Help Identify Issue Please

[bosco0633]

Ok, my sister and her husband just moved into their new home.  It came with a 2 1/2 year old beachcomber hot tub.  

On the weekend, I came over to find no filter in the tub.  I looked high and low and could not find anything that would indicate what the previous owners were using for sanitizing.  I did find granular bromine, but no dispenser or tablets.  The filter was sitting in the garage covered in filth.

So.......................I added swirl away and let it run for 3 cycles, then I drained the tub, scrubbed the shell, filled the tub, added bromine reserve, purchased a brominator, shock, alk, ph +/-, test strips and was able to purchase the microban disposable filtre for them.

Got everything up and running on Sunday for them, water looked great.  Today, I went back over to take a look at the tub.  I opened the lid and noted an odour, not a foul strong odour but a distinct faint odour.  I also noted that there was some type of item floating on the top of the water.  

I took the net and scooped a bunch of it.  It looked, like flaked fish food for lack of a better description.  The flake was white/yellow in color and appeared to be a little slimey maybe.  The flake was tacky to touch and rolled up in your fingers like a booger, sorry trying to be descriptive.

So I ran the jets and noticed that everytime I pushed the jets on high, this substance became more pronounced once the jets stopped.  I constantly neted alot of this out but it keeps coming back.  Not a ton of it, just enough to notice that it was in the water.

Now I have seen something like this in my tub before and it was found under the filter intake piece.  I was told that it was soap and other build up from skin etc.  It kind of looks like this broken up but im not sure.

I also am wondering if it is that type of bacteria that is talked about on this site from time to time.


If it is the bacteria issue then how can I correct it.

Today, I turned up the bromine dial and added a ton of shock to the tub.  I am hoping that this will help it, but who knows!!!!

[jfish63]

Sounds like what came out of my first used tub. I think it was the slimy coating on the inside of the plumbing lines that came from it sitting with just a little water in the lines. I dumped a gallon of bleach in it and ran the jets for about an hour. I then drained it, filled it, poured in the swirl away ran it again for an hour. after that I drained flushed the lines with a garden hose, sucked all the water out with a shop vac, cleaned the shell and refilled it. i never had a problem after that. I did pretty much the same thing when I picked up my second used tub.

[SerjicalStrike]

This may be biofilm.  If you want to make sure you get rid of it, go out and get some bleach.  Use 4 or 5 gallons.  Open all the air controls (if there are any) and put any diverters in the middle.  Put all the bleach in and run all the jets for 5-10 minutes.  Then shut all the pumps off.  Do this 3 or 4 times and then drain the spa.  This should not only kill any bacteria in there, it should also burn it right up.  Just make sure you don't leave the water in the tub for much more than an hour as you are getting the ppm of chlorine into the 100-200 range.

[Pathfinder]

Its white algae,   you will need to get them some swirl away or another pipe cleaning product and follow the directions since there is obvious build up in the pipes.  take all the jets out after as well and soak them in a bucket with a bleach solution. Also take apart the filter assembly as under the telescopic end there will more than likely be some ugly goop on the inside.

[stuart]

This may be biofilm.  If you want to make sure you get rid of it, go out and get some bleach.  Use 4 or 5 gallons.  Open all the air controls (if there are any) and put any diverters in the middle.  Put all the bleach in and run all the jets for 5-10 minutes.  Then shut all the pumps off.  Do this 3 or 4 times and then drain the spa.  This should not only kill any bacteria in there, it should also burn it right up.  Just make sure you don't leave the water in the tub for much more than an hour as you are getting the ppm of chlorine into the 100-200 range.

Although Serg is correct in the fact that it could be "Biofilm", He is far from "Surgical" in the approach of using that much bleach.

I would never use bleach in the spa...Use DiChlor and nothing else.

To do a correct chemical flush here's the recipe....

1. Bring your temp as high as you can get it, 104 in most cases.
2. Add 4 to 5 oz of Chlorine but it's very important that you leave your cover open. Run the jets for at least 2 hours making sure to turn all diverters at least once to get the treatment everywhere.
3. I then add "Swirl Away" to scrub the pipes. Run the jets about another hour.
4. Add either two bottles of over the counter H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) or a product called Thio-trine to neutralize the chlorine.
5. Drain the spa, wipe down all surfaces and cover with a solution of (now you can use the bleach) bleach and water.
6. Clean the filters with filter clean
7. refill and add your normal sanitizer

If you used the swirlaway and the n it came out it was on the pipes in the inside.

 gallons of bleach in your spa would create your own Bio Hazard 8-)

BTW, It's called White water mold, white algae, Bio film and many other things but you would treat them all the same.

[hottubdan]

The objective is to get the chlorine level up to 100 ppm.

If you do not kill it it will return (in theory).

[Steve]

The objective is to get the chlorine level up to 100 ppm.

If you do not kill it it will return (in theory).

Where did the number 100ppm come from and where have you read that? I agree that large amounts of chlroine is required to kill this type of algea but 100ppm is totally over the top. Would 25ppm not kill it? 20ppm... 40ppm...? You bet it would!

I too would not recommend liquid bleach as chlorine in a granular form (dichlor) has a more sustained ability to kill. Make sure anything that has been in that water also gets treated (ie toys, floater, etc.)

Steve

[bosco0633]

can I get away with shock for bromine instead of dichlor.  I dont use dichlor and dont even know where to get it.

[tony]

Chlorine is chlorine.  The thing bleach would do is raise the pH, but its killing ability is no different than any other chlorine.

[Pathfinder]

Your in S. Ont  any of the pool & spa stores will have it in a 900g container or 30gram packages. Just ask for granular chlorine unstablized.

[tony]

Your in S. Ont  any of the pool & spa stores will have it in a 900g container or 30gram packages. Just ask for granular chlorine unstablized.

That would be lithium, not dichlor.  Dichlor is stabilized chlorine.  Lithium works fine, it is a quick dissolving granular chlorine, but has a somewhat high pH.

[Pathfinder]

WOW long day,   my bad disregard  the unstabilized portion. I dont even carry or recommend lithium.

[tony]

WOW long day.

I know the feeling.

[SerjicalStrike]

Where did the number 100ppm come from and where have you read that? I agree that large amounts of chlroine is required to kill this type of algea but 100ppm is totally over the top. Would 25ppm not kill it? 20ppm... 40ppm...? You bet it would!

I too would not recommend liquid bleach as chlorine in a granular form (dichlor) has a more sustained ability to kill. Make sure anything that has been in that water also gets treated (ie toys, floater, etc.)

Steve

100ppm is what you want to get the chlorine level to to break up the biofilm that has attached to the walls of the tub.  100ppm is not "over the top."  It is being thorough.  Would 25ppm kill it? Maybe.  40ppm, maybe.  100ppm? Yes. Yes it will.

Dichlor does have the ability to sustain its killing power longer, but that is not what we are going for.  We are looking to quickly get the chlorine level up and then dump the water.  

Here is the link that shows what can be used to kill biofilm:
http://www.edstrom.com/Resources.cfm?doc_id=149

As you can see, you need at least 50-100ppm chlorine for at least 1-2hours to properly sanitize biofilm.  Why waste money on tons of dichlor when it can be done just as easily with bleach?

[hottubdan]

Where did the number 100ppm come from and where have you read that? I agree that large amounts of chlroine is required to kill this type of algea but 100ppm is totally over the top. Would 25ppm not kill it? 20ppm... 40ppm...? You bet it would!

I too would not recommend liquid bleach as chlorine in a granular form (dichlor) has a more sustained ability to kill. Make sure anything that has been in that water also gets treated (ie toys, floater, etc.)

Steve

This was/is the NSPI standard.

http://www.rhtubs.com/decontamination.htm

As you can see they are quite specific.  They tell you exactly how much chlorine to use based on several types of chlorine.