Cloudy Water

[joanneheathermary]

We bought a Jacuzzi hot tub in the summer. We were using the bromine system but I developed an allergy to the bromine and we had to switch. We are now using the Proclear system, the first week it was beautiful, no itches, no hives, and beautiful water. Added the weekly upkeep chemicals and my beautiful water went away. The water is still clear looking until you turn on the air jets, then it looks like you are sitting in milky water. The dealer has tested the water and all the levels for ph, alkalinity, water hardness etc are all where they are supposed to be, no one can figure out what is going on with the water. When the air jets aren't on the water still looks clear. I was hoping someone here would be able to help me out.

Thanks

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

We bought a Jacuzzi hot tub in the summer. We were using the bromine system but I developed an allergy to the bromine and we had to switch. We are now using the Proclear system, the first week it was beautiful, no itches, no hives, and beautiful water. Added the weekly upkeep chemicals and my beautiful water went away. The water is still clear looking until you turn on the air jets, then it looks like you are sitting in milky water. The dealer has tested the water and all the levels for ph, alkalinity, water hardness etc are all where they are supposed to be, no one can figure out what is going on with the water. When the air jets aren't on the water still looks clear. I was hoping someone here would be able to help me out.

Thanks

The air in the water makes it look cloudy. If it clears up after 15 minutes, thats all it is. These new tubs mix an unbeleivable amount of air into the water when the jets are on.

[joanneheathermary]

We bought a Jacuzzi hot tub in the summer. We were using the bromine system but I developed an allergy to the bromine and we had to switch. We are now using the Proclear system, the first week it was beautiful, no itches, no hives, and beautiful water. Added the weekly upkeep chemicals and my beautiful water went away. The water is still clear looking until you turn on the air jets, then it looks like you are sitting in milky water. The dealer has tested the water and all the levels for ph, alkalinity, water hardness etc are all where they are supposed to be, no one can figure out what is going on with the water. When the air jets aren't on the water still looks clear. I was hoping someone here would be able to help me out.

Thanks

The air in the water makes it look cloudy. If it clears up after 15 minutes, thats all it is. These new tubs mix an unbeleivable amount of air into the water when the jets are on.

It does clear up after a few minutes, but while it is happening, you look like you are sitting in milky water. We never had this happen before when we used the bromine. When we first started on the Proclear system, that first week we never had this. Water was clear clear even with the air jets on. It was only after i added the weekly maintenance chemicals that they told me to add with the Proclear that this started, and now we can't seem to fix it. No one wants to go in anymore. I am trying to remember what they had me add, it was clarifier, sanitize and secure I think. Then I went away for the weekend and came back to the milky water look.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

If the chemical balance is fine, it goes away after a few minutes you are fine. The system you are using now may make the water consistancy a bit different causing the air bubbles to stay formed a bit longer. You have had the water tested, it does not stay cloudy, enjoy your tub.

[Nitro]

Sounds like your water is getting sluggish, which happens when it builds up Total Desolved Solids (TDS) over time. I had the same problem, though not as bad as yours seems to be. I changed the water (it was overdue anyway), and it's fine now.

When was the last time you changed your water? Remember the more stuff you put into your water the shorter time it will last.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Sounds like your water is getting sluggish, which happens when it builds up Total Desolved Solids (TDS) over time. I had the same problem, though not as bad as yours seems to be. I changed the water (it was overdue anyway), and it's fine now.

When was the last time you changed your water? Remember the more stuff you put into your water the shorter time it will last.

I was under the impression with what she wrote, she just changed it a week ago.

What are the actual chemical ingreidients in each of the proclear items you are using?

[Nitro]

I was under the impression with what she wrote, she just changed it a week ago.

What are the actual chemical ingreidients in each of the proclear items you are using?

If she just changed the water a week ago, there shouldn't be a TDS problem then. I'd be curious to know what's in the proclear items though.

While the tub is probably safe, it really isn't normal to have bad milky water after only a couple weeks, unless there was a ton of stuff added (bather oils, unnecessary chemicals etc.). It took my new tub over a month to get kinda milky, and I had very high bather loads.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

I was under the impression with what she wrote, she just changed it a week ago.

What are the actual chemical ingreidients in each of the proclear items you are using?

If she just changed the water a week ago, there shouldn't be a TDS problem then. I'd be curious to know what's in the proclear items though.

While the tub is probably safe, it really isn't normal to have bad milky water after only a couple weeks, unless there was a ton of stuff added (bather oils, unnecessary chemicals etc.). It took my new tub over a month to get kinda milky, and I had very high bather loads.

It does not sound like bad milky water, it is gone in minutes. On our tubs and any we sell, if we turn the air on with the jets, the water will look cloudy for a few minutes untill all the air rises back out, kind of like shaking selzter water. Some products may cause the concisitancy/weight of the water (chem geek can most likley give better tech terms) to be different, thus why it did not happen before. Thus this is why I think she is fine. If it was particles or yuck, it would not clean up in minutes, no tub filters that fast.

[joanneheathermary]

I was under the impression with what she wrote, she just changed it a week ago.

What are the actual chemical ingreidients in each of the proclear items you are using?

If she just changed the water a week ago, there shouldn't be a TDS problem then. I'd be curious to know what's in the proclear items though.

While the tub is probably safe, it really isn't normal to have bad milky water after only a couple weeks, unless there was a ton of stuff added (bather oils, unnecessary chemicals etc.). It took my new tub over a month to get kinda milky, and I had very high bather loads.

It does not sound like bad milky water, it is gone in minutes. On our tubs and any we sell, if we turn the air on with the jets, the water will look cloudy for a few minutes untill all the air rises back out, kind of like shaking selzter water. Some products may cause the concisitancy/weight of the water (chem geek can most likley give better tech terms) to be different, thus why it did not happen before. Thus this is why I think she is fine. If it was particles or yuck, it would not clean up in minutes, no tub filters that fast.

This is what the Proclear system is, it just snaps into the filter, it is a like a canister, you can't open it so I am not sure exactly what is in there. http://www.jacuzzicalgary.com/proclearmine...asanitizer.html They don't look like air bubbles. The dealer said it was ph that was wrong, or the CH, so we added chemicals and they now are right where they are supposed to be. He came and took another water sample the other day, when he ran the tub, and the water turned milky he also found some bubbles and he said that that usually means the PH is off. They looked like a light beige kind of bubble. It is brand new water. The dealer said he is stumped and was going to call someone in the US who dealt with Proclear for a lot of years and maybe we would get an answer that way. Haven't heard anything yet. I am almost tempted to drain it again and start over. I wondered if the Proclear was defective or something, he checked it and said it looked okay. Everyone seems stumped. I shock it, I sanitize it, the water is clean, the readings are all where they are supposed to be, yet the water looks like you are sitting in milk. when you invite people over, no one wants to sit in something that looks like that. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[joanneheathermary]

I was under the impression with what she wrote, she just changed it a week ago.

What are the actual chemical ingreidients in each of the proclear items you are using?

If she just changed the water a week ago, there shouldn't be a TDS problem then. I'd be curious to know what's in the proclear items though.

While the tub is probably safe, it really isn't normal to have bad milky water after only a couple weeks, unless there was a ton of stuff added (bather oils, unnecessary chemicals etc.). It took my new tub over a month to get kinda milky, and I had very high bather loads.

It does not sound like bad milky water, it is gone in minutes. On our tubs and any we sell, if we turn the air on with the jets, the water will look cloudy for a few minutes untill all the air rises back out, kind of like shaking selzter water. Some products may cause the concisitancy/weight of the water (chem geek can most likley give better tech terms) to be different, thus why it did not happen before. Thus this is why I think she is fine. If it was particles or yuck, it would not clean up in minutes, no tub filters that fast.

I know what you are talking about here but it isn't that kind of bubbles, the water actually looks like milk, I wish I could take a picture and show you here. It looks really gross.

[joanneheathermary]

I was under the impression with what she wrote, she just changed it a week ago.

What are the actual chemical ingreidients in each of the proclear items you are using?

If she just changed the water a week ago, there shouldn't be a TDS problem then. I'd be curious to know what's in the proclear items though.

While the tub is probably safe, it really isn't normal to have bad milky water after only a couple weeks, unless there was a ton of stuff added (bather oils, unnecessary chemicals etc.). It took my new tub over a month to get kinda milky, and I had very high bather loads.

It does not sound like bad milky water, it is gone in minutes. On our tubs and any we sell, if we turn the air on with the jets, the water will look cloudy for a few minutes untill all the air rises back out, kind of like shaking selzter water. Some products may cause the concisitancy/weight of the water (chem geek can most likley give better tech terms) to be different, thus why it did not happen before. Thus this is why I think she is fine. If it was particles or yuck, it would not clean up in minutes, no tub filters that fast.

I know what you are talking about here but it isn't that kind of bubbles, the water actually looks like milk, I wish I could take a picture and show you here. It looks really gross.

These are the chemicals we were told to use, we are new at this hot tub stuff:

Spa Life pH Up

Buffer

Secure

Shock

Super Clarifier

Spa Life Cal

Spa Life Scum Free

Sanitize

I was told to put in the scum free, the super clarifier, the secure and sanitize as my weekly maintenance. And to shock before each soak.

[Nitro]

I agree with HHT that if it's gone in minutes it's just bubbles and not harmful. However, if it's really milky looking (that's different then before), there's obviously something making it do it. The question is what. Without seeing it, it's hard to say though.

When my water was sluggish, it never got milky (white) like you're describing. But it did take longer for the bubbles to clear, but still only a minute or two. With new water, my bubbles clear in well under a minute.

[joanneheathermary]

I agree with HHT that if it's gone in minutes it's just bubbles and not harmful. However, if it's really milky looking (that's different then before), there's obviously something making it do it. The question is what. Without seeing it, it's hard to say though.

When my water was sluggish, it never got milky (white) like you're describing. But it did take longer for the bubbles to clear, but still only a minute or two. With new water, my bubbles clear in well under a minute.

We had nice bubbles before that looked like champagne bubbles. Was beautiful, nice and clear. What we have now leaves the water milky after you turn off the jets, takes about 15 minutes or so for the water to settle back down and clear again. The dealer has come to the house and he said his did the same thing but it was low PH, and CH and he just had to adjust the levels. He says what it is doing isn't right, but he just can't figure out what is causing it. I am hoping whoever he contacts will have some clue as to what is happening. The water reminds me of old soapy water or water with white paint mixed it, hard to get the right description. Can we add pictures on here?

[Nitro]

These are the chemicals we were told to use, we are new at this hot tub stuff:

Spa Life pH Up

Buffer

Secure

Shock

Super Clarifier

Spa Life Cal

Spa Life Scum Free

Sanitize

I was told to put in the scum free, the super clarifier, the secure and sanitize as my weekly maintenance. And to shock before each soak.

There's something I've been saying a lot on this forum lately. Be careful what you add to your water, because it will be with you until your next water change. That includes lotions, oils, soaps, shampoos etc. that come off your body, and the chemicals you add to fix the problems.

The only thing you really need to maintain your water, is Calcium, Acid/Base and a Sanitizer. Everything else is just fluff, and just adds to the ever increasing amount of Total Desolved Solids.

[joanneheathermary]

These are the chemicals we were told to use, we are new at this hot tub stuff:

Spa Life pH Up

Buffer

Secure

Shock

Super Clarifier

Spa Life Cal

Spa Life Scum Free

Sanitize

I was told to put in the scum free, the super clarifier, the secure and sanitize as my weekly maintenance. And to shock before each soak.

There's something I've saying a lot on this forum lately. Be careful what you add to your water, because it will be with you until your next water change. That includes lotions, oils, soaps, shampoos etc. that come off your body, and the chemicals you add to fix the problems.

The only thing you really need to maintain your water, is Calcium, Acid/Base and a Sanitizer. Everything else is just fluff, and just adds to the ever increasing amount of Total Desolved Solids.

We are new at this and every week we bring a water sample in to the dealer and he tells us what we need to put in until I get used to this new system. I am starting to wonder if I should just go back to bromine and take antihistamines and hope for the best, sigh. My husband at this point is getting frustrated with it and says we should just get rid of the thing. What is acid/base?

[Nitro]

We are new at this and every week we bring a water sample in to the dealer and he tells us what we need to put in until I get used to this new system. I am starting to wonder if I should just go back to bromine and take antihistamines and hope for the best, sigh. My husband at this point is getting frustrated with it and says we should just get rid of the thing. What is acid/base?

"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for life." The way I look at, you have two choices if you want to keep your tub. You can continue to let your dealer manage your water and have problems, or manage it yourselves and maybe not have problems.

You say you're sensitive to Bromine. Are you also sensitive to Chlorine? If so, you can try mineral system such as Natural 2, which uses less chlorine. I know nothing about Proclear, so I can't comment.

However, regardless of what system you use to sanitize, you still need to learn the basics of water chemistry. So, if you want to try managing it yourself, go here and read. It will tell you everything you need to know about Water Maintenance, but were afraid to ask, your dealer.

[squidly]

Are you sure you didn't mistake the bottle of Proclear for a jug of milk?

[joanneheathermary]

Thank you all for your suggestions, i now have a hot tub with clear water again. Turned out when they dug deeper for analysis (I really need to get me one of those machines, they say it costs about $2500) someone (meaning one of the kids' friends) must have gone in the hot tub wearing something they shouldn't have and it contaminated the water, which is what was causing the milky look. The milky look is gone, my tub has been highly sanitized to clean out whatever was growing in there (which totally grosses me out). When I heard that I wanted to dump it all and start again, which I was told was not a good idea, as I would then have to start all over again with balancing the water. The only thing now is that sanitizer level is really high and I don't think it is a good idea for me to go in with my allergies while it is that high, so I will have to wait it out. All the other chemical readings though were right on the money. Whatever was in the water totally clogged up my filter even washing it didn't work to clean it out, we had to bring it in to have it cleaned. My hot tub was flashing at me when I got home on Friday saying that there was no "flow" and we figured out it was the filter that was plugged up. It looked totally gross and brownish. I wish I knew what it was that caused all this upset to my water.

My dealer is having a class one evening on water chemistry and how to take care of your tub which I plan on attending (If work doesn't get in the way). But in the meantime I will read the link that Nitro left for me above.

Again thank you.

[joanneheathermary]

We are new at this and every week we bring a water sample in to the dealer and he tells us what we need to put in until I get used to this new system. I am starting to wonder if I should just go back to bromine and take antihistamines and hope for the best, sigh. My husband at this point is getting frustrated with it and says we should just get rid of the thing. What is acid/base?

"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for life." The way I look at, you have two choices if you want to keep your tub. You can continue to let your dealer manage your water and have problems, or manage it yourselves and maybe not have problems.

You say you're sensitive to Bromine. Are you also sensitive to Chlorine? If so, you can try mineral system such as Natural 2, which uses less chlorine. I know nothing about Proclear, so I can't comment. However, regardless of what system you use to sanitize, you still need to learn the basics of water chemistry. So, if you want to try managing it yourself, go here and read. It will tell you everything you need to know about Water Maintenance, but were afraid to ask, your dealer.

Nitro, thanks for the link, I will check it out. I usually manage my own water, did with the bromine system, it was just with the problem we were having with the milky water that I couldn't fix on my own. I did everything I was supposed to, but nothing worked. I guess when I put the super clarifier in, it started to help clear the tub, and then it allowed the sanitizer to do what it was supposed to. With this new system it is a learning process all over again.

[B0Darc]

Nitro, thanks for the link, I will check it out. I usually manage my own water, did with the bromine system, it was just with the problem we were having with the milky water that I couldn't fix on my own. I did everything I was supposed to, but nothing worked. I guess when I put the super clarifier in, it started to help clear the tub, and then it allowed the sanitizer to do what it was supposed to. With this new system it is a learning process all over again.

Yes listen to Nitro ...he's the bomb. His best advice is "less is better". I had the most problems as a new owner applying "fixes" when in reality I probably should have been using more shock or more sanitizer or balancing my pH. Simply put, proper water management is killing germs/algae and eliminating organic matter so you can bathe in the same water for a two/three months. Most of the "fixes" can seem to help, but cause their own problems in slight overdoses or if used as substitutes for core water treatment practices like shocking, getting filters really clean, and stable free chlorine levels.

Sheeesh kids in my hottub, no comment *cough*. You may never know what happened, but you can count on weird unexplainable similar events happening anytime you have "carefree" bathers. Someone already said it but it actually could have been milk or some other ...well anything. Maybe you can solve your cloudy spa problem with the proper sign.

Welcome to our S_A...

Notice there is no P in it,

Let's keep it that way!

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

OK, I just had time to look, Proclean is a mineral stick such as Nature 2 or the Frog, labeled for Jacuzzi. If you read in the forums under Nature 2 you can learn a lot. One big thing is that it does not hold up well for kids using the spa. They have to be very clean (hose them off!)

If you want to use a clarifier that will not gumm your filters up like that, try Sea Klear all natural clarifier. Its great stuff and works really well with the mineral systems. I hate the other clarifiers, they are made from oil based polymers (most of them I should say) and they cause gooey meeses and who wants to add oils to the water to begin with.

I am not sure what Secure is. Good luck and glad the spa cleaned up!

[joanneheathermary]

LOL, they are in their 20's, so it wasn't the Pee issue, I hope!!! and I don't even want to think it is anything else, lol.

I know the only people in there was my son and his girlfriend, he has another couple that comes over and uses the tub, but I am not sure if they were in the new water or not. I would prefer not, the two of them need to get a room, which I have told them. Neighbours are extremely religious and have little kids, not something they need kids to see.

[joanneheathermary]

OK, I just had time to look, Proclean is a mineral stick such as Nature 2 or the Frog, labeled for Jacuzzi. If you read in the forums under Nature 2 you can learn a lot. One big thing is that it does not hold up well for kids using the spa. They have to be very clean (hose them off!)

If you want to use a clarifier that will not gumm your filters up like that, try Sea Klear all natural clarifier. Its great stuff and works really well with the mineral systems. I hate the other clarifiers, they are made from oil based polymers (most of them I should say) and they cause gooey meeses and who wants to add oils to the water to begin with.

I am not sure what Secure is. Good luck and glad the spa cleaned up!

I will find out what is in all these chemicals and let you know exactly what they are. Could the clarifier have been what gummed up my filter so that it no longer worked? when using a clarifier should you remove your filter when you put it in? (okay, that might be a very blond question, no offense blondes, I am one). No one has told me what any of this stuff actually does, they have just told me that I need to use it.

[Nitro]

No one has told me what any of this stuff actually does, they have just told me that I need to use it.

Hence, the reason for your troubles.

[Nitro]

I will find out what is in all these chemicals and let you know exactly what they are.

If it were me, I would not worry about finding out what those chemicals are. Instead I would learn what chemicals I actually need.