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Showing results for tags 'mold'.
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I've been using the Bromine method for about a year now on a brand new tub. The bromine has been great at keeping the water crystal clear at all times. But for the last 6 months or so, I have been battling a growing blackish-greenish mold problem. It started on the cover, but then spread to the edges of the control knobs and under the filter cover, to virtually all the inside exposed edges of the tub. But the water is still clear. I then used a strong mix of chlorine and water and decontaminated all the surfaces. The mold quickly turned light brown and easily washed away with a pressure washer with no trace. All was well for a few weeks, at which point the spots started coming back on the cover, followed by the control knobs. So again I repeated the cleaning procedure, and again it looks clear for about 2 weeks at which point it slowly starts coming back. This is not a battle I want to try and maintain indefinitely... Is a few steady ppm of bromine insufficient to keep enough sanitizer up on the exposed tub areas? Should I switch to a chlorine method, assuming chlorine evaporates faster and will cost more of the inside surfaces and sanitize them more thoroughly on an ongoing basis? I currently only use the tub every few weeks. I check the levels weekly, swapping in additional bromine tabs, adjusting pH (it's usually a little low each week), and dump on MPS shock (weekly even when I don't use it, and after every use when I do). Spa is 400 gallons and has a UV system (clear ray), but no ozone and no mineral system. I am honestly at my wit's end with this issue, so any help or insight from the experts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance. -
I have an older 4 person spa that I run in a 3 season porch. It is used every other day by 2 people. It is drained during the winter. I use bromine tablets in a floater and a ozonator and monitor the chemistry with strips regularly. Most of the time I have to lower the PH. I shock every week. I replace water every 3 months. Recently, we have been seeing dime-sized clumps of pale custard-like material floating in the water. In ten years I have never seen this anything like this before. The water is clear and there is no smell. The custard material is very soft and spongy with no odor. The filter looks normal. I have not inspected the inside of the plumbing. I suspect this might be a mold of some kind but cannot find any specific reference or images on-line that help identify it. Can anyone confirm what it is? Link to image attached. Link may be temporary or not work. https://www.dropbox.com/s/vgiuxihjzkbwy8s/spa%20custard.jpg?dl=0
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About a year ago, I had a problem with black mold. First I scrubbed on an algaecide that would take care of brown algae - just to make sure. I think it made things a little better just because I was rubbing the surfaces down. Next, I removed all the fixtures, skimmer door, filter cover, filter lid, and pillows, scrubbed them with a toothbrush with bleach water, and soaked them in a bleach water bucket overnight. I then scrubbed all of the places where the fixtures had been - topside aerator controls, pillow locations. Couldn't do much about the waterfall because I couldn't remove it. But I tried to scrub into it's thin, 6 inch wide spout. Also replaced the spa cover - water had gotten inside it. The new cover that came by mail wasn't built to the Coleman specs I provided so it overlaps on each side by about 3 inches. Also replaced the filter with a new one. I did all of this after I had drained the spa. Then I refilled with residential water, balanced, shocked, and put a Bromine floater in. Now it's happening again. It starts with little black speckles on the underside of the cover which quickly grow and grow. The underside seam on the cover was filled with this mold. I went away for 6 days and when I got back, it had gone from about 10 pinhead size spots to several dozen that were between 1/16" to 3/8". The bromine level was light, but still there (I had left a floater in while on our trip - there were still a few 1/2" tablets in it.) The water was still balanced when I got home. I have a few spots on 2 of the pillows. It's following the same pattern as before. Do you have any thoughts on what's going on or what I could try next?