Yellow Water Won't Go Away!

[murfy721]

Help! We have recently installed a dual temp swim spa with separate sections for spa & swim. Both sections have an ozonator and we use chlorine. The water in the swim part is beautiful, but the hot tub water turns yellowish after about a week. We took the water to be tested and they they said it had high ph and low chlorine. We adjusted both, but couldn't get the color to change. Drained it and a week later it is yellow again. Husband tried chlorine, clear and bright, shock and nothing works. An

[simonc]

Help! We have recently installed a dual temp swim spa with separate sections for spa & swim. Both sections have an ozonator and we use chlorine. The water in the swim part is beautiful, but the hot tub water turns yellowish after about a week. We took the water to be tested and they they said it had high ph and low chlorine. We adjusted both, but couldn't get the color to change. Drained it and a week later it is yellow again. Husband tried chlorine, clear and bright, shock and nothing works. An

I'm sorry that I don't have an answer to what is causing your yellow spa water. However, I do have some suggestions that might help you identify the cause and solve the problem. So, here goes ...

1. A spa is NOT a small swimming pool. Because of the high water temperatures, it requires more monitoring/testing.

2. Have you tried shocking with Chlorine? Many people use non-chlorine shock, but this does a poor job of killing algae and growing things in a spa. Go the the poolcalculator, look at the bottom of the page and figure out how much chlorine you need to add to your spa to shock it. If the chlorine shock clears up the color, then you know it was because something was growing in the water. This is not healthy for you or the spa.

3. You said you had the spa recently installed. If it made with concrete, plaster, or tile you might get some leaching of the new material into the water at higher temperatures (and different pH, etc.). This could cause your water to change color. I would check with the installer/manufacturer to make sure that it's not the spa construction material.

4. Once you solve your yellow water problem, I would get a good test kit so you don't have to take your water somewhere to get it tested. Spa water should probably be tested at least twice a week and more frequently if you have a high bather load or water balance problems. Test strips are only good for a quick assessment. They will not help you solve or prevent water problems.

Good luck and let us know what you did,

- Simon

[iwallace]

Help! We have recently installed a dual temp swim spa with separate sections for spa & swim. Both sections have an ozonator and we use chlorine. The water in the swim part is beautiful, but the hot tub water turns yellowish after about a week. We took the water to be tested and they they said it had high ph and low chlorine. We adjusted both, but couldn't get the color to change. Drained it and a week later it is yellow again. Husband tried chlorine, clear and bright, shock and nothing works. An

Speaking of peeing in the pool, how can I get that chemical that turns urine dark blue so I know instantly when some sneaky person is "relieving" themselves in my general vicinity?

[chem geek]

Speaking of peeing in the pool, how can I get that chemical that turns urine dark blue so I know instantly when some sneaky person is "relieving" themselves in my general vicinity?

As far as I know, that's a myth. See Snopes for more about this.

[iwallace]

Speaking of peeing in the pool, how can I get that chemical that turns urine dark blue so I know instantly when some sneaky person is "relieving" themselves in my general vicinity?

As far as I know, that's a myth. See Snopes for more about this.

Dang! Well someone should invent it. It'd be quite useful. Embarass public urinators into peeing elsewhere.