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Okay I have had my 2004 Sundance Altamar set up for about 6 days now. Everytime I go in the hottub, I get this rash on the inside of my arms only. The rash looks almost like poisen sumac and it's very itchy. It doesn't look like a bacterial infection, I have gotten on of these before in a friends hottub a long time ago. This rash just makes the entire inside of my arms all red and itchy. Weird that it only happens on the inside of my arms though. I get the same type of rash everytime I go to a caribbean beach destination too. Anyhow, I am using Bromine in the spa right now, all of my numbers are pretty good, the Alk and PH may be a little on the highside. The bromine is right around 5ppm.I'm wondering if it's the bromine that is causing this skin reaction. All my other friends that have been in my tub so far have no skin reaction at all, they are fine. So I didn't go in the tub for the past 2 days, the rash basically almost went all away, then I go in the tub again this morning, and a couple hours later, the rash is back and even itchier this time around.So I need to figure out what to try next, should I empty the spa, and try some other chemicals, maybe switch to chlorine instead? or should I try one of those mineral filter things. I don't know what mineral cartridge would work in my spa, I have the 2 piece filter in mine. I also have a CD ozonator that runs a lot during the day.The people I bought the spa from were using the Baquaspa products. I have some of those chemicals left over that they gave me, but my local dealer sold me bromine to use instead. I have about 5 bromine tablets sitting in the bromine filter door right now in the spa.The other thing I noticed is that the last couple of days, the spa water has been forming a slight foam on the top when the jets are on. It wasn't foaming at all the first few days I had the spa, now there is more foam.. could this extra foam be caused by the bromine, etc.? I have been the only one in the spa the last couple of days and I shower first before going in, and usually go in naked so I don't think I am bringing in any bad stuff.Please help.. I am getting very frustrated that I have this nice spa and I am getting second thoughts about using it now since I keep getting this itchy rash on my arms.Thanks all.
well what's better the Frog or the Nature2, these both seem to be the best mineral ones out there.. well the most popular at least.btw.. what can I used in a Sundance Altamar spa with the 2-piece filter?and how do I bring my bromine levels down? should I remove all 5 bromine tablets from the filter feeder door?
I don't want to speak too soon, but I haven't gotten any rashes yet at all once I ran bleach in the brominated water, drained the tub, wiped down the tub with a diluted bleach solution and then refilled the tub up with fresh water and began using Dichlor... NO MORE BROMINE!!! I think the Bromine might of been giving me that rash, not sure though because it could of been something else that was in the water, but since I bleached the water first, then drained it, anything that could of been living in the water is definately dead now. Weird thing is, everytime I go away on vacation to a tropical place (which is usually the only places I vacation), I get this same rash on the insides of my arms, on my wrists and sometimes on my inside upper thighs. I could never figure out what the heck this was from. Then I started thinking, you know everytime I go on vacation I am going in a hottub at the resort or cruise ship I am on. So therefor, maybe it's BROMINE that is in the hottubs causing my rash. Because the rash was EXACTLY the same rash I got from using my hottub at home when I was running Bromine in it. Now I switched to Dichlor, been in the tub 3 different times so far and still no rash (knock on wood!). Plus I like the feeling of my skin better after getting out of the tub with Dichlor. No more smell, no more different feeling of the skin, etc. When I get out of my Dichlor tub now, my skin feels as though I just got out of my regular shower and I have no smell. I actually don't mind NOT showering now after using the hottub and just going to bed as is. When I was using Bromine, I HAD to shower after getting out of the hottub, I didn't like the smell left on my skin. So far, THUMBS UP for Dichlor in my opinion. Now I still have yet to shock the tub with MPS, that comes this weekend for my weekly shocking. But so far I have just been putting in about 2 teaspoons of Dichlor after each soak.