Water Constantly Getting Film On Top And Scum Line Round Side

[4109creighton]

Hi all, I am a newbie to hot tubs, I have had my 1500L hot tub set up for just over a week now and already I have had to do a water change due to a film which leaves grease on my hand constantly appearing on the water no matter what. When I do a water test the PH is fine, Total alkalinity is fine and chlorine is fine. However every morning when I do a test the chlorine has completely disappeared and I have to put a dosage of chlorine in the water again. It still does the same thing even after a complete water change. It also seems to be leaving a sticky scummy scale round the side of the hot tub sides and I am constantly having to wipe this away. The water is also slighty cloudy, has a slight tint to it. I am not sure what the problem is, or what I am doing wrong that could be causing this ongoing problem. I hope someone can help me out!

All help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

Luke.

More Information: The chemicals I am using are or have are: Chlorine Granules, PH Plus, PH Minus and I also have some ANTI-FOAM.

[Spanky]

Is the tub new or used? Either way you need to flush with Ahh Some, then decontaminate. Used tubs usually end up with biofilm and even new tubs have many oils and residue left over from the manufacturing process. You'd be amazed at what gunk comes out of a brand new tub!!!

Folow the flush &decontamination steps then see if the sanitizer demand stabilizes.

Another source of film/oil is make-up and body lotions, so after you get the tub properly cleaned, invest in a "Scumbug" They work great

P.S. Saying pH etc.. is "fine" doesn't help us you need to provide accurate test results!!!

[dlleno]

+1 my experiments have shown that unusual sanitizer demand is a clear indication that biofilms are present. if you have greater than 25% decay over 24 hours, without ozone present, then you need to purge and shock (at the same time, with Ahh-Some)

Note that I also have shown that gunk (and the evidence suggests even biofilms) WILL form, over time, even in a purged spa that has been properly maintained. So you gotta get right to the ahh-some purge as suggested. I use this product exclusively now -- having tested it against four other products that are not worth the packaging they come in, at least imho.

The fact that you are using a foam down type product suggests oils and such from bathing suits, lotions, soaps, whatever. +1 for the scumball or other similar products designed to collect oils. Nevertheless, these things can and do accumulate despite best efforts. The more oils and such you can remove (or never introduce) the better.

with the problems you have identified, I would suggest that you might require a 2nd ahh-some purge, which will at least give you the peace of mind that all is clean. you can see my recent post on the purge product shootout, but the bottom line in your situation I would

1. remove your filters. Soak them in in filter cleaner/degreaser + ahh-some
2. dose to some high level of chlorine, i.e. something like 10-20ppm. this is to kill the biofilms released by Ahh-some.
3. add 1 tsp ahh-some per 100 gallons of water
4. run the jets per label directions
5. drain and fill. re-dose with ahh-some. Note that If you can't drain chlorinated water, then treat with hydrogen peroxide to neutralize the chlorine. per chem geek, use the pool calculator to find the approximate amount of 6% bleach that will achieve the ppm level of chlorine you dosed to. -- then use about that amount of peroxide to neutralize your water before draining.

6. if the amount of material released by the 2nd ahh-some purge is very small, wipe it up with a cloth, rinsing in a separate solution of ahh-some. repeat until you have a clean spa, dosed with ahh-some. if the amount of material released by the 2nd ahh-some purge is high, then drain. repeat until you have a clean spa dosed with ahh-some

7. hose down your filters. then install them in your ahh-some dosed spa. do the wipe/rinse trick again until no more biofilm residue is left anywhere.

8. When you are satisfied that all is clean, remove your filters, hose them down, drain the spa, and start over with a fresh clean fill.

[PreservedSwine]

Is this a used tub? Decontaminate, as others have suggested. That sticky goo and scum line may be the result of the chlorine reacting with a previous product (baqua-spa, or some other biguanide)