Hi all; been a long time since I've posted here, and several years since my original experiementation with ahh-some and biofilms that started way back in 2013. As most know, the makers of Ahh-some have produced another interesting product by the name of Aqua Clarity, which I'm sure needs no introduction here, as it is a quat-based maintenance product. Anyway, James sent me some to test and I thought I would share results here. As you might imagine, my experiment took a turn that I wasn't expecting, so I have only partial results. Essentially what I did was:
1. start with new water after a purge, and shock. measure sanitizer decay rate before adding any Aqua Clarity. This is the "New Water" portion of the graph below.
2. start using Aqua Clarity per label directions. over the next few months I let the water go bad a couple of times on purpose, each time slamming to recover. For the first slam, I had kids jumping in and out, tracking grass clippings and putting quite a load on things. I didn't rinse off my filters, prefering to see how Aqua Clarity and Sanitizer would handle things. After the kids were finished using the spa, I let sanitizer go to zero for several days (until things got really bad and cloudy) and then I slammed for 48 hours. the water recovered well. After that experiement, a few weeks went by. I stopped using AC for three weeks, then let sanitizer go to zero for two weeks, which caused bad water again, of course. I slammed for 48 hours again but this time I measured decay to compare with new water. This is the "old water with aqua clarity" portion of the graph.
The graph shows new water decay rate, which exhibits an asymtotic behavior (rapid decay at high levels), compared with "old water" decay rate, showing a more linear ( and longer) decay.
both decay tests were performed during hot weather, no load, spa covered. the Y-axis is in DPD drops, by the way, using the taylor test kit and the small (10mL) sample. This introduces some measurement error, explaining the irregularities in the graph lines, but gives "good enough" information.
I probably left out some other details but feel free to ask questions!
1. start with new water after a purge, and shock. measure sanitizer decay rate before adding any Aqua Clarity. This is the "New Water" portion of the graph below.
2. start using Aqua Clarity per label directions. over the next few months I let the water go bad a couple of times on purpose, each time slamming to recover. For the first slam, I had kids jumping in and out, tracking grass clippings and putting quite a load on things. I didn't rinse off my filters, prefering to see how Aqua Clarity and Sanitizer would handle things. After the kids were finished using the spa, I let sanitizer go to zero for several days (until things got really bad and cloudy) and then I slammed for 48 hours. the water recovered well. After that experiement, a few weeks went by. I stopped using AC for three weeks, then let sanitizer go to zero for two weeks, which caused bad water again, of course. I slammed for 48 hours again but this time I measured decay to compare with new water. This is the "old water with aqua clarity" portion of the graph.
The graph shows new water decay rate, which exhibits an asymtotic behavior (rapid decay at high levels), compared with "old water" decay rate, showing a more linear ( and longer) decay.
both decay tests were performed during hot weather, no load, spa covered. the Y-axis is in DPD drops, by the way, using the taylor test kit and the small (10mL) sample. This introduces some measurement error, explaining the irregularities in the graph lines, but gives "good enough" information.
I probably left out some other details but feel free to ask questions!
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