My Water Got Cloudy And Stinky

[belome]

So, this is my first tub. I filled it about a month ago and it has been spot on for the month. The water has been clear I have been using like a rounded tablespoon of granulated chlorine (spa pure) about every other day. Hardly ever had to add any PH up or down. No foam and clear water and I was thinking I had it all figured out.

It had fairly heavy use this last weekend (one 2.5 hour hangover session) then it sat for about 3 days at 102 degrees. I checked it and the cholorine is pretty low but it also got really cloudy and it seemed smelly.

I'm assuming I need to dump the water and start over. [i've read about a month is as long as you want to go anyways.]

My question is, did I do anything wrong? I planned to dump some shock in it after the weekend but didn't, do you think that would have made it so this didn't happen? Is there any use trying to save the water that is in it? Could urine have caused this? I also fear maybe the nieghbor kids dumped something in it.

Opinions?

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

First, the heavy use and not shocking would account for the smell and cloudiness. If using dichlor, if the CYA is high, you have to use more chlorine since a high CYA requires a higher level of chlorine to sanitize, Risdual soaps make up shampoo ect. causes the cloudy water along with the fact that every person that used it sweats about a pint per use. Depending on what the CYA is is going to play a factor to if you can shock the tub, use a clarifer and bring it back or not. If the CYA is ok, you should clean the filter, shock to 10 ppm, if in 24 hours you have no chlorine reading, shock to 10 PPM again, a clarifier such as sea klear, or another natural brand will help collect the smaller unfilterable particles up so they can be filtered. you should also read the info chem geek has put on here , its under Nitros wtaer care posts, if you choose this route you have to follow the directions exactley, or you could damage the spa. You could also look into bromine, which water bear has great posts about.

[belome]

Thanks, looks like I'm going to have to buy a CYA test kit. Obviously can't get one today, so I think I'm going to drain and refill tonight. I have family coming over for Christmas and it isn't worth the risk of trying to shock it if its already has to high of CYA.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

GZood choice with guests. If you buy a taylor test kit, it has the CYA test in it.

[paulsimmons]

Sounds like Hillbilly has you on the right track - just wanted to throw in my two-cents that I've had great luck with bromine in my tub. Good luck with the problem!

[belome]

I wish I wouldn't have bought a bulk supply Chlorine, test strips, ph up and down, alk up and down now. Everything was going so well that I decided to stock up. [Lets just say I hit the $75 dollar free shipping mark.] Just got the box the other day. Ugh.

Thanks for all your help... I'll try and stay up on the Sunday night shock, since most of the time my tub is used on the weekends.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Shock after guests also

[waterbear]

I wish I wouldn't have bought a bulk supply Chlorine, test strips,

test strips are useless, get a Taylor K-2006 for chlorine or a K-2106 for bromine

ph up and down,

pH increaser and decreaser is always going to be useful so no waste here.

alk up and down

Alk up is just baking soda at a high price! No such thing as alk down. Same chemical is used to decrease pH and alk. It's just used differently. Normally it is either sodium bisulfate or muriatic acid.

now. Everything was going so well that I decided to stock up. [Lets just say I hit the $75 dollar free shipping mark.] Just got the box the other day. Ugh.

Thanks for all your help... I'll try and stay up on the Sunday night shock, since most of the time my tub is used on the weekends.

[belome]

Whatever I did it was an epic fail on my part. The tub was even worse last night when I went to drain it. I'm thinking lots more shock and a lot more chlorine for this batch of water. It even had some dark looking gunk about he size of a 50 cent peice in one seat. Any idea what I did wrong?

I have no idea how it went from clear and beautiful to cloudy and stinky in a matter of days.

On the bright side, I had it drained, rinsed out, and filled in just over 2 hours. It was refilled and up to temp about 12 hours after I started draining it.

[chem geek]

If you don't initially use Spa System Flush (or Swirl Away, though some report that doesn't work as well) upon your first fill of a new tub, then the water doesn't last very long and has a high chlorine demand due to the leftover chemicals (grease-like substances) and biofilm that develops in pipes after wet-testing since they don't generally blow out and dry the lines after the wet test. Use of this sort of product is only needed for the first fill of a new tub. Subsequent fills don't need it unless you let the sanitizer level get to zero for too many hours at some point. Superchlorination is another method for clearing the tub of gunk, though with a new tub this is one of those times where the use of enzymes and/or surfactants helps.