone hits organic compunds it decomposes.... Thus the half life of only a few seconds in a tub. It is depleted almost instantly!

Charger, you have some valid information, but, and I don't mean to sound rude, a little information can sometimes be more dangerous than none at all...

Yes, ozone is highly unstable, but if it doesn't have time to dissolve in the water, it just floats to the surface. It's not reacting with anything, once it reaches the surface, it becomes a powerfull pollutuant. Passing off that off-gassing isn't a concern when, in fact, it's a serious health issue is extremely irresponsible.
Ozone is a pollutuant. We have serious ozone pollution problems right now.

Here is another link that, I hope, will help you.

While i agree little info can be as harmfull as none at all, the act of outgassing on (and I will say it this way) MOST spas isn't even enough to amount to the same amount of ozone generated by your electronic ignition stove, your lightswitches in your house, or even the sun's generation by the UV rays into your home. Lightning storms are ozone-a-ramma!

Basically for anyone still reading after this lovely debate:

If you can smell it, you are producing too much.

Fair enough?

I like the smell " title="Very Happy" /> As long as it's not overwhelming, you're a-ok Noting the smell of ozone is fine, people are able to smell as little as.02-.05ppm, which is perfectly safe. I'm very concerned about anyone that has a "spa-room." If your tub is outside, I can't really see it being an issue. Not too good for the environment... but it's the folks who have indoor hot-tubs that really need to take note of off-gassing issues.

I like the smell too... so much in fact that I have an ionic air purifier in the home and 2 of my cars.

" title="Arrow" /> NC-SPA LoL........I'm not related to Swine. I don't even know him. I have read allot of his post and can tell you he a smart tech however. I really only know one person on this site and he is a good tech also. Read allot of post and there is allot of good stuff here. Baqua Spa should be fine in your spa......You have a digital pack by balboa that has stir cycles. I would drop the calcium and revert to a liquid defoamer my self. Actually your spa when powered up will turn on twice a day....Once every twelve hrs to the default time of 2hrs out of every twelve. You can change the filter presets to 2,4,6,8, or FC. on the topside control by pressing temp up and jets. You can also put your spa in stand by mode by pressing temp up and light......this will allow you to change your filter without having to power down. You should set you filter cycles to f4 if your using baqua spa. The air blower should also purge 30 seconds every 12 hours. Hope this helps you. You take what you want from the swine /charger ozone debate ? I have seen ozone poisoning on a few customers with indoor installs and can tell you they got very sick. I have also determined it to cause rashes on some people when chloramines weren't present. Charger Quote " 90% of the ozone generated is depleted before it even reaches the tub shell " How is a leisure bay 19000 ozone plumbed?

Swine, Charger and Pork - Thanks for all the information and lively discussion.

I've always been told that running an ozonator while using BaquaSpa will require me to use more Baqua chemicals, so I always unplug my ozonator when I use BaquaSpa. Switching to Baqua (and off ozone) stops the skin reactions. I may have been contributing the wrong part of this switch to the cure. I'll have to try dichlor and no ozone some time in the future to see how that works. I'll report back.

I'm not sure if chloromines could be the culprit, since the last time I got the rash it was immediately after refilling and switching back to dichlor and ozone. I had only put about 3 tsp of dichlor in fresh water at that point. Thanks for the explanation of total vs free chlorine, I was wondering about that.

Pork - I knew about the stand-by mode, but not the filter presets. Thanks a lot for this info., I'll change mine to 4. What do the filter presets do?

" title="Very Happy" /> I stir cycle is a 30 second purge of pumps ands blowers twice a day. Filter cycles are pre sets you can set for a desired turnover rate pending bather load or chemicals used to keep them soluble. My mistake....didn't mean to confuse you with my terminology. I was talking about filter cycles. The board in your spa should be a lbi102r1b. there is an A - B jumper setting on your board to either configure the spa for circ pump or non circ pump. Yours is in a circ pump mode. When your in this mode you wont be able to manipulate the filter cycles. You will have the stir cycle as you have noticed on startup. The chlorine in your pool may not be dichlor ? You may simply just be allergic to dichlor.......do the rub test. You may have to much chlorine in you spa when you get into it. Make sure your sitting in 10ppm. This can cause a reaction. You may be allergic to ozone ? If you find it is the dichlor you may want to use.05 to 1 ppm bromine and shock with a non chlorine shock with the ozone. Lets us know Thanks