newtubuser413

Thanks for the advice. The filter is the right one, I have a few of these and the previous one worked well, and when I screwed it on, I wasn't jamming/forcing it or anything.

Never had an issue with it before, but somehow the filter this time is stuck. I don't have a lot of space for leverage here to be able to use any type of wrench, unless there is a strap wrench that can be done from the top. Would really appreciate any ideas.

This isn't even my thread, but just want to say really appreciate your attentiveness to answering other people's questions @waterbear

How did you get away with not draining it for two years? So same water for two years???

Have you tried an enzyme cleaner like ahhsome? Regular sanitizers may not get rid of biofilm that may be stuck in the pipes/tubes. I'd follow the decontamination steps to the letter when draining and refilling to see if that helps.

Always dropping knowledge, thanks @waterbear!

I keep my hot tub covered all the time unless I'm using it, since it is sitting outside and I don't want debris or whatever else to get into it if I'm not using. Would having it on slow down the oxidization of combined chlorine since it dissipates into gas? As in, if I shock it and I leave it covered for a few days, would the limited air in the hot tub gets saturated with the gas to slow down the chlorine oxidization process, leading to more biofilm and slower sanitation process?

@waterbear Thank you, will try

Hi @waterbear, one thing came to me is your other response below on my old post on temperature...especially the last sentence. I don't use Nature2 but it occurred to me that I turn the temp down on Sunday night to 80...it takes about 2-3 days to get from 100 down to 80. Only circulation is the "filter cycle" runs twice a day, once per 30 minutes the other time for 1.5 hours (2 hours a day total) during those three days. It just came to me that this may be the cause? Since it takes 2-3 days to cool down, biofilm may have more time to grow? My tub uses friction heating so if I keep temp lower, it wouldn't circulate...only until it needs to maintain temperature would it turn on. I wonder if I kept it at a higher temperature or if I lower the temp slowly, it would circulate more often. I've since then adjusted the duration of the filter cycle to 1.5 hours each (total of three hours a day). Thoughts on this?

@waterbear Thank you for the thoughtful reply. Most of the three months I've been using test strips only until I decontaminated the tub 3.5 weeks ago. Below is a quick timeline: Dec: Got tub, filled it. Used it only on the weekends (friday, sat, and maybe sunday). I don't use it during the week because of work, so kept temperature at 80 during the week then bump it up to 103-4 thursday night for friday night and weekend usage. After sunday, I would turn it down to 80 again. Jan to end of Feb: Same usage. Kept chlorine and ph balanced...but used only aquachek test strips. Not testing anything else. Frequent use of Dichlor and MPS only. March: Started having rash. Itchy dry spots. After a couple of days into the week, stopped itching and near end of week it would start to disappear. Weekend comes, used tub...rash came back. It could be a number of things...did a lot of research on bleach method, biofilm, balance with TA, CYA, hardness...these are things I didn't really adjust too much 3/20: Nitro decontamination. Got ahh-some (see my post history) and purged. Got Taylor K-2006 kit. All test from now going forward is using this kit per instructions. Tested everything. Balanced water to the letter. Used Bleach method and light on dichlor. Got CYA up to 20-30 and all bleach after. 3/27: First use after decon. Don't seem to get rash. Used it twice that weekend. Nothing noticeable. 4/3: Used it Friday and Sat. After Friday seems dry itching came back a little but not sure. Sat used again...sunday morning rash came back. Been on top of checking most things. Please see attached tracking log. All tests are from Taylor K-2006 kit. I only use MPS once a week now. If Chlorine is not a cause, the hot tub itch seems like a possibility...could my recent decontamination/purge not get rid of it??? Hate to do it again, but should I purge again? Let me know if you want to know anything else.

@nightmara I have similar issues...owned tub for 3 months no issues...then I started getting a rash. Granted I didn't have a kit and was using test strips only. I decontaminated according to Nitro's instructions, and this time went fully test kit and bleach method (20-30 CYA) as instructed...after a few times still got rash. The only thing I'm guessing now is maybe instead of biofilm I'm allergic to the high chlorine content (I'm erroring on the high side of for chlorine since I was convinced it was biofilm). My chlorine demand is very reasonable at 20-30% over 24 houts. I'm going to try again in a couple weeks as I let my rash die down and I'm going to keep my water extremely balanced. I'm going to make sure my FC is no higher than a 4. If I still get a rash after EVERYTHING is balanced...I dunno what to do next.

Thanks. I ended up lowering it again with sodium bisulfate after reading some more...looks like PH is really the number I need to pay attention to and TA is there to stabilize. My PH now is at 7.4 and my TA is around 75. Thanks for answering!

Tested my tub. PH = 7.8, TA = 65, FC = 4.5, CH = 100. According to Nitro's water maintenance, TA is low and CH is low-ish. I will raise CH tomorrow (bought calcium chloride coming tomorrow). I added two tablespoons of baking soda but I know it will raise PH as well as TA. I'd imagine PH will be at least 8.0 next time I test. For future reference, how do I ONLY raise TA without PH since my PH seems to be at a good level?

@waterbear What I got from Target today

@Ahhsomeguy @RDspaguy Yes, I did remove the filter and left floating in there. What you see is what happened, in that the crud stuck to the filter (floating, not installed). I deviated from the instructions in that I left it overnight (per Nitro Decontamination process) instead of 15-30 minutes, which is probably why the amount of crud got stuck to the filter that you see in the picture. My question is, why even have the filter in there anyway? Why not just take it out and set it somewhere during this purge process.

Ugh...🤮 this biofilm is so sticky and hard to get off. Any ideas or is this just gonna take elbow grease? I’ve been using bleach wipes as my paper towers have been ripping.

Thank you so much. I got a long day ahead of me to try to disinfect

I bought brand new hot tub since December. Used it 2-3 times a week on weekends since then and kept up on TA and FC levels, but only using MPS and Chlorine Granules. Changed filter two weeks ago and added some water to top off. Started getting rash (wife did not). I don't know the cause...thought it was new filter at first or maybe water was dirty when I did top off. Read up on this forum and basically learned about biofilm. In the midst of going through decontamination sticky. I don't know exactly what caused the change but it may be because I am not using the bleach method and my CYA is too high and maybe that prevented my FC from activating or whatever (still learning). Using Ahhsome now and after I purge the hot tub, I plan to use the bleach method. Question: 1: Any thoughts on direct cause of rash? 2: I can't find 6% bleach...only find 7.5%. Is that ok? Can anybody link me to the right bleach to use? Thank you in advance...I'm new at this and am learning as I go along.

Thank you both for the response! The water turns out is not cloudy...just that now that the flow is faster, the water movement is causing the water to look cloudy. Once it stops running the water is all clear. I'm "cleaning" the filter every month...but that means just running strong spray water in between as much of the pleats as I can...I haven't tried the tsp method yet so the "grease" and all that is still on there. I try to get as much of the hair and debris off.

I ordered a replacement filter that fits my spa. After replacing the oem filter and turning it on, the water seems to be sucking in at a faster rate than my oem filter and the water became cloudy/milky. I'm guessing this filter may not have as good filtration? Or maybe my old filter is just dirty enough that the water is not filtering as efficiently as it should be. Interested in other's experience in this. Thanks in advance!

Thank you! So much to consider! I'm less concerned with heatup time...its more around the total electricity/energy spent between: 1: maintaining the temperature at 100 + heat up to 104 2: maintaining the temperature at 90 + heat up to 104 3: maintaining the temperature at 80 + heat up to 104 Sounds like #3 will spend the least amount of energy, however as you mentioned relay issues likely to show, but then again it it may last longer...sounds like I got my answer. Thanks again!

I just got a hot tub a month ago and things are going well. It heats up 1.5 degrees an hour and I usually only use it on friday to sunday nights so I would keep it at 90 degrees during the week and Friday morning I turn it up to 104 in the morning and by night time it's all set. My question is, can I set it to 80 degrees? 75 degrees even to save more energy during the week since I'm not using it? I tried searching but haven't found a definitive answer. Some people say it takes more energy to heat up, which really doesn't make a lot of sense to me...but I may be wrong. My hot tub is LifeSmart LS200. Thank you!