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bassie123456

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Everything posted by bassie123456

  1. Hey guys, unfortunately the same problem has come back. After just a week. We have not used the tub yet so definitely no oils or ditergents. Today after throwing in muriatic acid to lower the PH a bit (it was 8.2) it started showing up again. But I already saw it this morning before I added the muriatic acid, only far less. To be clear, I no longer have white flakes or anything like that. The problem I mean is this oily residue on the surface after the jets have been on. See attached image..
  2. Thanks a lot! Tri-chlorine comes in pucks of and allows me to be a few days of when I use it with a slow dispenser. I will stick to the dichlor + bleach method but sometimes when I am a couple days away I need tri-chlore pucks to maintain proper FC levels. The tub is 330 gallons and I plan on draining it 3 times a year I think. Glad we can safely use the tub. We will see how it goes for the next couple weeks. Thanks a lot for all your help, really appreciate you taking the time!
  3. Hey guys, Another update. So I executed the vinegar protocol. During the protocol the water was milky and a little bit of grease sticked to the walls, but not much. And some black particles where released into the water. It has now been almost a week since the refill. I refilled with a calcium prefiller (we have hard water) and my CH is now 130. I only added dichlor and trichlor so far and kept chlorine at pretty high leven at all times. There are still small black particles being released into the water and they stick to the spa shell just above waterline. They are pretty easy to remove and I think they are a little bit smudgy. Anyone ideas what this could be? Only thing I can find is black algea but it doesn't make sense that it's only sticking above waterline. Also, the concentration is very low. Maybe 10-30 really tiny dots a day. Any ideas? Is it safe to go into the tub? So far my initial problems are gone, but before this took at least 1-2 weeks after a drain & fill before it started showing up, so I hold my breath. For now I have not gone into the tub because I'm not sure about this black stuff. Also it's a good test to see if this soapy residue comes back in a clean and unused tub with proper chlorine levels. Thanks again for your help.
  4. Hi, I started the vinegar protocol this morning. I don't know how strong my vinegar is (can't find it) but I have thrown in 9 bottles (equal to a little above 2,5 gallon). My PH is now 4 so I guess this is enough. Will check the PH every now and then. What I'm noticing is: Small black partciles are showing up in the foam and on the shell of the spa (just above waterline). Could this be black algea? It's almost like plastic particles, very small and easy to remove. I scooped out foam with these particles for over an hour but I'm not sure what to do with this. The water is now really milky after the jets have been on. It clears up after a little while. I also notice the foam pretty loud hissing (not sure if this is the right word for it in English) after I turn off the jets. So something is happening for sure. Now I'll let it sit for a day at least and see if my problems have been resolved after refilling the tub. Thanks for your help guys especially @Ahhsomeguy! Will update this post once the protocol is finished.
  5. Hi Ahhsomeguy, So I finally found the courage to get started with this protocol. I need to change my water anyway since it's over 3 months old now and winter is coming so I am ready to get rid of my problems once and for all :) I have a few questions though: You said it's best to have the heater turn off, however Ahhsome states that it is best to add the product to warm water? The white vinegar, this is the same vinegar people buy at a grocery store and use for their food? Just making sure I have the right stuff :) Can I measure if I have tossed in enough vinegar? I beleive earlier you said the PH needs to be around 4? If it's not a manufacturer issue but just calcium buildup, how can I prevent this in the future? For the last year or so I do use a prefiller which I beleive takes the CH down quite a bit. Is that the way to prevent this? What CH level would you recommend ( I have taylor testkit to measure) And my final question, do I have the proces right like this: Remove the filter and turn of the heater Make sure sanitizer levels are appropriate (I will use chlorine) Add 2 teaspoons of Ahhsome Lower the PH to +/- 4 with preferably white distilled cleaning vinegar Let it sit for 2 days while periodically turning on/off the jets and blower In these 2 days keep sanitizer levels up Drain the tub, rinse, fill up and enjoy :) Is there some way to recognize if the protocol is working? For example does the water clarity change during the proces or can I see stuff coming from the pipes? Thanks so much for your help and sorry if I asked the same things multiple times. I really hope it's going to work..!
  6. Hi Ahhsomeguy, yes the water is crystal clear even after the jets have been on. It takes a like 10-20 seconds to clear up but thats mainly the air in the water that needs to escape. Then I am left with just this residue on the surface as shown in the picture, but underneath that the water is crystal clear. Would you still recommend the protocol? Yesterday I threw in some Leisure Time 'Bright & Clear'. Withing minutes I got grey stuff heaping up on the shell of the spa. It was easy to wipe off and after I did this the issue is gone. But I did this before and the issue is just gone for a couple days and slowly starts coming back. It would be interesting to now what stuff this Leisure Time gets out of the tub that would probably help in finding the cause. "Leisure Time Bright & Clear is developed especially for hot water treatment, this clarifier utilizes unique polymer action that neutralizes and removes dirt, soap, oily films, and suspended particles to help you achieve clean, fresh water."
  7. Ps. my water is crystal clear all the time and I don't have white flakes anymore (had that a while back)
  8. Hi Ahhsomeguy, thanks a lot for your help. Yes we spoke earlier about this I don't remember exactly when the tub was manufactured. I am guessing somewhere between 2013 - 2015. I bought it new in 2015. The manufacturere I beleive is Sunbelt Spas or maybe it was Sundance... I would have to look it up again, however it won't make much difference because I don't think they are going to do anything about it. The issue is really annoying because it's so persistent. If it's calcium sterate, does it make sense that 'spa clean' from leisure time solves the issue (temporary)? And since I have this issue for so long now, at some point the calcium sterate must be gone, right? I mean everytime I throw in Spa Clean and stuff clumps together I am removing a bit I guess.. ? Is there no harm in throwing this amount of white vinegar into the tub? How low must the PH be for this protocol to succeed? My dealer warned for too low PH beacuse it could cause damage to the tub or pipes, that's why I have my reservations about this protocol. Thanks so much (again )
  9. Hey guys, for months (if not longer) I have been having issues with my water. I switched to the dichlor/bleach method a while ago and that fixed all my issues with water maintenance and I have clear water all the time. I drain the spa once every 3-4 months. However, I am facing one very persistent issue and I tried a thousand things to get rid of this but I just won't succeed. The issue is that whenever I turn on the jets for a minute or 2 and I stop the jets, once the air is out of the water there is this residue on the water surface. It seems like a soapy residue but I can't figure out what it is. Here's what I already tried: We always shower before entering the tub without shampoo or shower gel I have already done 2 purges with ahhsome. The ahhsome caused excessive foaming and some brown and green/blue-ish dirt on the shell but nothing to crazy. If I throw some clarifier into the tub then I get a lot of stuff that I can scoop out. After that the ISSUE IS GONE for a couple days. Even without use of the spa the issue comes back after a few days. I clean the filter every 1-2 weeks, I wipe the shell every couple weeks with a microviber cloth, we always go in the tub clean and showered, I maintain proper chemical levels There are some issues with spa manufactured a couple years back with lubricant used for the pipes that could enter the water, however I checked our dealer and the spa manufacturer and they say it's not the issue with my spa. Sometimes, after I throw in the bleach and turn on the jets right after that it seems like it is far worse than usual. Can the chlorine be the cause? I use 12.5% liquid chlorine from Brenntag. Does chlorine expire? (I know it gets less strong over time). Or does the chlorine break off stuff that then shows? What can it be? Anyone else ever had these issues? I really don't know what else I can try to fix this.
  10. This is cool stuff guys! I still haven't set this up myself. The main problem I have is how to get the chlorine mixed through the spa. I would have to time the doser whenever the filter is running, but I am not sure if that will mix it enough. I mean the chlorine will go into the pipes in pretty high concentration, won't that be a problem?
  11. No I did not.. Might still do it sometimes but I had some concerns like: How to get the chlorine mixed in the water? I have to turn on jets for a little while but I can't do this when I am not there What dose would I need. I now find that sometimes I can go days without adding bleach, if the water is clean there is very little chlorine consumption. However, as soon as I have had a few guests in the tub I need to add more bleach. I think you will always need manual dosing as well. At the moment I add like 70ml (2,63 fl ounces) of 10% bleach every 2 - 3 days. And after every soak I add 50-70ml directly. This is working very well. If I don't use the tub for like a week then chlorine consumption goes down significantly and I can take maybe 5 days between adding chlorine. When I add a little extra chlorine just before leaving and I don't use the tub at least 3 days before leaving. Then I add a trichlor tab in a slowdispenser. This can last 2-3 weeks and if I get back there is still chlorine in the tub.
  12. Hi RobinDz, I think I might have a similar problem with my tub. Did you find a solution or cause in the meanwhile? I asked a question on TFP forum similar to your question. Someone said it could be an issue with the lubricant of the air pipes.
  13. Thanks a lot arobbert! If I use this kind of slow dispenser then I would have to store a container of chlorine close to the pool. It would be a bit warmer over there, but probably not too hot (especially not now with the winter coming). Thanks for the safety instructions on the liquid doser. I will defintely only have it in the spa and running when I'm not in the spa. Maybe I will even build some kind of container around it (which I can open) so that it's covered and only the hose comes out of the container. The spa is outdoors, but we have a wooden roof with walls around it (don't know how this is called in English..). Anyway, it doesn't exposed to direct sunlight, rain or snow. It might get cold in the winter, but less cold then outside. Yeah, I looked into a SWG system and contacted my spa dealer, but they say that it's not yet available for my spa. They are working on it and will probably be able to install this on my spa in the future. Obviously I could buy a SWG myself, but if I am able to install this, I am afraid that I lose my warranty or get in trouble if I ever need a repair because the dealer said that they were developing and testing this but they don't recommend using it at this time. Apart from these concerns, I think installing an auto-doser is probably way more easy and cheaper. Thanks for your help and advice, and I will update once I have installed either a SWG system or the chlorine auto-doser!
  14. Ps. I got e-mail from the store I mentioned. They say that this product: https://zeeaquarium-winkel.nl/Group-115-Auqaholland voudige doseerpomp can be used. The hose is made of silicone which according to them should be fine. Also, this device is made for damp/humid areas according to them. It can be set to automatically dose every hour with a maximum volume of 99ml (3,3oz) per dose. Seems like a good solution to me (not too expensive too). I am now thinking of the following setup: - A bottle of 12,5% bleach next to my tub (should I store this in some kind of special container?) - Drill a small hole in the cap of the bottle - Put the silicone hose through the hol so that it gets close to the bottom of the bottle - Maybe glue the hose to the cap so it won't move and is air tight (don't want chlorine fumes to escape) - The hose from this bottle goes into the pump and out of the pump I have a hose which goes to the spa - I would only set the autodosing once or twice a day, during filter times so that the water is moving when the chlorine is being pumped into the pool Do you think this would work? Of course I still would need to manually keep an eye on my FC and adjust if required, but at least it would help a lot when I am away for a couple days.
  15. Thanks! I found a website specialized in aquarium auto-dosers so I e-mailed them what they have and if it's damp and chlorine proof. Do you know what the price would be of the product you suggested? I can't find the prices on their website. If you don't know it I will sent hem a mail to find out. By the way, is it safe to store my can of chlorine in my house? We have a space which is cool and dark, and we use it for storage of packed food and cleaning products. But I read somewhere that you have to store chlorine bottles in a special container or something? PS: I have 12,5% chlorine. It came as a 25liter jerrycan but since it is very hard to pour chlorine from that container I have poured 1 liter into an empy bleach bottle I had. So I now use the bleach bottle and I refill the bottle from the larger can once it is empty. Should I store the large can and the bleach bottle in some special container or place?
  16. Edit: I have been searching and I think a dosing pump should do the trick. It's an easy tool (not too expensive) to dose an amount of liquid. With this, I could dose liquid chlorine into my tub twice a day (during filter times) for example. Of course I would need to check the FC level on regular basis and adjust dosing amount or manually add extra chlorine if needed, but this could be a great (and affordable) solution for automated chlorine dosing when you are away. If you have a steady baseline then you can dose pretty accurate for days, maybe even weeks. Something like this would work I think: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Jebao-Jecod-DP-2-Auto-Dosing-Pump-Peristalsis-Pump-2-Channel-Dosing-Aquarium-Tank-Coral-Reef/32803620312.html. Add one tube in your chlorine container, the other in your tub. Wanted to share this in case others are looking for an affordable solution to this. I will update once I have actually used it on how it's working out for me.
  17. Hi, I have recently successfully switched to the dichlor-then-bleach approach thanks to the awesome help and information on this forum. Everything is going great, the only thing is I have a spa with ozonator (can't control it) and the FC is used up pretty rapidly. So I need to check my FC everyday and add bleach to increase it to for example 6ppm. So, this got me thinking.. Why isn't there an easier way (except for saltwater chlorine generators or expensive tools) to dose liquid chlorine into the pool automated? I mean, this could be a really simple device. Something like a water proof floater on batteries which automatically injects for example 0.5oz of contents (in my case 12,5% bleach) into the tub every X hours. That way I could maintain a proper FC level for way longer times without active maintenance. Just curious if someone knows if there is already a simple device that does this. PS. I cannot use a chlorine feeder which I manually have to put somewhere in my filtration system because I have a Jacuzzi and I cannot access those parts. So a simple device like a floater would be ideal. I am not sure if many spa owners are looking for something like this, but I think it might be a great little gadget for every spa/hottub/Jacuzzi owner.
  18. By the way, after searching for a little while I found that there are some shops over here selling 'Natriumhypochlorite 12,5%'. Would that be good to use in my spa? They sell it as 'Liquid chlorine'. Is that stuff good for sanitation? Here's a MSDS: https://www.odnzkg.nl/mozard/document/docnr/1484130,,3739471,/Bijlage 13 Natriumhypochloriet.pdf .pdf It seems like the right stuff to me, but I don't want damage to my spa so I am double checking. And if this is good, can I put it directly into my tub, or is it better to first put it in a bucket of pool water so the concentration of the liquid gets lower?
  19. Hi Mpurcell, My water maintenance is going great! It is taking up some time at the moment, but it's all new so it takes time to get adjusted to it. My CYA is now 35, CH 150, TA 70-80, PH stable around 7.55-7.65 (digital PH meter). So, I am where I want to be for the most parameters. I will stay at CYA 35 for now and see how things goes. The water is still crystal clear. It does foam a little bit (it is less then before) and after the foam is gone it leaves a little bit of white-ish residu on the surface. However, that's gone within a minute (if the tub is filtering). Don't know what that is, but maybe it will just take a little more time. So, since my CYA is now at 35, I am going to switch to bleach. I already added a 150ml of bleach this morning. The hard thing is, the bleach only says <5% sodiumhypochlorite. So I don't know if it's 1, 2 or 5. I will see if I can e-mail the manufacturer to get to know a more specific percentage, but do you have any advise on how to handle this? Is there maybe an easy way to check the percentage of sodiumhypochloriet in bleach? I was thinking, maybe I should check my FC level. Then add like 100ml bleach. Let it all mix for 30 minutes, and check my FC level again. That way I would know what 100ml bleach does. However, I am not sure if every bottle of bleach has the same concentration, so it's a bit hard to work with.. And it seems impossible to get >5% bleach over here. Thanks!
  20. I am curious if turning on the airjets will cause much chlorine smell in our tub. I was very (happily) surprised this morning that the chlorine smell (after opening the lit a minute or two) was way, way less then yesterday. I don't mind a little chlorine smell by the way. Ok, the foaming is weird then. My CH is 120 at the moment, will maybe increase it a little bit just to be sure. Will help me getting closer to 0 CSI as well, so it's a win-win. Our tub has air-jets as well as water-jets, if I put everything on it gets mixed really well, really fast too. At the moment both the water jets and the air jets cause foaming. It must be something in the water indeed, I will just keep maintaining the balance and chlorine like I do now and see if it goes away. I cannot turn off the ozonator as far as I know. I will check the manual soon to see if it says anything about it. But I think I will manage with ozonator as well, at least it helps killing bacteria when there's a bunch of people in the tub. As for the CSI, good to know it is not really a big deal to be a little off because it is pretty hard to get it real close to zero Thanks again, I think I am on the right track with everything. I am getting the hang of testing and dosing chemicals. I feel like I have way more control then I had with the products I used before, because now I actually know and understand what chemicals are being put in the tub (and why I am putting chemicals in the tub).
  21. Thanks so much as always! Last night I shocked the tub to 10ppm. I checked again this morning, 14 hours later. The FC had dropped 60%. I have an ozonator, so I read that this could cause higher percentage. But it's a lot better then the 80% I was at the day before. And the good thing is, the CC level is .5 or even lower, so that's a good thing. The chlorine smell is way less too. I'll keep checking the FC and CC levels to see how it goes, but I feel it's heading in the right direction. The water is clearer then it's ever been too btw. Only thing that occurs is a little bit of foaming (like solid foam I can pick up and throw out). I read that it might be caused by low CH level, my levels is somewhere between 120-130ppm. Should be fine I guess. My CSI is a bit too low (-0.15). But I have lowered my TA to something like 70 (will measure today). It's the only way my PH stays in reasonable range (7.6 - 7.7). But the low TA is causing a lower CSI as well. Looking at the poolcalculator, the only thing to get my CSI closer to zero is adding more CH. Would you advise to do this? Because I don't have much room in the TA, since that will get my PH too much out of balance. Thanks for the SLAMing information, I read all about it now. I'll see where my CC stays at now and if it get's too high I will maybe try SLAMing. For now the shock last night to 10ppm seem to have worked out very well.
  22. I feel stupid, I just did another chlorine test and now I understand why I thought I would burn through my R-0870 so fast. I used the wrong side of the dipper Last time I added 2 spoons of the big side. O, and I cleaned my filter. It was quite greasy, the filter looked a little bit brown and once I cleaned the filter it looked way cleaner, so I guess that will help the FC drop less faster too. Also, I read some articles about high CC levels and if I understood correctly I need to keep shocking in order to get it down. Sounds strange, but what do I know I just shocked it to 10ppm again (actually, I tested directly afterwards and it was 11ppm, so maybe my tub has a little bit less volume then I was thinking). Anyway, if you have inspirational ideas let me know. For now I will continue shocking the tub untill the CC has dropped a bit. 2 more shocks and I need to switch too bleach anyway because of the CYA level (I am at 19 now, calculated not tested).
  23. Thanks! Also thanks for the chlorine generator, once it becomes an issue I will maybe look into that. For now I have no plans to leave for a long time, so I will be fine Btw, I drained the tub and refilled. After lowering TA and adding borates, I shocked to 9 - 10 ppm FC . I checked an hour ago (which is like 14 hours after refill) and the FC was 2,5ppm CC was 1ppm I know you want CC to be as close to zero as possible. The chlorine smell from my spa is quite strong too at the moment. Do you have any advice on this? Is this because this is only the first shock and will the CC to FC ratio be better after a few shocks or maybe once I have more CYA in the spa? Also, I did go from 10ppm to 2,5ppm in 14 hours. That's quite a drop, but I guess it is because of the dirt(y water) that was still in my pipes. The first time I put the jets on after refill I literally saw greasy, cloudy water being pumped in the pool. I will check the chlorine demand again after my next shock to see if I burn through the FC less speedy then. Last quick question: for the FAS-DPD test I need to add a powder to my water. However, it says to add a heaping dipper of R-0870. There is not too much powder in my R-0870 tube. If I test my chlorine level every 2 days for example, I will burn through all R-0870 powder within weeks I guess.. The stuff is pretty expensive to get shipped here so I was hoping it'd last way longer. Any ideas on this? Or am I using way to much R-0870 Thanks again, and we will certainly enjoy our tub!
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