Chlorine usage slightly hazy water after refill

[jowenece]

Hi everyone. Curious about what normal chlorine usage is after a refill. I used ahhsome and purged and refilled the tub on Saturday. Got some bright green slime but not much else. I started to balance the water that night but ran out of time. Right before bed I put in enough dichlor to raise chlorine to 10ppm. In the morning I tested and the FC was 0, so I put in enough to bring it back to 3ppm. After I thought I was done balancing the water in the afternoon, the FC was 0 again so I put in dichlor to bring it back to 10ppm thinking that if something was using the chlorine that fast I should bring it back to shock level. Then later that night, FC was again 0 - this time I added enough bleach to bring it to 10ppm. An hour later it was at 6ppm. This morning it was at 3.5ppm and I added enough dichlor to bring it back to 5ppm - but at least seems like it's holding some FC now. Just wanting to hear from some other people if this is normal, or do I need to purge again? Only a little came out on the first purge, nothing to really write home about.

Also this morning the water was a little dull. Not cloudy, just not as bright as it was after the refill. Having a hard time raising the PH a little so wondering if I overshot it slightly. In the past when the water looked "cloudy" it needed sanitizer, but wondering if lowering the pH would change the look of the water. Latest numbers are:

FC: 3.5
PH: 7.4
TA: 60
CH: 170
CYA: ~20
TEMP: 100F

Thanks everyone.

 

[mas985]

Municipal water is usually has fairly high monochloramine which will use up FC until it is gone. Given the water temp is so high, that probably didn't help either. When refilling, do not heat the water and keep FC level up for at least a day or two before heating the water up.

 

[jowenece]

Thanks, mas. Makes sense and FC finally did stabilize. I'll keep this in mind for the next refill.

 

[Arobbert]

Did you clean or replace the filter. They can harbor nasties. I throw them in the tub when I purge with Ahh-some and then soak them in shock level water overnight before reusing them.

 

[mas985]

Did you clean or replace the filter. They can harbor nasties.

If you have algae or bacteria growing in your filter, then you are not maintaining FC at proper levels. Properly chlorinated water passing through the filter should kill everything much like it does in the pool.

 

[Arobbert]

If you have algae or bacteria growing in your filter, then you are not maintaining FC at proper levels. Properly chlorinated water passing through the filter should kill everything much like it does in the pool.

That's true, but if you're having trouble with chlorine demand it's something to look into. I do the chlorine soak to help clean the filter.

 

[jowenece]

Did you clean or replace the filter.

I do leave the filters in the tub for the ahhsome purge and then spray them off, but I put new filters in so I don't think it was the filter. Appreciate the thought though. No problems once the tub started holding chlorine, so I'm thinking mas was on to something with the municipal water.

 

[dunginhawk]

There is still enough junk in there after ahhsome to cause this.. its happened on both of my fill/refills. The only way around it is to ahhsome, drain, rinse, drain, refill, run pumps for 30 mins, drain, refill again . You cant get all of it out by just doing ahhsome and drain there is still some gunk in the pipes that once you shut it down to drain, just sits in there.

 

[Ahhsomeguy]

Hi Dunginhawk: Your advice is correct. Many times people think that just one purge will eliminate all the gunk in the plumbing. Great if it happens but it is not likely. This is not a venue for pushing a specific product or for advertising a brand, so please excuse what I am about to say. There is nothing stronger than Ahhsome to eliminate bio contamination in plumbing and jets of hot tubs and jetted bathtubs. Nothing even close. However, we have found that some biofilm formations are very difficult to penetrate and destroy. These guys are very good at protecting their colony from obliteration. Very high IQ’s. You just have to stay with the program and it will pay dividends in better water clarity and quality as well as less maintenance with less sanitizer demand.. Purge and purge again for problem tubs. We have had jetted bathtubs requiring over 25 purges to finally get rid of the gunk in the lines. Many hot tubs require 3 or more successive purges to finally raise the victory flag.