Cloudy Water ?

[Kevinjones#37]

I am having cloudy water problems with my Coyote Spa. My calcium hardness, TA, PH and bromine levels seem to be relatively easy to maintain but I seem to get cloudy water within a month of a dump and refill. Is is more than likely not enough shock ? I shock at the levels as suggested on the product but maybe I should increase the shock ? any suggestions ? also, last time I dumped the water there was a light white powdery film on the shell, came off easily with some vinegar and water but what would that have been, scale buildup ??? thanks

[chem geek]

Are you still using Peroxysan as you posted towards the end of last year?

[Kevinjones#37]

no, I am using bromine now...my CH is reading a bit low maybe (around 175) and my TA is usually a little bit low also but other than that all readings are normal...not sure what is going on other than not enough shock maybe ?

thanks for your help

[PaulR]

If you posted actual levels (as opposed to "a bit low") and said what you're using (as opposed to "the product") it would be easier to come up with suggestions.

--paulr

[waterbear]

Are you doing a two step or three step bromine system? Are you shocking weekly? Bromine, unlike chlorine, needs to be shocked weekly (If you are just putting bromine tabs in a floater without creating a bromine reserve first with sodium bromide then that could be a reason for the cloudy water since the majority of bromine tabs have chlorine in them to activate the bromine and, until enough bromide builds up in the water you are actually running a chlorine spa but not properly. If you are using a bromine only tablet, there are a couple of them on the market, then you just don't really have enough bromide in the water for the system to work without adding sodium bromide.)

What are you using for shocking the system?

[Kevinjones#37]

the shock I am using is a Mursatt product called "Brome-Ox" that has potassium monopersulphate as the active ingredient. I combine that with the bromine tablets in the floater. My chemical supplier seems stumped and he seems to know a lot more that me about water chemistry...maybe I am not doing things right...the calcium hardness in my city water that I use to fill the tub does run a bit low (150-175 ) so is it possible that this could be the problem also ? any suggestions would help and thanks again...

[quantumchromodynamics]

the calcium hardness in my city water that I use to fill the tub does run a bit low (150-175 ) so is it possible that this could be the problem also ?

A Calcium Hardness of 150 ppm is not low for a hot tub. The higher water temperatures require a lower calcium to keep the CSI in the proper range.

What are your pH, temperature and alkalinity readings?

[Kevinjones#37]

temp is 100 in summer, 103-104 in winter...ph is usually in the 7.2-7.8 range and TA is most often in the 80-100 range...I seem to have a bit of a hard time keeping the TA up as it tends to drift lower most often...