Optima Cloudy/Smelly water

[robspa]

I bought the Sundance Optima about 4 weeks ago form a dealer about one hour away - $1,000 less than the dealer I could literally walk to in my neighborhood who would not budge on his price.  I don't feel comfortable getting advice from this local guy so I have come here for help.  Those of you that have an Optima, or for that matter anyone as this question may be universal, I am having trouble with cloudy and what my wife says is skunky smelling water.  Here is what I have added so far to the water:  Metal Remover - one dosage, the Crystal Shock one dosage and I installed the sanitizer little container ( looks like a yellow small cage type thing that sits behind the filter).  I use the Non Chlorine Shock before I use it every time.  Am I supposed to be doing something else on a weekly basis now other than shocking it before I get in?  I notice we get a ton of foam that accumulates sometimes also.  Any help would be appreciated!

[BigK75]

You've come to the right place my man.  I also have an optima and had the same problem just last week.  (not that it has anything to do with the optima .  I shocked my water first.  Then I shocked it again.  That still didn't help.  Finally I went to my dealer and he recommended a product by spaguard called polysheen.  Its a water clarifier.  I am sure all companies make it.   I poured three lid fulls of this stuff and left all jets running.  A nasty foam with this white scum started appearing.  I used a common fish scoop/net (for ponds) or leaf net for spas and just kept taking the foam out with the scum.  After I finished doing this the spa was sparkling clean.  

I can tell you that I am sure it was my mother in law who was in the hot tub all weekend, and tends to use a lot body lotions and such, causing my foam.  The best thing to do for women (and men) is to shower first, but I don't feel comfortable telling her that, so I just deal with after words.  

Claude  

[Brookenstein]

I don't have an Optima and am not experienced with that tub.  The sanitizer cage thing you are referring to, is that for automatically dispensing bromine or is that like Nature 2.  I know you are using the the nonchlorine shock every time before you get in, but are you ever using dichlor?  If the cage thing you are refering to is Nature 2, and you are just using shock then you should add dichlor.  You need a sanitizer in the mix.  Most people here use the dichlor after soaking method, and shock weekly (or when needed) with the nonchlorine shock.

[Chad]

I bought the Sundance Optima about 4 weeks ago form a dealer about one hour away - $1,000 less than the dealer I could literally walk to in my neighborhood who would not budge on his price.  I don't feel comfortable getting advice from this local guy so I have come here for help.  Those of you that have an Optima, or for that matter anyone as this question may be universal, I am having trouble with cloudy and what my wife says is skunky smelling water.  Here is what I have added so far to the water:  Metal Remover - one dosage, the Crystal Shock one dosage and I installed the sanitizer little container ( looks like a yellow small cage type thing that sits behind the filter).  I use the Non Chlorine Shock before I use it every time.  Am I supposed to be doing something else on a weekly basis now other than shocking it before I get in?  I notice we get a ton of foam that accumulates sometimes also.  Any help would be appreciated!

I would venture to say that your lack of a primary sanitizer is causing both of your problems. Try the method that Brooke suggested and all your problems should cease. You simple add enough dichlor post soak to your tub to reach a 3-5 ppm FC after running all the pumps for atleast 5 minutes. It takes a little time to figure out your tub's specific dichlor demand but once you get it, life becomes alot easier. In my 336 gallon tub, I have to add 1/2 TBS(1.5 tsp) to reach a 3+ ppm. Oh yeah, I almost forget, It sounds like your tub is in need of a superchlorination(usually at least a 10 ppm dose of dichlor). Do you know your tubs CC? If so, we can give you an exact amount to add to rid all your chloramines(CC). It's the stuff that's probably causing the odor you are smelling and that cloudy water is probably from a zero ppm FC. It's amazing what a little chlorine will do!

Btw- Here is a formula for dosing with dichlor. However, keep in mind that it doesn't account for bather loads and longevity of soaks. So you might have to add a little more than calculated depending on your specifics but typically it's right on.

# of gallons in tub x desired ppm x .000128 / % of active chlorine in the dichlor(it should say on the bottle) = amount of dichlor to add in ounces.

Ex.-  336 x 3 x .000128 / .55  = .235 ozs or roughly 1/2 a TBS.
3 tsp in a TBS, 2 TBS in a ounce.

[hottubdan]

I would suggest superchlorinating.  You should have some chlorine.  

Don't forget, per Sundance owner's manual you need to replace the filter every 6 months +/-.

[robspa]

Thanks to all that responded.  I just saw these at 12:30 pm today - I have guests coming at 7:00 tonight.  If I go out and get the dichlor/chlorine can I safely use it and have guests in the water in a few hours after that?  Thanks.

[tony]

The yellow thing in a cage is a standard Nature2 cartridge.  The cloudy water and funky smell is as mentioned above, the lack of a primary sanitizer.  Add a shock dose of dichlor (chlorine)(10 ppm) give it a little time to clear.  Then search the forum and get comfortable with a sanitizing routine that includes a sanitizer.  If you decide to continue to use the Nature2 cartridge, you need to use chlorine.  A popular method is to add enough chlorine after use to get your free chlorine levels to 2-3 ppm and shock once per week with either chlorine or non chloirne shock.

Filtering time is what will clear the cloudy water.  It might get better in 7 hours.  In this case I would add a little clarifier to help.  The Optima filters a lot of water with the high flow circ pump.

Good luck.

[Jacuzzi Jim]

Just goes to show, no matter how good a filtration system is you still have to maintain your water.

[Micah]

Thanks to all that responded.  I just saw these at 12:30 pm today - I have guests coming at 7:00 tonight.  If I go out and get the dichlor/chlorine can I safely use it and have guests in the water in a few hours after that?  Thanks.

Thats a good question for your dealer.  Why not ask them? You should also take a water sample to your dealer.  Did you piss off so many people while trying to "save a buck" that you are not even welcome in either store.  This is just the first of many times that you will wish that you had purchased from a good local dealer instead of being cheap and trying to save a buck.

[Vinny]

So many people know nothing about their pool or spa water chemistry and have problems. Sometimes even people with experience have problems.
My advice: LEARN about water care and understand it's importance. Coming to a site like this is a good start but as an owner you need to understand how all the parameters come into play. It's also important to know that all water needs sanitizer and how much is needed.

IMO, buy a Taylor K-2005 test kit - throw out test strips if that's what you're using. Read the booklet that comes with it. I personally don't use my dealer (either pool or spa) for water testing, I do it myself.

Sorry, I don't mean to sound nasty but as a novice the worst thing you can do is follow bad advice and not know that it is bad advice. You don't trust the local dealer but the selling dealer gave you bad advice.

If the chlorine level is too high when company comes over, use peroxide (small amounts at a time) to eat up the chlorine.

[tony]

So many people know nothing about their pool or spa water chemistry and have problems. Sometimes even people with experience have problems.
My advice: LEARN about water care and understand it's importance. Coming to a site like this is a good start but as an owner you need to understand how all the parameters come into play. It's also important to know that all water needs sanitizer and how much is needed.

IMO, buy a Taylor K-2005 test kit - throw out test strips if that's what you're using. Read the booklet that comes with it. I personally don't use my dealer (either pool or spa) for water testing, I do it myself.

Sorry, I don't mean to sound nasty but as a novice the worst thing you can do is follow bad advice and not know that it is bad advice. You don't trust the local dealer but the selling dealer gave you bad advice.

If the chlorine level is too high when company comes over, use peroxide (small amounts at a time) to eat up the chlorine.

I completely agree.  You can't beat being your own chemist.

[robspa]

Micah - you work for Litehouse?  I bought my Optima from another Litehouse dealer an hour away because he gave it to me $1,000 less.  Would you not want to save that money?  Give me a break.  I did end up taking a water sample into the local Litehouse dealer that I did not buy from and had an employee test the water and as the experts here suggested the chlorine was non existent.  I shock the tub after each use, used the metal remover and the sanitizer cartridge in the past but wasn't putting the crystal shock chlorine sanitizer in once every 6 days.  Water is much better now that I added chlorine and I than everyone here except Micah who needs to get a new look on life.

[Bonibelle]

Rob, I'm with you $1000.00 is a big savings! If the local dealer was smart, they would appreciate any business that you gave them. They couldn't beat the price or even match it, then you did the right thing and they have no reason to be "pissed off"!!-
Once you get the water thing down, no worries, you can buy your supplies and get your water tested where ever you want to.
I doubt that your dealer mislead you, sometimes it is just that you don't fully understand how the chemistry works. Like the Goombas said (Vinny and Tony), before you  know it you will be a spa chemist!

[Mez]

Thats a good question for your dealer.  Why not ask them? You should also take a water sample to your dealer.  Did you piss off so many people while trying to "save a buck" that you are not even welcome in either store.  This is just the first of many times that you will wish that you had purchased from a good local dealer instead of being cheap and trying to save a buck.

I disagree with you Micah, why should he give the local arrogant dealer an extra grand for the same product? Surely, the arrogant dealer could match the price, I know there are differences in rent, comissions, etc, but the guy isnt working on that tight of a margin. I would rather give my business to a decent dealer that gives me a decent price AND appreciates my business. I am a buyer for my company, we do about $3 million a week in sales and I purchase about $2.5 million of that. I deal with over 80 vendors. With some, I am a big customer, with others, I am a small guy, but I expect to be treated the same regardless...same with our customer base,  if its a guy doing $1500 per week or $100, 000, I treat them all with respect and courtesy. Now if dealer A was arrogant and gave me a $1000 price break, I would probably go with him just to get the lower price, because I am a tight a$$ but I would only go back if I absolutely had too.
Sounds like the guy needed a lesson in proper business etiquitte...hopefully he read this guys post

[tubsoakin]

Hi all,

In reading this post I thought it could have been me that was asking the question about the cloudy smelly water in an optima,  but the difference is that I had done the research and was using the vermonter method for sanitation in my tub when all of the sudden my tub went crazy and I had been doing just as I had read on the boards, however in all of these posts that I had read I don't ever remember anyone saying anything about using dichlor for a while and then having a problem with their CYA going through the roof and what to do about it, or how to keep it from getting so high in the first place.  If you have and thoughts on this I would be very interested in hearing them, because I had to completely drain and fill after about 6 weeks of using this method.

Thanks

Chris