Trying to get rid of Pseudomonas in a new hot tub - we need HELP!

kkshadley04

New member
Apr 12, 2024
4
Peoria, Illinois
Pool Size
280
I am reaching out to get some help with our hot tub that is infected with Pseudomonas (per testing with AuquaVial swim water test kit) after my husband and I have been breaking out in a rash. My reaction to this bacteria is much less than his - he has had to seek medical attention and has needed antibiotics to get rid of the rash that was covering his body. This is a new hot tub that was installed in December of 2023, so as of this week, we've had it 4 months. During the 1st 6 weeks or so, we had been working with our Caldera Spa dealer as the salt system wasn't maintaining the appropriate chlorine sanitizer in the tub. We worked with him for several weeks, and we think we have that issue resolved as the tub is now maintaining the appropriate chlorine levels. We think that is how our tub got infected with the Pseudomonas. But since this outbreak, the dealer has come over to drain and refill it and within the last 10 days we did a super-chlorination round with the tub as our Caldera dealer suggested. We chlorinated the water up to 100 ppm, ran the tub for an hour, sanitized the filter, brought the chlorine levels back down with 3% peroxide and drained and refilled the tub. Our rashes are worse than ever and the dealer has no experience in helping anyone through this problem, so I'm hoping I can get help here.

I have been reading threads on this forum and it seems that I likely need to do at least one round of Ahh-Some (I have watched some on-line videos on doing this) and then drain, rinse and refill the hot tub, but I was wanting some confirmation of this before I drain and refill for the 3rd time in 4 months. The previous post I was reading with this information was from Ahhsomeguy. He also suggested maintaining with Aqua Clarity Concentrate during weekly maintenance.

I am open to suggestions that anyone has. We want to keep our tub, but it is unusable for us right now. We are beyond frustrated as it is a brand new tub. Please let me know what other info is needed from me about my tub to make suggestions.

Thank you.
 
I am reaching out to get some help with our hot tub that is infected with Pseudomonas (per testing with AuquaVial swim water test kit) after my husband and I have been breaking out in a rash. My reaction to this bacteria is much less than his - he has had to seek medical attention and has needed antibiotics to get rid of the rash that was covering his body. This is a new hot tub that was installed in December of 2023, so as of this week, we've had it 4 months. During the 1st 6 weeks or so, we had been working with our Caldera Spa dealer as the salt system wasn't maintaining the appropriate chlorine sanitizer in the tub. We worked with him for several weeks, and we think we have that issue resolved as the tub is now maintaining the appropriate chlorine levels. We think that is how our tub got infected with the Pseudomonas. But since this outbreak, the dealer has come over to drain and refill it and within the last 10 days we did a super-chlorination round with the tub as our Caldera dealer suggested. We chlorinated the water up to 100 ppm, ran the tub for an hour, sanitized the filter, brought the chlorine levels back down with 3% peroxide and drained and refilled the tub. Our rashes are worse than ever and the dealer has no experience in helping anyone through this problem, so I'm hoping I can get help here.

I have been reading threads on this forum and it seems that I likely need to do at least one round of Ahh-Some (I have watched some on-line videos on doing this) and then drain, rinse and refill the hot tub, but I was wanting some confirmation of this before I drain and refill for the 3rd time in 4 months. The previous post I was reading with this information was from Ahhsomeguy. He also suggested maintaining with Aqua Clarity Concentrate during weekly maintenance.

I am open to suggestions that anyone has. We want to keep our tub, but it is unusable for us right now. We are beyond frustrated as it is a brand new tub. Please let me know what other info is needed from me about my tub to make suggestions.

Thank you.
Youll want to get a water test kit here:

Pool shop water testing has shown to be terrible and theres a good chance that bad testing is leading to whatever it is thats causing rashes.
 
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They are inadequate. As proven by you.

Get the tf100 or tfpro from TFtestkits.net. Also acceptable are the Taylor k2006 and k2006C but both TF kits are better values in the 2 price points.
 
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Youll want to get a water test kit here:

Pool shop water testing has shown to be terrible and theres a good chance that bad testing is leading to whatever it is thats causing rashes.
I only used this test to try to figure out what was causing our rashes. The hot tub dealer was sure it wasn't pseudomonis, and I was sure it was. And it was. I use test strips for regular testing of my hot tub.
 
Hi! I am using Hot Spring Freshwater Test Strips for my regular testing. I have been testing every day since we just refilled the tub to be sure the salt system is working properly. These were the test strips given to me with the startup kit for the tub.
Really sorry to hear that, the strips are not reliable as you’ve discovered.
 
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Do you have contact info??

There's a couple of ways to 'contact us' there.

They have ahhsome products and it lives up to the name for spas, proven here over and over. But it only solves some of your issue, as I suspect he'll tell you.
 

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