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Cassiemoreira

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Everything posted by Cassiemoreira

  1. @nightmara Ugh this is the worst isn't it? For me this was a bucket list item, having my own spa... and now I can't even use it. I've drained over 8 times and i can use it for a few times on a new fill (sounds like you have the same thing) but after the water is a few weeks old, I am immediately itchy. I used the hot tub initially for 8 weeks until my first rash happened.... which seems to be the rough amount of time to sensitive to an allergy. My dermatologist did a biopsy of my rash and def said it's an allergy to something... not helpful. I didn't have any meaningful reactions to my patch testing that related to the hot tub. I really wish someone has a solution to this, I'm honestly at the point where I am going to try some crazy homeopathic medicine stuff. Honestly I would do anything, I love using it so much but not sleeping after really bums me out!! Cassie
  2. Hi @DaveP! Sorry I sort of stopped looking at this thread as much just because I've found absolutely nothing out. My flushes now between water changes produce barely any gunk when using ahhsome, so I am really sure that general cleanliness is not my issue here- although I believe it was on the first time when this first occurred! The first few months I had my tub, we were incorrectly told how to take care of it by the place that sold us our tub- so much gunk came out, took 2-3 drains to get it clean. I thought for sure it was just the poor cleanliness, but I've drained and refilled 8 times now. My water balance is always bang on by the time I use it. For me, on a new fill, I get 2-3 weeks out of it before I start having problems- which really is confusing to me. It's almost like I'm just allergic to my own skin cells or sweat. The chlorine never drops below 2-3 ppm ever. I've heard that bromine can be more sensitive for people, so for your situation it sounds worth switching to chlorine since this happens almost immediately to you. I've heard that the first time you're exposed to something, it can take 4-8 weeks to sensitive an allergy. Then, from then on, it's immediate. Basically if my tub water is over a month old, I get itchy within 4-8 hours. For me, I have used all my chemicals in my bath tub at an appropriate water ratio and cannot for the life of me get the rash to reproduce. You could try this in your bathtub as well with the bromine and see? Does a bath with just pure tap water end up OK? Just be careful not to use too much bromine, it's quite bad if you use too much. Best of luck!!!
  3. Hi @dlleno- yes to me it seems like since it was 1 person using it instead of two this last time, I got twice as much time out of it before having problems. I agree it's something accumulating. I am unclear why CYA increases over use in my use case? I do not use dichlor and I just use bleach essentially once I set the CYA to 30ppm at fillup. When this skin problem first happened, I was almost positive it was CYA causing this because I used dichlor before and the spa company just told me to keep adding that after using it- which accumulated too much CYA, and the chlorine is too slow to respond thus causing bacteria etc etc. However, this was also one of the chemicals I've tested in the bath tub, even at double the ppm that's in the hot tub (I used it with chlorine also) so it's not a reaction to just the CYA itself. I definitely can't keep up draining the thing every month, nor would I want to from an environmental perspective. I also get a ring rash around my wedding rings which have stone settings in them which accumulate something that makes me quite itchy and rashy over a few months. I do not have any metal allergies- so it must be skin and crap? At this point I'm not sure what else to try besides bromine- I was going to try thoroughly cleaning the filters every single week after a thorough decontamination again with ahhsome, and see how far I get with deep cleaning filters often and use the Hot Tub Serum that I purchased a while back as required. As soon as the weather is good enough I'm draining and doing another fill. PS @Apollothesunsounds like you have some control of your skin problems and I hope it helps @meh64! My husband has the same issue from sweating and working out- he stopped exercising in Covid and it's completely gone!! The hot tub doesn't seem to bother it at all though. Cassie
  4. @dllenoSorry for not responding to your question- yes, then I put the filters in the tub with the ahhsome, and more gunk came out, then I did that until each there was no material that came out, purged until it was clean, then I cleaned the shell and filled. This was the case for the last few purges. This last purge, the last thing I could think of (at least giving us more information) was to have ONLY me use the tub. This time, I made it 4 weeks instead of 2 weeks on the fresh water until I got the rash and itching/crawling skin. The chlorine never got below 3ppm the whole time I was using it. This is with only adding chlorine after the water was balanced with dry acid, CYA, and Calcium. So clearly there's something about the water being 'used' more? @Apollothesun I am sorry that you are having trouble also.... I am extremely demoralized, and heartbroken that my dream of having a hot tub is ending this way. Sounds dramatic... but it sucks!! I am ready to try some homeopathic remedies at this point even though I am super suspicious of that, because it can't hurt and I've exhausted my dermatologists ideas (they were not helpful to begin with). ANY other ideas, happy to entertain. We will be ready for another purge next month, my husband has been using it exclusively since July. I am wondering if just filling the hot tub, balancing and treating, then letting it sit empty for 4 weeks then trying it will tell me something? THANK YOU ALL for your continued support you are all amazing! Cass
  5. @dlleno @RDspaguy Hey folks- since my two purges on May 27th, unfortunately, 10 days in after about 5-6 uses I got the itches again. Usually it starts this way, where I can use the tub for a while on a new fill then it creeps back. I at first feel these little pin pricks all over, then a crawling feeling which turns into extreme itches. If I keep using it, then it morphs into a rash. Biggest issue is sleeping... I stopped using it after the first stage so I don't get the rash again, and just used it again tonight so we'll see. So strange that last fall I used the hot tub for 8-9 weeks with no issues what so ever..... at the same frequency of use. So I suppose I could do another purge and not use the metalgone (however I know I have high iron content in my city water and have had problems with it).... I only ever did one dose of the hot tub serum (even though I added that in to the tub before with no issue, if I purge again I wouldn't use it). I guess I was under the impression (from some other folks) that I needed to add PH locker of some kind, but I clearly I should try without that too.... Someone mentioned how a water test for biofilms/other nasties etc might be expensive; but I think that I'm at that point. I would like to know if that's still a possible issue or not; maybe I could send a water sample and just get it broken down of everything it contains? Given my hot tub was a very expensive purchase, and I've purged 7 times and bought lots of expensive chemicals, I wouldn't even blink at a couple hundred dollars. This is super unfortunate and quite saddening, but I guess there are still a few things we can eliminate on the next try. Is it worth trying bromine instead next purge!? Cassie
  6. @RDspaguy Yep I tried all 4 of those things in the bath tub at hot tub temp for the same period I sit in the hot tub. FYI This fill up I am NOT using MPS. Maybe I shouldn't add more hot tub serum and try to keep it simple? I used it last fill a few times and it didn't seem to change my reaction that's the only reason I added it. You never shock your hot tub to 10ppm? I was told to do that weekly. I do have a corona discharge ozone. I haven't really paid attention to how long the chlorine stays above 5ppm without us using it, since my hubby uses it so often. I will try to pay attention to that. How do you oxidize the spent chlorine? On this fill (like usual) I had to also add dry acid to get the PH down after adding baking soda to up the total alkalinity. Both of which I have also tested in the tub. Cassie
  7. @RDspaguy @dlleno OK internet friends, I've got an update! I was able to get my de-foamer for the weekend and I did my first purge on Saturday. I put in double ahhsome dose and it foamed a lot, so I put in the defoamer but I think I put in a little too much because a lot of the foam went away which I realize is a bad thing. I was shocked at how much more crap came out on this purge... I sort of expected almost none. I wiped up the amount shown in the first photo maybe 2-3 times. Then it stopped producing more crap. This was done with the filters floating in the tub. It's a full day of my effort to fill and drain the tub every time, this is really getting old and super time consuming. Due to seeing what came out (even though it was NOTHING compared to the purge 3 weeks ago) I did a second fill and purge. This time, I double dosed it again and left it overnight for a deep clean. Not much came out on that time, except for what we believe is iron particulate. You can see the individual particles and they seem to be slightly ferrous. We use a filter on our hose to fill the tub, but we have a lot of iron in our water (almost no calcium). Every fill for the first day or so we get a ring of bright orange around the edge of the tub but after that it stops and we rinse the filters. We do use metalgone which seems to help when we actually condition the water. At the end of this purge we put the filters back in place and didn't get any more crap out, so we drained the tub. The scumball is a photo of what the iron crap looks like, it's brighter and much lighter than the biofilm that we see when we do the purge on the "treated" water. That goes away pretty quick. We do know from water testing we do have iron and copper in our city water. As of right now here's the situation: salt system is shut off with no salt in the water (although I don't think I can remove the titantium cartridge and run the tub, it leaks out a little drip hole without it!), we are manually adding liquid chlorine, we have our TA @ 110PPM, CA at 120PPM (we are slowing getting this higher), PH around 7.5. CA got a little higher than expected at 40PPM. I added the directed amount of the purple hot tub serum in this fresh water along with borates PH lock after the water was balanced. I have NOT used any MPS in this fill, and will continue not to. How do I oxidize during the once a week shock- just add extra chlorine? I would normally shock to 10ppm and put a couple oz MPS in and run the jets for 20 minutes. Tonight is the first night that the water should be usable, so I will be in it for sure!! We will know in ~7 days if I get a reaction or not, I will be sure to update everyone We are being ultra careful about not letting the chlorine drop. Thank you all for your continued attention and support!! You're truly my only hope Cassie
  8. @dlleno true very good point; I was going to ask about leaving the ahhsome in overnight and I think it's a wonderful idea. I hear you on putting the filters in after we think we got most of the gunk; I also did that on the second purge last time. I just purchased some of the de-foamer for the extra dose of the ahhsome if the first dose doesn't produce much so once I get that I'll start the process! Thank you all for the continued support and energy to help figure out what's going on! Eventually, we will get this and it will be glorious. Cassie
  9. Thanks folks I agree we have come this far- I've absolutely gotta know what the issue is here! This is definitely over my head with chemistry, but I love the simple experiment. Is there any way to get my water tested for biofilm/bad stuff? I wish I had access to a different hot tub to try, but in this period in time that's not going to happen. I'll definitely sneak in another purge with ahhsome I was thinking the same thing!! Yay bonus purge. I'll try to sneak this drain/refill in this weekend. Cass
  10. @dlleno @RDspaguy Hey folks! Sorry for the delay here, I wanted to wait until I could get you more information thanks for the patience. I had ordered new phenol red for my PH test and also ordered the Hot Tub Serum that you recommended so I wanted to test both of those before I reported back- they came last night! So I added the hot tub serum and it foamed a little like the directions said, but otherwise seemed good. My PH tests slightly high @ 7.9 but for now I'm just leaving that alone. My reaction seemed unaffected by the hot rub serum (for better or worse), but I am going to keep using it even though it's expensive. I have used the hot tub now 4 times since 5/8, the first two times/4 days in I had no noticeable reaction, then very slightly the next time I had the same issues. It starts very mild then seems to get worse and worse after a fill like last time. My water looks crystal clear and amazing, so there's that! But I remain very sad that something is still not right for me. Open theories: 1) there's still some biofilm etc in there (?!). Is it possible for it to grow more and get worse if my chlorine is staying above 3ppm which is why my symptoms get slowly worse? 2) Is it possible for me to be allergic to the chlorine converting cartridge method that this uses? I think it's titanium based- the first time I used the spa I hadn't enabled the chlorine producing system yet.... interesting. 3) MPS/MPS bi-product buildup after time goes on @tagyeritThis has been truly eye opening for me, we thought if our water was clear we were doing everything right- NOT SO! We also learned about the importance of CYA. I feel like we have our water care almost figured out so it's very exciting, even if it wasn't my skin problem. THANK YOU ALL! Cassie
  11. @dllenoand @RDspaguy, I feel bad about this one; I have no idea what's going on, but it seems my phenol red indicator in my test kit has gone to crap?? It's not expired, but my tap water is also testing 9.0 PH which I know for a fact 2 months ago with this same kit it tested 7.6ish. With my tap water, it goes from purple to yellow and no in between for the acid demand test. That's when I was like OK, there's something wrong here. Unfortunately I had added another 1.5oz of dry acid to the tub before I suspected this..... I pulled out the "inaccurate test strips" and tested the tap water, and that tests like 7.7. The hot tub also tests around 7.8 with my test strips the dealer gave me... so I'm going to say that's probably OK! I work in engineering and when you start questioning your test equipment that's when you know you're really in the weeds and you start to lose your mind a little... so here we are! I've ordered a new phenol red indicator and also a new acid demand solution just in case. I also ordered Hot Tub Serum too per your recommendation Cassie
  12. OK @dllenoand @RDspaguy, Much to my disappointment the PH has remained high this AM. TA is 120, PH is probably closer to 9 (I can't test that high, but considering the amount of acid the demand test wants me to add, it's gotta be high). CH is 70. Water looks amazing for what it's worth. I'm sort of at a loss here, I can keep adding acid which seems to change the TA more than anticipated also... so I kind of have to juggle the two? I have been waiting roughly 12-15 hrs between adding things. Nothing seems to change during that time since I've tested throughout it before. Thank you all so much once again for your continued support through this whole thing!! Cassie
  13. Hi folks!! Great news my ahhsome came early, so we started this process on Saturday AM! First purge was pretty epic- there was a lot of tan gunk then dark gunk that came up for about 20 minutes, I kept wiping it up with a bucket of diluted ahh-some and chlorine like you suggested. During the whole process we had about 25ppm of chlorine. By the end of the 30 minutes, I had wiped up everything from the edges and the water looked very clear and just the normal ahh-some foam. BTW I had rinsed out the filters before the ahh-some purge and put them in the tub section. Once it was drained, there was some scrubbing to do with the ahh-some mixture from the inside of the tub because I could feel a texture on the tub walls. Got that all out, squeeky clean. Filled it up, got it to temp, added 25ppm chlorine again then did a second ahh-some purge. There was not much that came up this time if anything at all... there was really nothing to clean up besides some iron oxide from our fresh fill which was normal for us. This made me feel pretty good about not doing a third purge (although if anything came up I would have gladly done it again!). This time once all the water was drained, there was nothing to scrub off or clean up so that's good. Now, for our water balancing shenanigans etc... I am having trouble keeping my PH down. My first step on my new fill was to get 5ppm+ of chlorine in the tub once it got to temp... knowing it takes a few days to get the water balanced right, I'm paranoid now! Our tap water reads with the following: calcium hardness 20ppm, TA 50, PH 8.4. We set our calcium hardness first, to 70ppm ( our salt system manual says to keep it at 50, but we overshot a little). Then we went for the TA, setting it to 150 with baking soda knowing it will come down a bit once our PH comes down. I have my Taylor Test Kit which has the water balance wheel, so to be under 0.5 water balance our TA needs to be roughly 120ish with a CH of 70 and a ph of Ideally 7.5. We took this slow after the TA got in range; knowing it takes a while to get the PH right. We used the pool calculator site and added 0.5oz dry acid. The next day ~15 hrs ;later we tested the PH and TA again, TA was 80 and PH was 7.8. PH came down as expected, but TA fell much more than I anticipated. We bumped the TA back up to 120 with more baking soda, came back 6 hours later, TA is back up and so is the PH back to 8.4. We felt like we had to overcompensate and bump TA much higher so it would come down to a reasonable level, so we added baking soda to test 150ppm. 15 hrs later we retested TA 150 and PH 8.4. Using the Taylor test kit we added 1.5 oz dry acid from the acid demand test and then let it sit for 10 hours. PH was perfect at 7.6, TA perfect at 100ppm, CA 70, temp 100 degrees, chlorine still at 5-10ppm. So at this point we happily added our PH Locker/borates, then I tested immediately after and the PH was right back up to 8.4 and the TA 120.... I didn't add anything besides aerate, which I understand can make the PH go up a litle but we thought it wouldn't after the PH lock and also since the water was balances really well?? This seems to be bouncing right back to 8.4 from nothing. At this point, we've put the PH lock in there so are we totally screwed? I can't believe how frustrating this has been- last fill somehow we got stuck in the opposite scenario, high TA and low pH. The things we are following are the taylor test kit #s and directions, and this reference for water care and this pool calc for everything besides acid/base demand which we are getting from the taylor booklet. I'm sorry this was so long winded....
  14. Dlleno, This whole thing is incredibly eye opening. I wouldn't be shocked dealers are so blind to biofilm- the initial water care instructions given by the dealer were VERY wrong... only once we found this forum did we realize how bad it was. Not even a mention about CYA, yet they had us putting diclor in the tub every week and said we only had to change the water once a year. I can't even imagine how much CYA we had in there, rendering our sanitizer utterly useless. Luckily we understand what to do now, so once this biofilm issue get's resolved hopefully we are good! Regarding a dermatologist, that's who I've been seeing for the last three months... they did a skin biopsy, allergy patch testing (which had some positives but nothing that relates to the chemicals in the hot tub), the works. They are convinced it's some kind of allergic reaction, but that doesn't change our plan. If the purges don't help, then I'll be back thinking it's allergy.... I am going to follow the instructions you just posted once I get my delivery, and plan for 2 purges- I can't believe some people had to do 15!! Absolutely shocking. Cassie
  15. Dlleno and RDspaguy, you guys clearly have so much experience and I really appreciate you going back to basics and re-checking the simplest thing first! Dlleno I read your report on the Oh Yuk and that definitely convinced me it was a poor choice! I ordered Ahhsome as soon as I read it and it will be here in a week hopefully. Just to confirm from reading, to clean your filters with Ahhsome, you actually put them back into the spa that had ahhsome in it and run the jets? Honestly over the years I've had a few health issues where the doctors barked up the wrong tree so I wouldn't put too much stock in them saying it's an allergy... they were aware of "hot tub rash" but didn't seem to think it was that due to how quickly it goes away. I like re-checking our basics it's a good plan still of course. It literally cannot hurt. This may seem like a stupid question... but I have a few blotches on my body that seem to last for weeks while the others heal, is there anything I should be using on my body to address any sort of bacteria issue on my skin?? I have anti-bacterial soap... LOL definitely not going to jump in the hot tub with ahhsome in it don't worry! I will follow Dlleno's exact directions for decontamination this time and get back to you all as soon as I possibly can. This hot tub has been a lifelong dream/bucket list item for me so it's literally breaking my heart not being able to use it. I'm sure you guys understand! RDspaguy I will keep the faith here and not make a rash decision (hah get it) and burn the thing down and trust you guys CAN'T WAIT to get that ahhsome in the mail. Hope you're all healthy, Cassie
  16. Hi Dlleno, I truly appreciate your thoughts and time responding to this!! I'm super desperate. The spa place I bought it from suggested I decontaminate by putting in this thing called "oh yuk healthy hot tub cleaner", run the Jets for 30 minutes, leave overnight then super chlorinate and drain. They also suspected biofilm and said this would kick it's butt. A LOT of gunk came out, it appeared to work... My diagnosis from my doctors is that I have an allergy to "something" in my hot tub. It's allergic contact dermititis. They really haven't been very helpful though. My itchiness and rash comes within 5-24 hrs and leaves completely within 72 hours... Steroids help. Should I try that process again? Cassie
  17. Hi RDspaguy! We've never dropped under 1ppm of chlorine on this fill (we decontaminated per the directions here at second fill), although on our first one we had some real trouble until we found your forum here and followed all the recommendations. The spa shop really sent us barking up the wrong tree. Now our water is crystal clear! Presently we have 3ppm chlorine, 0.5ppm CC, CYA @ around 30ppm, TA is 120, calcium hardness about 75, pH 7.4, and temp of the tub is kept 99-100. Our water has a very high TA from the tap (250), so it took a LONG time to get it to come down, but finally did, just felt like we had to add a lot of acid and to get it to come down then had to add soda ash to get the PH back up a bit. Thank you all so much, I'm truly at a loss here and would appreciate ANY recommendations at all. Cassie
  18. Folks, I might need some really deep chemistry knowledge from you guys. I got a hot springs salt water spa this year, and used it without issue for 3 months about 4 times a week for 45 minutes at a time. We test our water with the Taylor tester kits and it's damn near perfectly balanced. Then, out of no where I started getting feverishly itchy rash mostly on my legs and back (usually never where my swimsuit touches), raised and blotchy. I got a skin biopsy, and it came back allergic contact dermititis. Not super helpful. I did patch testing, a few positives came back but nothing relating to what's in my hot tub. I cut out as many possible chemicals in my life (detergent, shampoo, makeup, etc) thinking it was something unrelated that worsens in the tub. I don't believe this is the case. It's 100% definitive at this point that it occurs within 5-24 hours after I use my spa. I've taken 3-4 weeks off no contact, and tried again. I'm the only one who has used it and has this reaction. We've decontaminated it and drained it out of precaution, but that didn't help. I've taken every chemical we use in the spa and figured out the ratio and added it to my bath tub one chemical per bath session to try and figure out which chemical is causing this. At this point, I've tested all of them listed below and not had a reaction. I tried to keep time in the water and temperature roughly the same. I even tried the hot tub with no jets, but still get the problem. I'm assuming there's a bunch of chemical reactions that occur in the hot tub that are not happening in my bath tub... Due to combinations etc. Can anyone please help me tease this apart?? I suffer aches and pains from Lyme disease and this tub had helped me so much, and I'm very sad I cannot use it very often now. I will be forever grateful. It's a 350 gallon tub, List of items we use: -Sodium bisulfate at refill as needed -Sodium carbonate at refill as needed -Liquid chlorine as needed when salt system is overloaded -MPS for shock once a week -Add CYA at time of fill -PH lock (leisure time PH balance) at time of fill -Metal gone at time of fill -Pure pool salt for chlorine generator 'Freshwater system' -We have an ozonator Thank you all so much in advance, Cassie
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