Chlorine Bleach Bad For Seals?

[Thav]

Hey everyone. I've been reading up on the advice here and was thinking to try the chlorine bleach method on a hot tub in the house I recently purchased. When I went to buy my chemicals, I mentioned the maintenance routine to the salesperson (dichlor to get CYA up, then bleach) and they strongly recommended against using bleach because "it damages the rubber seals and the whole thing can rot out". I'm not sure I buy it. Any experience with this, or has anyone heard this before?

In the meantime I've just been using dichlor since I haven't gotten my CYA levels up yet anyway.

Cheers for all the advice and good discussion here.

[PaulR]

Nonsense. If bleach can damage something, so can any other kind of chlorine. Add it to the tub with the pump on, you're fine.

And welcome to the forum!

--paulr

[tony]

Nonsense. If bleach can damage something, so can any other kind of chlorine. Add it to the tub with the pump on, you're fine.

And welcome to the forum!

--paulr

I agree. Bleach is chlorine, plain and simple. Keep your pH in line as with any other sanitizer and you'll be fine.

[chem geek]

If you used ONLY bleach and didn't use any Dichlor first or otherwise had any Cyanuric Acid (CYA) in the water, then it is true that the active chlorine (hypochlorous acid) levels would be far higher and more damaging, mostly to the spa cover but perhaps over time to other components. This is why one should start out using Dichlor to build up some (30 ppm) CYA first. This significantly moderates the chlorine strength by orders of magnitude.

[Nitro]

Print out my Maintenance Link below, bring it to that salesperson and tell them to get educated. Then tell them you won't be doing business with them until they do.

[Thav]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I was thinking it might be something like chem geek mentioned, but really just on a hunch that I can't act on.

Now to go check if I still have a little froggy friend still hanging out on my control panel.

[quantumchromodynamics]

I'm not sure about seals, but some zoos use hydrogen peroxide in their polar bear pools to bleach the polar bear fur back to white when it gets stained, or off color.

Actually, polar bear's fur is clear and their skin is black. The clear fur just looks white due to the way the light is reflected and scattered. The clear fur allows light to reach their black skin, which warms them up.

Anyway, I suppose that if your seals have white fur then you could try hydrogen peroxide. I don't think that chlorine bleach would be a good idea. What type of seals do you have? Have you posted this question on any zoological forums?

[sandi]

I'm not sure about seals, but some zoos use hydrogen peroxide in their polar bear pools to bleach the polar bear fur back to white when it gets stained, or off color.

Actually, polar bear's fur is clear and their skin is black. The clear fur just looks white due to the way the light is reflected and scattered. The clear fur allows light to reach their black skin, which warms them up.

Anyway, I suppose that if your seals have white fur then you could try hydrogen peroxide. I don't think that chlorine bleach would be a good idea. What type of seals do you have? Have you posted this question on any zoological forums?

:lol: :lol: TOO FUNNY!!!

[Dnepr Dave]

There is a community of 150 to 200 harbor seals that live about 200 ft from my bulkhead. (Really!)

When I drain the hot tub, the water goes down a county ditch and right into the inlet. I use Nitro's dichlor/bleach method for sanitizing my tub. The seals are thriving, their population has actually increased over the last year. There were over 30 seal pups born on the seal haul out this year.

I think chlorine is good for seals.

Dave

[PaulR]

There is a community of 150 to 200 harbor seals that live about 200 ft from my bulkhead. (Really!)

When I drain the hot tub, the water goes down a county ditch and right into the inlet. I use Nitro's dichlor/bleach method for sanitizing my tub. The seals are thriving, their population has actually increased over the last year. There were over 30 seal pups born on the seal haul out this year.

I think chlorine is good for seals.

Dave

By the time the tub water reaches the inlet, the chlorine is going to be basically gone. However, I have heard about Bad Things happening if you use borates. Or algaecides, but that's more an issue for pools than tubs.

--paulr