Help With Clear But Orange/brown Tinted Water.

[Berf]

Hi, new member and new hot tub owner.

I purchased a home with a Vienna 60 hot tub (400 gallon) which was a couple of years old. After purchase I drained, scrubbed, and filled the system and started it up using the Leisure Time Reserve/Renew bromine system. In this system Reserve is a bromide salt and Renew is some kind of activator you add periodically. That is what the previous owners use and they left a bunch of chemicals behind so why not. Anyway, all went well and 3 months passed and the water was getting kind of funky with some brown scum. So I decide to clean it again.

So I drained, scrubbed, filled, added the recommend bottle of Metal Gon, added the "Reserve" bromide salt but when adding the Renew bromine activator ... the water turned brownish orange ... think weak tea color. It is perfectly clear but tinted. What the heck?

SO I thought I messed something up. Drained again repeated previous steps and same clear weak tea colored water result.

All levels are right down the middle of the test strip Bromine = 3-5ppm, Alkalinity = 80, pH = 7.2 Calcium = 250. Filled each time with well water. FYI, our water is has no metal in it but a tiny bit on the hard side

Am I missing something? Why is it doing this now and didn't during 1st start up? How do I fix it?

Thanks for any help

[Dr. Spa]

How long from the time you added the metal gone till you added the Renew? It sounds like, in fact, you DO have metals in the water.

[Berf]

Maybe 30-45 minutes The instructions summary is basically:

1. Add Metal Gon during fill. Pouring around edge.
2. Add 4 ounces of Reserve for every 250 gallons of water. Wait 10 minutes
3. Add 4 ounces of Leisure Time Renew granular for every 250 gallons of water to create a bromine residual and shock-oxidize

One thing that I noticed when I accidentally used the same measuring cup for both Reserve (liquid) and Renew (granular)... is that the mixture immediately reacts and turns a dark orange. I did some searching and elemental bromine is naturally this dark orange color. So it makes me think this color is due to high levels of bromine in the spa. However the test strip shows in the neighborhood of 5ppm

We had a well water test when we bought the property and metals were very low I don't have the results handy to verify any numbers though.

[AlbertD]

Couple things came to my mind while reading this (granted, i'm a newbie too, so take that with a grain of salt - this is just based on what i've read here thus far)....

1. When you "cleaned" the spa, did you run through the full decontamination routine stickied here in the forum?

2. Everything I've read so far said that "test strips" are basically ok in a pinch, but are not that reliable. Get a good Taylor K-2006 test kit so you can really get your numbers.

3. Have the spa water tested by the local shop, and see what kind of results they come up with - compared to yours. - and post them up here too.

4. have the hose water (that you'd use to fill the spa with) tested as well.

Hopefully that will help get some stuff going with some of the smarter guys on here! Good luck!

[dlleno]

my city water supply tends to change from time to time, and does have some iron and even copper, depending (among other things) on which wells are active. I use a hose-end sediment filter and I can attest to the fact that when I don't use it, I take the risk that my water will be slightly brackish. So to be safe I follow this procedure:

1. always pre-filter with a at least good sediment filter. there are more elaborate filters for removing metals; you might consider researching these to decide if it's worth it for your situation.

2. during the fill itself, I add spaguard stain and scale control per label directions. This is additional forgiveness for metals and high pH.

yea you need to accurately measure your bromine levels. However, the color of pure elemental bromine isn't a factor here -- you're producing hypobromous acid as the sanitizer. crazy high bromine levels aren't brown.

my experience with brown-is colored water suggest three causes

1. metals

2. sediment in or a brackish fill water

3. contaminants that need to be purged