sefuller

I visited another spa dealer today as I am attempting to clear up what I thought was Pseudomonas. They ran a bacteria test which was negative. He felt this indicated that Pseudomonas was not the cause of our bumps and itches. I had done a water change less than 2 months ago, but when he tested the water the TDS were at 2500. I had taken in a sample of our well water which tests at 1000! He said this means I will probably need to do a complete water change every 2 months or so. The bromine level was also quite high - the dealer I had been going to had us using Brilliance in a floater and shocking once a week, but they never told me I had to leave the cover off after putting the oxidizer in. The dealer I visited today spent a couple of hours making sure I understood how to do everything. I have just finished running some Swirl away through the spa and am draining it. I am going to scrub it down with a bleach solution just in case, and will refill, rebalance and see what happens. I may invest in a TDS meter myself to keep tabs on that. I am curious if the high TDS and bromine could have caused symptoms so similar to the folliculitis caused by Pseudomonas?

I have the Brilliance bromine floater - and I will find out what the Frog system is as I keep reading here:-) My bromine level has always been fine according to my test strips. I suspect given the reading I've done this evening that it was the fact that the free chlorine level was never above 1 that started the problems. That and the fact that who knows what was already growing in the tubes when I first started it up.

I am reading with interest all the posts on pseudomonas. We inherited a 250 gallon spa with a house we purchased a while ago. The spa had been left uncovered in the yard for an undetermined amount of time, and had leaves and a few inches of water and scum in it. I scrubbed the entire inside with softscrub, filled it and found to my amazement it worked. We live in Wisconsin, and I assumed it would have had parts destroyed by freezing during winter(s) left untended. I visited our local spa dealer and told them what I had, and asked for their recommendations for starting to use the spa. They set me up on Brilliance, and sent me home with a starter kit. This was in July of 2008. It took about a week to get things somewhat regulated - we are on a well with very high iron content, and whether or not that is a factor, it took a long time to get the PH in balance. I began using the spa a few evenings each week, and my wife would occasionally join me. During the first few months, I suspect I had watermold as I would see flakes like dead skin floating in the water. When I discussed this with the dealer, they recommended swirl-away when I did the water change. I should back up to say that using the Brilliance system (bromine) I would test the water almost every other day. My free chlorine never even registered on the scale, and when I would ask the dealer about this, they told me not to worry about it because I was using the bromine. I did a water change early in November, using the swirl away first. My water appeared much clearer after the change, but it still took a while to get the PH back in sync. At this point in the fall, I was in the spa nearly every night for 15 minutes, with my wife joining me probably 4 nights a week. By late November or early December, I noticed the flow through my jets was poor. I looked at the filter and found that between the pleats it was coated with a whitish slime. Also about this time, I had an ear infection - the first one in 38 years! I had been changing the filter about every 4 weeks or so, based on what the dealer told me. I was also letting the off duty filter soak for a long time in filter cleaner (which I found out later was not good - I now soak it for a few hours to overnight). About this time, I also discovered that the filter model that had been in the spa when we bought the house was about 5 sq ft of filter, where the manufacturer spec'd a 25 sq ft filter. I bought 2 new filters and began rotating them every week - based on NEW advice from the dealer. (My experience with this dealer had led me to believe that managing a spa was far more art than science as every time I asked them for advice, I got different information - sometimes conflicting with previous information). Instead of their previous recommendation to change the filter monthly, they now told me due to the design of the spa I am way underfiltered even at 25 sq. ft. , so I should change at least weekly, which I have been doing. They had no explanation for the white slime on the filter, other than poor water chemistry. I found this frustrating because I monitored the water via my test strips regularly, and kept everything I had been told was important within the recommended range. When I also mentioned that I had some small itchy bumps on my legs and around my armpits, they said it could be water quality related or maybe not. They suggested perhaps I should use a small amount of chlorine once in a while in addition to the bromine. Based on the reading I have done on this site this evening, I have concluded I need to seek out a new dealer. I can see that I am looking at a drain, scrub and refill, including decontamination. Unfortunately, we are having the coldest week of the year currently - with temps below zero for much of the rest of the week. I will be going to see a dermatologist to see what I need to do to clear up the folliculitis as well. I am sure I will stumble across something somewhere on the site, but is there a spas for dummies type guide that I could use to help me set up a good maintenance routine? I have absolutely no confidence at all in the local dealer, who I believe gave me bad advice that brought me to this point. I am surprised they did not suggest running something through the spa to clean out the lines when I first set it up, given it's dubious history. I do not have an ozonator on the spa. Thanks for any advice! Scott