Foaming Issues

[dpk30]

500 gallon Bullfrog. A few years now. Have had foaming issues. Decontaminated twice with Ahh-some. First time some light green material floating around, not much. Little scum line. Did it again and mostly foam, no real scum. Filled it again with my well water. Very soft well water, no hardness at all. pH 8.3, TA 160, Ca 0 at baseline. No iron, magnesium, maybe a little fluoride. There is sodium in the water at 73. Used hose and hose filter to fill it back up this past weekend.

These past few days, got pH down to 7.4-7.6, TA 80, Ca 150. Still getting champagne foam ball in middle of tub when jets on high. Been scooping it out all week. No scum line. Chlorine demand low, free chlorine went from 10, to 8, to 7.6 ppm on consecutive days, so little chlorine demand. I assume that means that there is not that much "stuff" in the water, as for the past 3 days chlorine has declined minimally, yet I continue to foam. I tried enzyme product to see if there was any residual soaps, etc, and also shocked with MPS, no luck.

Of note, when I use any of my outdoor spigots, the water foams a lot from the hose. Looks like the same as in the tub. Takes time to settle down when using outside hoses. Does not foam inside the house, however. And I did let the water run through the hose a bit before filling tub up with filter.

Any thoughts? Could this be just my well water and/or contaminates from the hose and should I get my water delivered? Something still in the tub? Not sure if I should refill with my own water or get it delivered? Thanks.

[chem geek]

Since the foaming also occurs with outdoor tap water from the well, is your well water treated with any chemical? Perhaps a disinfectant was used that causes foaming. Something along the lines of a linear quat, but probably not that specifically.

[dpk30]

Thanks for the reply. As far as I know, there should be no chemicals in our well, although I just unfortunately found out we live a few miles from a EPA superfund sight! In process of testing well water now, results pending.

[dlleno]

This perplexes me from time to time as well, and I'm on city water. the city maintains a network of wells, taking some on and off line from time to time and performing various maintenance activities which tends to disrupt the system in a way that adds turbidity to the water. I see it in the kitchen sink and I know that during this time is not a good time to refill the spa. I've also noticed that when I put a new filter cartridge (those rope wound sediment filters) into my whole house filter (installed prior to water softener) I have to run water through it for several minutes or the water will have foamy behavior to it. I have one of those same filters on the end of my hose as well, and same principle applies. I've actually abandoned a spa fill once when the city's well water was especially turbid. Sometimes those sediment filters help. Yes the city well water is centrally treated with chlorine.

I'm interested in your test results, as with a CA=150 I wouldn't expect a foaming problem. And I can confirm that if you purge a second time with ahh-some without releasing any new material, that you have a very clean spa. The only ideas that come to mind - and you may have already addressed these:

1. with your spa dosed with ahh-some and releasing no new material, did you happen to re-install your filters too? just to prove that your filters are not contributing anything...

2. I have performed a lot of purges with Ahh-Some, and the only time I detected an issue with foam (other than the well water issue above) was when I didn't rinse thoroughly. A small amount of Ahh-Some in the water is fine, but if you have an incomplete drain/rinse it might actually be ahh-some residue in the water that could be contributing.

Still, the fact that you observe foam from your outside spigots, suggests a water source issue... anxious to see your test results.

[dpk30]

Water tests are fine. pH around 7.9, Ca very low at 3, no contaminant, no metals, amazingly soft good water. So, since I purged with Ahh-some twice and only the first time had mild gunk and the second did not, I figured the foaming has to be from residual soap residue, etc, in pipes in tub I could not get out. I did use hose to spray into the openings until drained into bottom of tub, then shop-vac out water. Not sure why though chlorine demand was low if that was the case? In any event, I used enzyme and bright and clear daily for 10 days straight, kept chlorine normal 3-6ppm (which I had been doing anyway) and sure enough, all gone. Crystal clear perfect water now, no foaming. I guess I did not do enough of a good job trying to get residual water out of pipes inside the tub after purging. Probably nothing to do with my well water or hose as I first thought,

[dlleno]

Nice! I can confirm that when purging with Ahh-Some that one needs to be very careful to do a complete rinse . I've actually done a partial fill and re rinse .