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Filter Clogged With Milky White Substance


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hi i bought a house that had a hot tub i drained it and noticed they where running it without the filter . I drained the hot tub cleaned it with spa cleaner filled it up added perfect ph, spa shock, bromine floater, metal out and put in the filter went to bed in the mourning i checked on the hot tub only heated to 71 degrees and the pump was pulsating turned off the hot tub took out the filter and it was clogged with a milky white substance left the filter out and it heated to 101 degrees pump ran OK cleaned the filter and reinstalled and the pump went back to pulsating threes also a white film in the hot tub now. anybody have any ideas as to whats going on thanks

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Please post a full set of test results that are done with a drop based kit and NOT strips and perhaps then we can figure out what is actually going on. I noticed that you did not add a sodium bromide startup to the spa. Bromine tablets in a floater are not going to give you properly sanitized water for a few weeks without adding a sodium bromide startup to the water on filling.

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can only do ph 8.1 and cl 3.0 was following these instructions http://www.poolandspa.com/page9.htm didnt say anything about sodium bromide startup.

WOW! I hope you didn't put all that stuff into your spa! It really isn't necessary! Read this thread and this thread .

Here is some more info that might be useful. You need a better test kit! I would recommend the Taylor K-2106 if you are using bromine. It will test your total bromine, pH, total Alkalinity, and calcium hardness. It is a professional quality test kit. Remember that your spa cost literally thousands of dollars so the $60 or so that kit will cost is not really a big investment (and you will save a LOT of money by not buying unnecessry chemicals!)

The chemicals you will need are:

Sodium bromide (comes in little packets which are added on each filling to create your bromide reserve in the water)

An oxidizer to convert the sodium bromide into active bromine sanitizer. You have a few choices here. Many people use non chlorine shock (postassium monopersulfate, MPS) but I prefer sodum hypochlorite (sometimes called liquid chlorine. It's Laundry Bleach! You want the plain unscented stuff. It comes in regular and ultra strenth. 3/4 cup of the regular strength or 2/3 cup of the ultra strength is the right amount for each 250 gallons of water. You can use liquid chlorine from a pool/supply store also but it's more concentrated so you will need about half the amount of ultra bleach. They are exactly the same chemical).

You will need baking soda to raise total alkalinity if it is too low. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and that is what the dealer sells you as alkalinity increaser. Just read the label! Sometimes it migh say sodium hydrogen carbonate. Just a different name for sodium bicarbonate. It's still baking soda!)

If you pH is too high you need sodium bisulfate to lower it. This is sold at your spa supply as pH decreaser or dry acid.

If your pH is too low you can use pH increaser from the dealer but there are problems with it. It will raise your pH but it also raises your total alkalinity a lot! This is not always a good thing. pH increaser is sodium carbonate. You can also buy this at the grocery store in the laundry aisle as washing soda (sometimes called sal soda or soda ash).

A better choice to raise pH without raising total alkalinity is to use borax (found in the laundry aisle of the grocery store in the green box). Borax is also sold by some dealers under different trade names as a 'water enchancer' and algae preventative for a lot of money. The chemical name is sodium tetraborate.

The last chemical you might need is calcium chloride to increase your calcium hardness if your fill water is too soft. You can get it from your dealer if you need it. Too much calcium or too hard fill water can cause scaling and cloudy water.

Have your fill water tested for metals and if you have iron, copper, or manganese then you will need a metal sequesterant from your dealer. (Or if you have a water softener use that to fill your spa and add calcium to increase it's hardness. The softener will remove the metals).

Remember to drain your spa and refill and start over every 3-4 months! This is an important step that should not be overlooked!

Finally, I repeat what I said at the beginning. You need a GOOD test kit! IMHO, the Taylor K-2106 is the best kit available for a bromine spa for home use!

Hope this is helpful.

Without knowing what your water balance is I can't really say why you are having the problem you described but I think it might be because your fill water has high calcium levels, high alkalinity, and you used pH perfect which is a phosphate based buffer. You need to balance the water on each fill and then add your sanitizer. First test and adjust the total alkalinity to between 100-120 ppm. Then adjust the pH to 7.4-7.6. Then add calcium if it is below about 125 ppm. If your calcium is higher than about 400 ppm you might want to add a scale inhibitor or calcuim hardness reducer (or fill with softened water and add calcium to between 125-200 ppm.)

If your fill water tested positive for metals add a metal sequesterant. If you have no metals or you filled with softened water this step is not necessary.

Add your sodium bromide and shock with bleach. Wait until your bromine level drops to about 4-6 ppm. You can now use the spa.

Put your floater and bromine tabs in the spa and adjust the floater to maintain a bromine level of 4-6 ppm (it can take a few days to get this right...take your time)

Shock once a week with the bleach and wait until your bromine level is below 8 ppm before using spa. If you uncover it and run the jets it will drop fairly fast.

Get in the habit of checking pH and bromine levels every few days (don't check pH after shocking. It will read high but really isn't. This is an interference that high sanitizer levels can cause with this test.)

Check total alkalinity weekly. It is normal for this to drop some. You don't want it to go below about 80 ppm.

Check calcium every 2 weeks. It shouldn't move that much.

It's really a lot less work than it seems when you read it and you will $ave a lot of money on chemical$!

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  • 2 weeks later...

ok i drained the water cleaned the spa have the test kit refilled the spa

ph 7.1

alkalininty 320ppm

hardness 470 ppm

i have well water outside water by passes softner looks like i have to lower alk how do i do that

thanks larry

its a 300 gal spa

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ok i drained the water cleaned the spa have the test kit refilled the spa

ph 7.1

alkalininty 320ppm

hardness 470 ppm

i have well water outside water by passes softner looks like i have to lower alk how do i do that

thanks larry

its a 300 gal spa

Since your pH is already at 7.1 you are have a start on the process. Turn on all your jets and blowers to aerate the water and keep them on throughout the process and the spa uncovered. As you aerate your pH will start to rise. When it does add acid to drop it back to about 7.0 and check your TA. At first not much will happen but keep aerating and dropping the pH to 7.0 and you will start to see your TA coming down. Keep up the process until your TA gets to about 100 or slightly lower (since your fill water has such a high TA I would run the spa at the lower end of TA since any fill water you add to replace spash out will raise it). Once your TA is at the target level stop adding any more acid and just aerate and test pH until it climbs back up to 7.6 and you are done. On future fills it might be easier to fill the spa with softened water and then just add a small amount of calcium to bring your level up to about 120 ppm and not worry that much about the high TA. You will have to keep watching your Ph if you do this since it will have a tendancy to be always rising, however.

The water softener won't affect your TA, only lower your calcium to 0 ppm and remove any metals that might be present. so you still will have to lower the TA and then add a small amount of calcium back into the water.

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  • 13 years later...

Hi, hot tub came with the house I purchased so first time user. Since I’m allergic to Chlorine I was advised to use bromine and I used a floater with tablets of Bromine called SPAPure Brominating Tab.

the test strips always showed proper levels, ph, hardness, bromine, etc. but first time cleaning, I see deposits of some white stuff that had not been desolated in the filter housing. 
 

I don’t know what they are and if a chemical reacting to Bromine?

I really need advise before i start filling up this Sundance 880 series Marin Hottub. I think it’s one of the bigger ones too.

 

any advise would be greatly appreciated since beside what I had used for PH, hardness, sanitizing with Bromine, I don’t know anything else even though I have been reading but lots of materials and none to the point really.

 

I wonder what this deposit, like construction stuff, milky white and non-dissolvable apparently. I wonder what they could be and why?

 

please advise,

Can I upload pics or video clips showing those white deposits? Attachment paper lip doesn’t work!

regards,

 

masood

 

 

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Hi,

refilled the Jacuzzi but still see these white stuff after I ran the Jets so chemicals added get mixed.

I used pluming /jet solution purchased from Spa store in Sterling, VA and based on instruction added and ran the Jets before draining this Jacuzzi. I see these white stuff now again after refilling and adding chemicals.  Cleaned the inner shell using water and white Vinegar and that worked well. Any suggestions on what these white stuff are and how to get rid of them would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Masood

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On 5/6/2007 at 12:21 PM, waterbear said:

Please post a full set of test results that are done with a drop based kit and NOT strips and perhaps then we can figure out what is actually going on. I noticed that you did not add a sodium bromide startup to the spa. Bromine tablets in a floater are not going to give you properly sanitized water for a few weeks without adding a sodium bromide startup to the water on filling.

Hi,

 

what is sodium bromide? Can I buy online? New fresh water and test using test strips. My issue is these white stuff that appeared after running the jets. I did use plumbing and Jet cleaning chemicals before draining. Site won’t allow me upload all pics.  Regards, Masood 

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On 5/7/2007 at 4:13 AM, waterbear said:

WOW! I hope you didn't put all that stuff into your spa! It really isn't necessary! Read this thread and this thread .

Here is some more info that might be useful. You need a better test kit! I would recommend the Taylor K-2106 if you are using bromine. It will test your total bromine, pH, total Alkalinity, and calcium hardness. It is a professional quality test kit. Remember that your spa cost literally thousands of dollars so the $60 or so that kit will cost is not really a big investment (and you will save a LOT of money by not buying unnecessry chemicals!)

The chemicals you will need are:

Sodium bromide (comes in little packets which are added on each filling to create your bromide reserve in the water)

An oxidizer to convert the sodium bromide into active bromine sanitizer. You have a few choices here. Many people use non chlorine shock (postassium monopersulfate, MPS) but I prefer sodum hypochlorite (sometimes called liquid chlorine. It's Laundry Bleach! You want the plain unscented stuff. It comes in regular and ultra strenth. 3/4 cup of the regular strength or 2/3 cup of the ultra strength is the right amount for each 250 gallons of water. You can use liquid chlorine from a pool/supply store also but it's more concentrated so you will need about half the amount of ultra bleach. They are exactly the same chemical).

You will need baking soda to raise total alkalinity if it is too low. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and that is what the dealer sells you as alkalinity increaser. Just read the label! Sometimes it migh say sodium hydrogen carbonate. Just a different name for sodium bicarbonate. It's still baking soda!)

If you pH is too high you need sodium bisulfate to lower it. This is sold at your spa supply as pH decreaser or dry acid.

If your pH is too low you can use pH increaser from the dealer but there are problems with it. It will raise your pH but it also raises your total alkalinity a lot! This is not always a good thing. pH increaser is sodium carbonate. You can also buy this at the grocery store in the laundry aisle as washing soda (sometimes called sal soda or soda ash).

A better choice to raise pH without raising total alkalinity is to use borax (found in the laundry aisle of the grocery store in the green box). Borax is also sold by some dealers under different trade names as a 'water enchancer' and algae preventative for a lot of money. The chemical name is sodium tetraborate.

The last chemical you might need is calcium chloride to increase your calcium hardness if your fill water is too soft. You can get it from your dealer if you need it. Too much calcium or too hard fill water can cause scaling and cloudy water.

Have your fill water tested for metals and if you have iron, copper, or manganese then you will need a metal sequesterant from your dealer. (Or if you have a water softener use that to fill your spa and add calcium to increase it's hardness. The softener will remove the metals).

Remember to drain your spa and refill and start over every 3-4 months! This is an important step that should not be overlooked!

Finally, I repeat what I said at the beginning. You need a GOOD test kit! IMHO, the Taylor K-2106 is the best kit available for a bromine spa for home use!

Hope this is helpful.

Without knowing what your water balance is I can't really say why you are having the problem you described but I think it might be because your fill water has high calcium levels, high alkalinity, and you used pH perfect which is a phosphate based buffer. You need to balance the water on each fill and then add your sanitizer. First test and adjust the total alkalinity to between 100-120 ppm. Then adjust the pH to 7.4-7.6. Then add calcium if it is below about 125 ppm. If your calcium is higher than about 400 ppm you might want to add a scale inhibitor or calcuim hardness reducer (or fill with softened water and add calcium to between 125-200 ppm.)

If your fill water tested positive for metals add a metal sequesterant. If you have no metals or you filled with softened water this step is not necessary.

Add your sodium bromide and shock with bleach. Wait until your bromine level drops to about 4-6 ppm. You can now use the spa.

Put your floater and bromine tabs in the spa and adjust the floater to maintain a bromine level of 4-6 ppm (it can take a few days to get this right...take your time)

Shock once a week with the bleach and wait until your bromine level is below 8 ppm before using spa. If you uncover it and run the jets it will drop fairly fast.

Get in the habit of checking pH and bromine levels every few days (don't check pH after shocking. It will read high but really isn't. This is an interference that high sanitizer levels can cause with this test.)

Check total alkalinity weekly. It is normal for this to drop some. You don't want it to go below about 80 ppm.

Check calcium every 2 weeks. It shouldn't move that much.

It's really a lot less work than it seems when you read it and you will $ave a lot of money on chemical$!

What are these white stuff I see after I ran chemicals to clean plumbing / Jets before draining.  Drained, clean inner shell with water/white Vinegar at equal amount and refilled. Added chemicals and ran Jets. I see these stuff again! What are these stuff and why? From plumbing ? Calcium? Thx, Masood

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It's just that your issue may not be the same as the original post, and most of us around here these days don't have time to read through a dozen 14 year old posts just to realize that your issue is unrelated to the one discussed. For that reason, most of us won't even answer when someone revives a dead thread. I am just trying to tell you how to get a response.

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1 hour ago, RDspaguy said:

Set your camera to a lower resolution.

i did. and its all on same subject matter. white stuff that sits at the bottom ob the tub. tried to be descriptive as much as I could. I am sorry as I did not intend to take time from you folks but be descriptive. I don;t even know some of the terminologies in this biz. tried uploading pics so you could see instead of reading but site wont allow for that. I have uploaded one pic successfully which really doesn't say much. thanks again and please accept my apologies, all of of you good folks. thanks, masood

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