Ahh-Some Purge interesting color...

[Cfyfe3199]

Good Morning!

So 2 weeks ago we got our Bahama Palm Island II delivered. We had my son's first birthday party within the next few days so I rushed to get it up and running. Skipped the ahh-some purge till after the party. Did not get the water chemistry totally straight due to the lack of time. So we had the party, hot tub was a blast, blah blah. Next day, water had a green tint to it. Not surprising considering the amount of people/booze were in that thing. I just kept adding 10% bleach till it cleared up, because I knew i would be doing a purge once i got the chance. Last night i finally got some time and did it. What was weird to me was the color of the stuff gathered on the sides. Almost just looks like ahh-some gel diluted and stuck to the shell. Other than the green/blue color, i really didn't get much Crud out of the tub, which surprised me because it was in storage for a few months with water sitting in the plumbing.

Anyone else ever see this color?

 

[Cfyfe3199]

Oh also...if anyone has any info on this "SimpleClear" thing, I would appreciate it. The pool store is supposed to come give me an orientation on the whole thing but they're backed up. I assume its either ozone or UV but i cant find much info on it and there's no sign of it actually operating/doing anything.

 

[Richard320]

It would not surprise me if that blue stuff was the mold release agent. They have to put something on it or they'd never be able to unstick the thing!

Simpleclear is a UV system. Inside there is a bright "black light" that kills bacteria and such. Useful if the tub is under cover or indoors, but pretty much useless if there's natural sunlight. Try the search box to learn more.

 

[Catanzaro]

Please post a full set of test results!

 

[Donldson]

SimpleClear appears to be a simple UV system. However that color looks a lot like copper. Did they mention anything about an ionizer in your system? Or have you used any algaecides or something along those lines?

 

[Cfyfe3199]

SimpleClear appears to be a simple UV system. However that color looks a lot like copper. Did they mention anything about an ionizer in your system? Or have you used any algaecides or something along those lines?

Nope, no mention of ionizer. The only thing I put in that water was bleach, barely any CYA granules and a splash of De-foamer just to see what it would do (since i knew I was about to drain it). Could that be it?

Anyway...since the purge I've re-filled and balanced the water. However, I'm burning through FC at an alarming rate. I still need to finish dissolving and testing CYA but right now every time I check the tub I'm at 0 FC. Here's some of my latest test results.

FC:0
CC:0
CH: 150
TA: 50
CYA: will not register...tube overflowing with black dot in plain sight.
Water temp kept at 102F but I'm reading here and there that that's too high.
Tub is covered unless I'm working on it.

Yesterday I shocked with 10% bleach up to 25ppm, and within an hour I was down to 16ppm.
There's also a yellow/brown ring around the water line that wipes away very easily, but keeps re-appearing every few hours.

So, while I'm working on getting the CYA up, I'm wondering if there any hurt in keeping the FC up high until I can figure out my SLAM target?

 

[Oly]

Did you elevate the FC during the cleaning and purge?

 

[Cfyfe3199]

Did you elevate the FC during the cleaning and purge?

Yes. I'd guess it was around 12ppm going by pool math

 

[dw886]

...Anyway...since the purge I've re-filled and balanced the water. However, I'm burning through FC at an alarming rate...

We have a new hot tub that has a UV system. The factory default on our Jacuzzi is to run the UV system 8 hours a day when the recirc pump runs from midnight to 8am. UV also is on whenever the heater kicks in, or whenever either of the large pumps are on. So basically, the UV system runs at least 8 hours per day.

I can add chlorine in the morning, test, and then test again in the evening, and my FC will hold (without the tub being used at all). Then if I test again the next morning, it's basically gone. I can only assume that it's the UV attacking the FC.

I'm dosing initially with Dichlor (to get some CYA in the water) with the expectations that if it actually IS the UV system eating FC, having some level of CYA in the water will help the FC to survive. CC always tests at 0.5 or lower... Once I get my CYA high enough, I'll move to bleach. We have a SmarterSpa salt system supposedly coming, but it's been a few weeks and the hot tub company hasn't come back yet...

If SimpleClear is a UV system, I'm guessing that you're using FC to the UV light, similar to what sunlight does to a pool...

 

[Cfyfe3199]

We have a new hot tub that has a UV system. The factory default on our Jacuzzi is to run the UV system 8 hours a day when the recirc pump runs from midnight to 8am. UV also is on whenever the heater kicks in, or whenever either of the large pumps are on. So basically, the UV system runs at least 8 hours per day.

I can add chlorine in the morning, test, and then test again in the evening, and my FC will hold (without the tub being used at all). Then if I test again the next morning, it's basically gone. I can only assume that it's the UV attacking the FC.

I'm dosing initially with Dichlor (to get some CYA in the water) with the expectations that if it actually IS the UV system eating FC, having some level of CYA in the water will help the FC to survive. CC always tests at 0.5 or lower... Once I get my CYA high enough, I'll move to bleach. We have a SmarterSpa salt system supposedly coming, but it's been a few weeks and the hot tub company hasn't come back yet...

If SimpleClear is a UV system, I'm guessing that you're using FC to the UV light, similar to what sunlight does to a pool...

I definitely agree that without CYA, that UV system is no help to me. Things seem to be improving as CYA dissolves though..

Sunday evening
8:00PM:
FC: 25
CC: 1.0

Monday
9:30AM:
FC: 15
CC: not tested, wife did test, I'm still teaching her lol
Bumped back to 25

8:30PM:
FC: 21
CC: 0
Bumped back to 25

Tuesday
11:00AM:
FC: 20
CC: measured
Bumped back to 25

Rough CYA reading (tested indoors last night, not ideal) was 50, I may have overshot but we'll see when I can test with the sun out. I'm curious if its worth having a higher-than-usual CYA level with the UV system installed. Going by the normal hot tub CYA recommendation of 20-30 seems a little low if the tub is just going to attack it's own FC supply.
Is there actually any added protection from UV with a higher CYA?

 

[Cfyfe3199]

Latest update for anyone following, I’m not getting consistent testing like I wish I could, but the gist of it is I lost 14ppm of FC over 24 hours. Started at 30 and ended at 16.

I’m putting down the bleach for a while, I want to see what happens at lower FC levels. I’ve been far over shock level for my CYA for 4 days now.

Next step is to just shut the tub off entirely and see what happens over night, as I’m really suspicious of this SimpleClear system to be the culprit for eating my FC.

By the way, water is crystal clear and no more scum line like there was days ago.

 

[Cfyfe3199]

Lost another 7.5 FC on the next 24 hours. Would anybody recommend the next thing to eliminate? I've tested for ammonia, test came back good, tested for phosphates, clear. I want to either lower the standby temp or shut down the UV, but not at the same time because I'm determined to pinpoint the exact cause of the higher FC consumption.

 

[dw886]

Lost another 7.5 FC on the next 24 hours. Would anybody recommend the next thing to eliminate? I've tested for ammonia, test came back good, tested for phosphates, clear. I want to either lower the standby temp or shut down the UV, but not at the same time because I'm determined to pinpoint the exact cause of the higher FC consumption.

Not sure exactly how your spa works, but UV has a bulb. Can you pull the bulb out, and run the tub without the bulb in it? Then you'd have zero UV...

I know that if my UV runs, my FC drops. The more the UV runs, the more FC drops, so I'm fairly certain that in my case, the UV system is battling my FC levels.

My SmarterSpa is now in at the dealer, but won't be installed until next week. Once I convert to SWG, it'll be slightly less of a concern for me, however I don't want the two systems in a war, because if the UV is depleting my FC, it just puts more load on the SWG lessening the life of it...

 

[Cfyfe3199]

Not sure exactly how your spa works, but UV has a bulb. Can you pull the bulb out, and run the tub without the bulb in it? Then you'd have zero UV...

I know that if my UV runs, my FC drops. The more the UV runs, the more FC drops, so I'm fairly certain that in my case, the UV system is battling my FC levels.

My SmarterSpa is now in at the dealer, but won't be installed until next week. Once I convert to SWG, it'll be slightly less of a concern for me, however I don't want the two systems in a war, because if the UV is depleting my FC, it just puts more load on the SWG lessening the life of it...

The best I can do with the SimpleClear is to de-wire it in the control panel of the spa, as it is hard wired.
I just cannot find info on that thing at all. I want to yank it out entirely and see exactly how it works. Right now all I see is a power cable and a single tube going somewhere into the insulation.

Where do you pick up the power for the SmarterSpa?

 

[dw886]

The best I can do with the SimpleClear is to de-wire it in the control panel of the spa, as it is hard wired.
I just cannot find info on that thing at all. I want to yank it out entirely and see exactly how it works. Right now all I see is a power cable and a single tube going somewhere into the insulation.

Where do you pick up the power for the SmarterSpa?

If it's UV, it has to have a bulb that's changeable. The life of the bulbs are like 1 year.

For the SmarterSpa, the Jacuzzi folks are telling me that they can pull 120v off of the panel in the tub that has 240v going to it. I can update you next week after I see how they do it. Without being able to do that, you'd need an outlet...

 

[Catanzaro]

Any more progress on chlorine consumption during the 24 hour period?

 

[Cfyfe3199]

Any more progress on chlorine consumption during the 24 hour period?

Hey bud

Chlorine consumption has all but stopped. Tested Friday night at 8.5, 24 hours later was 8.0. Either something was actually in there eating up chlorine, or chlorine wasn't stable at that level with the high temperature? I don't know for sure but everything seems fine now.
Unfortunately I may have overshot my stabilizer, got a reading at 50, but I think I'll leave it as is for now.

 

[Catanzaro]

Your CYA level will gradually decrease over time. No need to lower it, just keep your levels slightly higher.