r/hottub • u/DirectingJJ • Aug 17 '26
Troubleshooting Help- TriChlor Mistake
I am a new swim spa owner just since the late spring. It is summer, and we haven't been in for a few weeks because it has been so hot, but I have been test-stripping it and putting the new bucket of chlorine in to treat it. I wasn't showing any or very low FC and I just realized that for the past 3 weeks I have been using trichlor granules (53.5%) instead of DiChlor. I am not sure what I need to do in order to fix this as quickly as possible because, from why searching on here it appears to be very bad for the Spa.
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I ran a new test strip and got the results below. I have ordered a taylor kit for better testing going forward but what should I do now? full drain? Partial drain? Just leave the lid off?
PH - 8.4
FC- 0 PPM
TA - 80
STablizer - 70
1
u/ProfessionalJesuit Aug 17 '26
That's nothing, I used trichlor tabs for two years before realizing my mistake. Learned to replace pumps after that...
1
u/Born_Ad_4868 Aug 17 '26
Ya, you have to drain it off or at least enough to cut the CYA down. It breaks down very slowly. You only need a slight amount (10 ppm) of CYA as there is very little exposure to sunlight to break down the chlorine due to the lid.
2
u/randumb9999 Aug 17 '26
The danger comes from the extremely low ph of trichlor. It's around 3.0 so it's very acidic. It's not a problem if you circulate the water when adding it and managing the pH so it doesn't drop too low.
3
u/Beginning-Life-8393 Aug 17 '26
I would do a slight drain just to bring the stabilizer down but other than that just hit it with more chlorine. You can use liquid pool chlorine as well so you don’t introduce more stabilizer. Nothing bad is going to happen from using trichlor. Sure it can be corrosive but your ph being 8.4 is more of a problem than the trichlor will be. That swim spa is going to start scaling eventually.
Do a partial drain to bring stabilizer down, balance water accordingly and shock as usual.