Help! Little Floating White Junk

[Brent Hamm]

Something evil is in our spa. It started a few months ago. Little pieces of white gunk floating in the tub. I changed water and that did nothing. Whatever it is, it multiplies. We often take a little kids toy net into the tub to remove it all. In a day or two there will be more. IT almost plugs up my filters in a week.

Any idea what this is, and what i can do to get rid of it? Its kinds soft..almost mushy but pretty thin stuff. Off white colored.

Thanks for any help on this.

[chem geek]

This sounds like white water (tissue) mold. Are you using Baquacil/Biguanide/PHMB as your sanitizer? Have you been doing that for more than 1 year? If this is white water mold, then you can get rid of it by using ProTeam System Support (which is Sodium Percarbonate) or BioGuard SoftSwim Assist (which is Sodium Chlorite and Dichlor which combine to make Chlorine Dioxide) though the latter does not appear to be available anymore from BioGuard (it's no longer on their website). Both of these are very strong oxidizers that are compatible with any sanitizer.

Normally, one does not get white water mold when a pool or spa is properly sanitized with chlorine (or bromine). It seems that the white water mold builds up resistance to Biguanide after a few years.

Richard

[kerpal]

Do you have any filter or something???

[Chas]

Does sound like water mold, and the advice above - well, two posts up - is good.

I will add that if you are not using Biquanide as a sanitizer, the way to get rid of it is a two-part processs.

Remove as much as you can physically. That means scoop it out, skim it out, vac it out, blow it out of the plumbing and clean it out of the filter. These steps will need to be repeated over and over for many days until the stuff goes away. And in cleaning out the plumbing, be sure to flush any parts of the plumbing where water can stagnate. An example would be a drain which is not used often, or an air blower channel which is not flushed regularly. Take off caps and let water flow after you put in lots of chlorine.

The second step is to put in lots of chlorine. Keep the level up at least 5ppm or more for several days at least, and move the water around a lot by running jets and/or filter system - also a blower if you have one.

HTH

[powernoodle]

White flakes are bacteria growths in the spa water and air pipes. Bacteria are introduced in many ways. They them multiple because of improper sanitizing of the water, building up on the pipe walls. When the pumps or blower are turned on, they are propelled into the main spa body of water. The speed at which they growth makes it difficult to destroy them 100% with normal sanitizing practices. Using normal sanitizing practices might get rid of them temporaily, but there is a high probability that the flakes will re-appear.

Here is a successful way to destroy white flakes bacteria.

1.Leave water in spa and add 2.5 oz of dichlor(chlorine) per 100 gallons of water.

2. Replace the filter(s). The existing ones could be sanitized but its more effective to simply discard the old filters and start fresh new filters.

3. Turn on the pump(s) on high speed for one hour. Not less.

4. If the spa has a blower, turn the blower on and off every 5 minutes for an hour. It is crucial to follow this exact procedure to allow highly chlorinated water to enter and exit the air lines.

5. Drain the spa of all its water. Remove any water left in the seats and foot well. Then, turn the pump(s) and blower on for one minute to help remove any large amount ofwater left in the pipes. Remove water and wipe down the inside side walls.

6. Refill the spa and re-install the filters.

7. Add enough dichlor(chlorine) to the spa water to get a chlorine reading to regester between 3ppm and 5ppm. A chlorine level of 5ppm is recommended.

8. Do not use spa for 10 hours. The spa can be left idle or operating under normal filtration and heating settings.

9. Test the chlorine level after the 10 hour period. The chlorine level must remain between 3ppm and 5ppm. If the chlorine level has not dropped at all, the spa is free of bacteria. If the chlorine level has dropped, or if you do not get a reading at all, bacteria are still present and the procedure must be done over starting with step 1.

Note.. It is possible that the procedure might to be done 2 or 3 times if the bacteria growth has gone uncontrolled for an extended period of time.

[Brent Hamm]

Yes..i do have a filter..two actually.

My blower does not work very well. It did at first..but..we never use it...and i found that it hardly blows at all now. COuld this mean it is plugged with this crap?

[newtubblues]

Yes..i do have a filter..two actually.

My blower does not work very well. It did at first..but..we never use it...and i found that it hardly blows at all now. COuld this mean it is plugged with this crap?

My husband and I had this problem on our last hot tub. We tried EVERYTHING to get it out and filled/drained it twice. We eventually ended up putting bleach into the water. *** WARNING: Do this with water with no chemicals in it**** We then put in new filters and "flushed" the system out twice. As you can tell I meant business, and was tired of not being able to use the hot tub! This did work for us and we used the hot tub up until the movers cracked it moving to Iowa!!!!!

Deanne

[Brent Hamm]

I shocked it. Let all the jets run tell they shut off on their own. Cleaned the filters, then repeated the next day. this has made a big difference.

I think this stuff was living in the set of jets we hardly ever use. (Kids stripped the threads on the valve for the water fall, so if we turn the jets on..it shoots straight up 8 feet or so).