Cloudy water and cleaning filter question

[Nhbeacon]

  Gotta love us newbies....so my tub is very cloudy and foamy. There are five of us using it 1-2 days a day. ( Saturday night was great, 2.5 hours, starry night....) I am using Everfresh water care with Siberian, which is 1.5 tablesp prior to use and 1.5 tsp of dichlor once a week. I did goof on Thursday of last week and put in diclor instead of mps, but water was good and I prob. should have put more in on Saturday after use. B/c it is mostly mps that I am putting in daily, I am not reading any free chlorine on the strips which is normal according to dealer. I would rather see something..and will bring in a sample tomorrow to dealer to have them check it out.

So I have done a search on the cloudy water and have determined that I need to "shock" with dichlor. which I put in 2.25 tsp of dichlor tonight and ran filter for 1 hour. I rinsed off filters in sink, but when you all say to rinse out filter, does that mean to use the hose outside, and use the hose to clean out the filter from the inside out?
Unfortunately, one of my sons went into tub before I had a chance to look at water and add mps. I jumped in and then realized how cloudy it was and quickly got out and showered...and started the whole shock process. I also put a few drops of the defoaming stuff that came with start up, but the residue looks even nastier, which makes me want to rinse the filters tomorrow.

So I just need advice on how to rinse the filters properly....
And to get opinions on sanitizing better.
Thank you!!!
Jan

[CalicoskiesNC]

My tub holds 500gal and I shock with 3TBL, not tsp, of dichlor every Sunday night after use. I also have 5 ppl in our tub each day and I use 1TBL (1 TBL = 3tsp) dichlor each night after use.  I dont think you are using enuf dichlor to reach 3-5ppm.  Try adding closer to my levels if your tub is 500 gal. What you can do is add some and test 10min later until you figure out how much you need to add to reach 3-5ppm and it holds there for a while.   For your cloudy water right now, I would add 4TBL dichlor but this will put your tub out of commission for at least 24hrs.  

For the filters, we rinse them every Friday, outside with a hose: better water pressure, less mess.  I dont rinse them after a shock, just on Fridays.  Once a month we use a spray on instant cleaner for filter, havent reached the 3mo point yet but when we do will soak the filters in an overnight solution.  

We've had our Optima for 7wks now and I've learned that the simpler you do your water, the better it stays crystal clear and nonfoamy.  I made the mistake in the first 5wks of using too much defoamer, too much Velvet Touch, too much liquid scent and following Leisure Time's 3 Days a Week program...all just too much chems.

In our tub, the defoamer stuff only made things worse the next day.  Leisure Time's Bright N Clear did the opposite for us, made it cloudy and foamy.  I also dont use any MPS/Renew.  I use only dichlor both for daily use and a shock, 2oz Spa Defender weekly, 2oz Scum Gon every 2wks.  Thats it.  I have to fix the pH and ALK maybe once a week with pH UP.  At each fill up I add 8oz Metal Gon.  Our water is very clear, no odor, feels soft (I think the N2 does that) and we have no foam.  I've made sure to rinse the swimsuits after laundering and also, we all use the tub mostly after showering in the evening, so that cuts down on alot of bio junk in there.  

[brian_tr]

Don't make the same mistake I did last week.  I was cleaning the filters and decided to try filter cleaner on the mirco filter.  The cleaner soaked into the filter and now when I use the tub it foams up bad.

[SerjicalStrike]

What levels are you getting the chlorine up to?  Are you getting it to the  3-5ppm range?  If you don't get it up to that point, you are just wasting your time putting chlorine in.

George

[Nhbeacon]

B/c it is mostly mps that I am putting in daily, I am not reading any free chlorine on the strips which is normal according to dealer. I would rather see something..


I am using the Everfresh system where I am suppose to use MPS daily with sodium dichlor 1x week.  I won't get any free chlorine on strip b/c of this.
Jan

[wmccall]

In our tub, the defoamer stuff only made things worse the next day.

A tip on the foam out stuff. Don't pour it into the water.  Put it into a spray bottle and spray it directly on the foam. It lasts much longer and does a better job this way, IMO

[cparlf]

I had a similar problem, my dealer suggested increasing the cleaning cycle time to an hour to an hour and a half 4 times a day.  This worked for me, I might reduce the times once the last teenager returns to college and there are no longer 6 people in the tub for hours on end every night.  Glad we got it in time for the two daughters to enjoy it, but also glad we did not take delivery until last week, so the time with their grungy lotion wearing, mousse haired friends was limited.  

[windsurfdog]

A tip on the foam out stuff. Don't pour it into the water.  Put it into a spray bottle and spray it directly on the foam. It lasts much longer and does a better job this way, IMO

Good advice though I cut it 50/50 with water--works great and puts less chem in the water....

[CalicoskiesNC]

One more note on the defoamer: I took everyone's advice when I first got the tub and put it in a sprayer. Then over the next few weeks I added too much junk (liquid scent, velvet touch, bright n clear, scumgon) and we got foaming w/pumps running.  So then my kids thought it was great fun to spray and kill the bubbles everytime they were in the tub, so we ended up with an entire bottle of defoamer in our tub over the course of 8-9 days!

Good advice on mixing it 50/50.  

Nhbeacon, I dont know why, but not all dealers are experts on watercare so maybe do some research of your own, empty tub and refill and see if you cant find a care regimen that works better for you.  My dealers only knew stuff about bromine, couldnt really answer any questions about chlorine.  I said no thanks to the bromine and their advice and then followed the information on water care that I'd read from here and rhtubs.com.  I love the dichlor system, its simple and cheap and easy.  I still say you need to give that tub a shock w/4 TBL dichlor and leave it alone for 24hrs and see how that clears your water.  
Have you read the FAQ on water care at www.rhtubs.com?  Good info there.  

[huh?]

The way I understand things is as follows.  There are a couple of reasons spa water gets cloudy.

Alkalinity/Ph is off

TDS are high

Particles in water are too small for filter to "catch"

Make sure the water is balanced. If it is try bright n clear (or other flocculant)  This works to "coagulate" (think glue) the smaller particles together so they clump and wont pass through the filters pores.  When using flocculants it helps to get them to foam up realy good (turn jets on high and air on high).  Once you have a good foam acumulating (sp?) direct it toward the filter compartment, using a skimmer net/ filter lid.  After an hout or so spray a little foam disperser (baqua makes a great foam disperser and can be used with Chlor/Bro).  If this does not do the job you might consider a drain and fill to get rid of the TDS.  Let us know if this works.

[Nhbeacon]

Well I have been to the rh spa site and did increase the dichlor today. I brought water in to dealer to be tested and it looks better. Like I said to the saleman today, it is all so vague when the manual says "During  the first month of ownership, these two users can determine exactly how much sanitizer to use in order to maintain the proper Free Chlorine Residua. If at any time, the user load and/or usage pattern changes dramatically ( invited guests), the amt. and frequency of sanitizer required increase dramatically". MMM, I would so say, but being new, it becomes a guessing game.

I think that I will alternate the use of the mps oxidizer and dichlor. since we are in the tub at least twice a day. At least my sweaty, grungy jr. high football player showers before going in after practice! The water is safe now to use and I may need to get the clarifier tomorrow to coagulate all the dead bacteria and gunk.
Thanks all for the help and advice.
Jan

[stiffy]

AS a newbie, we where instructed to add a 1 1/2tbl for start up, 1/2 tsp of dichlor after every use. a tblspoon and a 1/2 once a week. at 3 weeks we started getting the slight foaming not a lot, mild, to what I've seen.
the only thing we have done since start up was 1/2 oz
of spaup at fill up and after water add in week 2 for same amount (city water is low on ph & alk).
we test every other day and have never had a reading for FCI other than start ups day after, The tub is a CD ozone and silver cartridge in the filter.
other then that the water since start up has been cristal clear.
OH, we chart our readings with date & time and write in the amounts we add or anything we do for care of tub.
just in case somebody in the family is doing double duty.

P.S I understand with a silver cartridge FCI should be .5ppm?