turned my white scum buster brown?? any ideas?

[THE DUDE]

 just checked my tub and when i opened it up the new white scumbuster foam floaters i put in last week  turned brown. The only thing out of the ordinary is my ph dropped down between 7.2 and 7.0 I checked ta and found at 60. FC chlorine was at 4.5.  I aerated and I put a little up (1.5 tbsp for 470 gallons)  in it since everything was steady when it ran around 80 ta. Brought the ph up around 7.5 and around 70 TA. Not sure why those white foam turtles turned color. Water looks crystal clear, no rings or lines around the tub level. No oil slicks on top the water. The only thing i did differant is I had shut down the air jets. We had some 0 deg weather and I had closed them, I had them cracked before. I wonder if i didnt areate enough  and caused this. I did put some mps in it the other day which maybedidnt help and thats what cause the ph drop also. Its weird, tub has been holding great and water has no smell. No other staining and cover looks clean. Just a aw shoot moment when i saw those but I didnt say shoot. Are you better to leave the air jets them slightly open? I have a ozone with a uv light and the nature 2  stick also. I have to boost free chlorine about every 4 days at about 2 oz. I added the mps to try and help the chlorine out, i only have stips to check the mps and it shows possibly high to ok .I try to take  FC to 5 and let it drop down to .5 even with the nature2 stick. I was kinda suprised at its been about 4 days and FC was still at 4.5fc. if it wouldn't be for the damn foam turtles turning brown I wouldnt think much about it and just crack those jets some to try and keep ph up.

fc -4.5

cc-.2

ph-7-7.2 now at 7.5

ta 60- now at 70

ch - 190

cya- around  50. trying to wait another month do to weather to hit it with awesome and refill.

The tub has mostly been closed up except for chem checks and additions. I use as 2006 kit but have the mps kit for the 2006 on backorder.

[THE DUDE]

Just to update, the scumbusters are stained brown not dirty. I washed them out and even tried dawn soap. Almost like they were originally brown and  were dyed white.

[THE DUDE]

I think they were bad foam. IDK, read another complaint on amazon abouit the same thing happening  i put in two new  white scum balls in  and they are still brite white and clean  as a whistle. i originaly had the balls but they sunk after a month a half.Ordered up the little foam turtles. My daughter had them in hers a few years ago but they never turned color. They always stained clean thats why I  seen these foam turtles turn brown i was litte worried i had a reaction going on. Ph seems to be holding stable now also around 7.5.was just in tub for a hour and had 2 ppm FC left. Good for me heh?

[waterbear]

All these products are made of an oleophilic (oil loving) absorbant foam that soaks up oils and organic compounds that float on the water surface often changing color as they do so. If there is nothing to soak up then they stay white. The color change is what tell you when they have done their job. The more surface area they have the better they work which is why they work better than scumballs.

On 2/1/2024 at 6:04 PM, THE DUDE said:

The tub has mostly been closed up except for chem checks and additions.

However, this foam will discolor when exposed to ozone or other strong oxidizers and your tub has been closed so there would not be any sanitizer demand so, instead of oxidizing organics in the water the foam is being oxidized. by the sanitizer and oxidizer you have been adding. This is probably why they are discoloring.

My own experience with these types of products is that they need to be replaced every 6 weeks to 3 months, depending on tub usage. They can only be rinsed out so many times and they never return to the original white color once they have absorbed stuff or have started to oxidize.

There are also mesh fabric scum absorbers that are machine washable that are supposed to work well but I have never tried them.