Littlelisa Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 Hello! I just bought a home and inherited a hot tub with it. Things were going fine and I was taking my water samples into a local store to get them tested and adding the appropriate chemicals as needed. About a month ago, we started getting this thick brownish yellow peanut butter like scum building up along the water line and mainly around the filter area. It was sticky and gross and I wiped as much as I could away with a cloth. I immediately brought in another water sample the next day and they told me that maybe I should drain the tub and start fresh. I did just that, drained, cleaned and refilled the entire tub. (this was in early February). My boyfriend and I went into the hot tub twice after we cleaned it. My boyfriend then had to go away for work for four weeks and I have not use the hot tub since I have been religiously adding the chlorine pucks and aqua fitnesse to my tub every week. I took the water to get tested about a week ago and added what the print out told me to add. (Low alkalinity - 320g alka rise / low hardness 192g cal Plus) Yesterday, I opened the lid to the spa to add more chlorine pucks/ aqua finesse and to my horror and the brown scum had returned. I have no idea where it's coming from. I've googled for hours and most people seem to say that it is a buildup from body lotions and products on human skin but nobody has been in the tub!!! Can anybody tell me what this stuff is and how I can get rid of it? Am I doing something wrong? Any help/advice you can give would be soooo appreciated. I am very new to all this. oh, I am using mostly Spa Boss chemicals and Aqua finesse water care solution. I have a picture of the build up but I'm not sure how to post it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gotham55 Posted March 18, 2014 Report Share Posted March 18, 2014 When you drained your spa did you clean the filter? Could be that you have a build up of gunk in the pipes/filter. I would buy a new cartridge filter and use a product that breaks down grease. Natural Chemistry has a few products that work well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chem geek Posted March 18, 2014 Report Share Posted March 18, 2014 Try using Ahh-Some which will dislodge both grease and biofilms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlelisa Posted March 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2014 Hi! Thank you both so much for your replies. When I drained and cleaned the tub, I did soak the filters in filter cleaner. I didn't do anything to clean the pipes though.... I went to my local spa store and they recommended me to take the filters out and put a product in the tub that will go into the pipes and clean them from the inside out. I am in the process of doing that now and will let you know how it turns out!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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