Fresh fill - cloudy water?

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TheCatLady

Active member
Apr 3, 2023
36
Romania
We've just had a Caldera Provence installed. While this is new, I have some experience with balancing the water in an inflatable tub.

I'll provide as many details as I can.

My first step was to fill and purge. Plenty of gunk got out. Also added About 2 tsp of dichlor when purging. Drained with a sump pump, vacuumed the jets, cleaned with hose and clean water, vacuumed water, refilled.

Fill water is from municipal tap and goes through a softener. Here are the measured parameters before I added anything:
Calcium hardness = 50 ppm (saltwater spa)
TA = around 250
Ph = 7.5
Last night we had an issue with the heater that was wired wrong and the circulation pump, so I've added 1 1/2 tsp of dichlor to kill whatever was still in there.

Fcl measured in the morning was about 5.39 ppm, so it maintained quite alright overnight. Tcl was 5.47

Today I've been doing the acid - aeration dance for half the day. Here is my end result:
TA = 90 (my plan is around 80, but I'll see how it goes, just got tired of the acid - aeration for today)
Ph = 7.4
Fcl = 4.36
Tcl = 4.42
And, here is my major surprise, CYA = 3

I mean...what gives? I've added 1 1/2 tsp of dichlor which should give me a CYA of more than 3, right? Is my dichlor expired or something? Or should I suspect my reagent tablets?

In theory everything looks good. In practice, the water is cloudy with a greenish tint. I've added some clarifier as well, but not much change. There's also some faint brown-ish residue at the waterline. I can wipe it easily with a sponge. Any idea what this could be? I don't know about metal content and don't have a reliable way to measure it, but could this be iron/copper?
20230409_155158.jpg
20230409_164230.jpg

Is this safe to bathe in? If not...what can I do? I don't have another water source and this is how it looks straight from the tap.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!
 
Probably metals in your water.

Your water should be safe to enjoy.

If we believe your testing numbers some more CYA would buffer the chlorine.
 
You might also watch for unwanted foaming since your CH is on the low end. If you do experience foaming, bump it up a little to at least 00.

How do I use Chlorine in my Spa or Hot Tub?

If you have a question about any information within this Sticky, please start a new thread for yourself where you will receive very quick responses to your specific questions. Thank you! Introduction There are two main things to consider when maintaining your hot tub water, Water Balance and...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
ajw22 said:
Probably metals in your water.

Your water should be safe to enjoy.

If we believe your testing numbers some more CYA would buffer the chlorine.
Click to expand...
Any easy way to test for metals? I'm not familiar with this at all, last year the water was crystal clear :(

I'm planning on getting to 30 CYA with dichlor and then changing to the swg + bleach when needed.
Texas Splash said:
You might also watch for unwanted foaming since your CH is on the low end. If you do experience foaming, bump it up a little to at least 00.

How do I use Chlorine in my Spa or Hot Tub?

If you have a question about any information within this Sticky, please start a new thread for yourself where you will receive very quick responses to your specific questions. Thank you! Introduction There are two main things to consider when maintaining your hot tub water, Water Balance and...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Click to expand...
Luckily no foaming. Everything seems good other than it looking like pond water.
 
Unfortunately no to the Taylor tests. Poollab has a nicer tester (I have the 1.0 which can't test metals, the 2.0 can) but I don't want to spend close to 200 euros just to do a metals test. But based on what I've read on TFP on metals in water, it sounds like Copper (green tint to water and brown staining). The only solution si to drain and refill - in my case also with copper water.

Caldera sells a "Pre screen filter" that supposedly removes metals from the water...I'm wondering if it's effective and worth purchasing.
 
Use the calculated cya amount that poolmath says your dichlor additions have added.
Poolmath assumes you are using 99% dichlor so if you’re not that may be part of the issue in the differences & you may need to do a little math.
The wipeable ring is probably just residual crud from the Ahhsome purge now that you’re heated up & circulating especially if your purge was nasty. Just keep wiping it, it should dissipate. You may want to rinse your filters off too. The green tint does point to metals.
If you’re pretty certain you have a metals problem you could add a sequestrant. If you can’t filter the fill water each time you will need to use it for each fill. Not sure what’s available to you but here’s some info on that

Sequestrant - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Copper in Pool Water - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Did your inflatable have a greenish tint when adding fc? Perhaps it wasn’t light colored so not as noticeable?
 
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Methuselah said:
What are you testing with? There's no such thing as accuracy down to a hundredth of a part of measured CHL. You also cannot reliably check for CYA at that level. Go by measured amount of dichlor to figure the CYA usind Poolmath if need be (link below).
Click to expand...
As ajw22 says, I'm using Poollab's electronic photometer with reagent tablets. There are numbers that it outputs. Is it accurate down to the .01? Probably not, but it doesn't have to be either. I'm also using a Wellis Wis (which is basically the same as any other in water monitor) - it's not SUPER accurate, but it's quite handy for keeping an eye on how the water changes over time.

Got it in regards to the CYA. I've added 2 1/2 tsp so far (about 12.5g, but I did guesstimate that 1/2 tsp), so that should give me a CYA of around 6 according to the calculator. It now measures 8, so I guess I'm on track.
Texas Splash said:
Interesting you have copper in the local water. Usually it's iron in the states. But do what you can based on product availability. Don't let the FC or pH get too high which tends to agree metals.
Click to expand...
This a "maybe", I don't have what to measure metals with. I called someone that works at municipal water company and said he's be surprised if there was copper and that they don't test for it - but there isn't any copper source either. But it's likely the turbidity is higher than usual due to the extreme snowfall we've had last week.
Mdragger88 said:
Use the calculated cya amount that poolmath says your dichlor additions have added.
Poolmath assumes you are using 99% dichlor so if you’re not that may be part of the issue in the differences & you may need to do a little math.
The wipeable ring is probably just residual crud from the Ahhsome purge now that you’re heated up & circulating especially if your purge was nasty. Just keep wiping it, it should dissipate. You may want to rinse your filters off too. The green tint does point to metals.
If you’re pretty certain you have a metals problem you could add a sequestrant. If you can’t filter the fill water each time you will need to use it for each fill. Not sure what’s available to you but here’s some info on that

Sequestrant - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Copper in Pool Water - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Did your inflatable have a greenish tint when adding fc? Perhaps it wasn’t light colored so not as noticeable?
Click to expand...
No, most likely my math was wrong. I read on the Chlorine topic that "For every 10 ppm of Dichlor you add to your tub, you add 9 ppm CYA." so I thought my CYA should be higher than what it measured.
But the calculator says that for 7.5g dichlor the CYA added is 3.7, so my tester actually measured it pretty accurately.
You might be right on the crud, I've noticed it's less of a problem now and the water turned a bit more blue-ish. Turbidity seems high, not sure if this is normal with SWG. My total TDS is around 2000 with about 1600 of that being salt.

No, my inflatable was white and the water was crystal clear, that's why I'm so surprised it now has this color. I'm gonna fill the tub in the house and see if it looks the same.

Here's a picture I took today (it was after the clean cycle so still a lot of air bubbles in it) compared to right after filling it:
20230411_200308.jpg
 
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My fill water looks like that (minus the cloudiness) until I add the initial dose of 10ppm of dichlor.
Have you checked fc again? I would imagine the 4ppm you put in yesterday is gone.
Whats in the floater?
 
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Mdragger88 said:
My fill water looks like that (minus the cloudiness) until I add the initial dose of 10ppm of dichlor.
Have you checked fc again? I would imagine the 4ppm you put in yesterday is gone.
Whats in the floater?
Click to expand...
The swg is running and maintained about 2.6 FCl. I added another 5g of dichlor earlier, so it was around 5.6 about 10 minutes after.
I'll just see how it goes in the next few days, maybe it will filter out.
Sensors in the floater :) that's the Wellis water monitor, not a classic dispenser.
 
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You can try raising fc to 10ppm to see if it clears things up a bit better. It probably won’t stay there long especially if you decide jump in & enjoy your new oasis!
Make sure you always follow the
FC/CYA Levels never allowing fc to fall below minimum for your cya 👍🏻
 
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Will be raising Cl to 10 today and see how that goes.
Levels measured this morning:
TA - 80
PH - 8
FCl - 4
CYA - 8

The PH seems to climb quite fast with aeration and stabilize at around 7.9 - 8. I plan on adding boric acid today to get the borates to about 50 and see if that helps. If not, should I drop the TA even more?
Oh, I forgot to mention I also have a silver ion filter.

I'm quite pleased with the Wellis monitor this far. It seems to be fairly accurate with all measurements. It measures FCl as ORP, but it gives me an idea if the SWG is producing enough chlorine and the demand when in use and when not in use. I did have a small heart attack this morning when I saw the sanitizer levels dropped from ~650mv to less than 150, I thought a cat or a mouse found it's way in. Luckily just some air bubbles on the sensor :LOL:
 
Usually you would want to get the ta down to 50/60 before adding borates- the act of getting the ta down there is a large help in slowing ph rise.
Now that you have added borates it will take more acid to lower ph & subsequently ta by the same amounts but it is still doable. Be sure to turn on track borates in the pool math settings.
Are you able to test cc’s? They are an important marker for tracking the health of the water. (Persistent cc’s mean it’s time to change the water)
Whenever you have an issue (a little cloudy/ not optimal due to high bather load/lotions/products or elevated cc’s etc) raising to slam level is your first step. As we say… More Chlorine! If a couple rounds of doing that along with cleaning the filters doesn’t do the trick it’s usually easier to purge & change the water than to fight with it.
 
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Well, that ship appears to have sailed as I already added the boric acid. But the ph seems to have stabilized some. I left the jets running for a good 30 minutes after adding chemicals and the ph is around 7.3 - 7.4.

Yes, I can test Cc's. At least I can test Fcl and Tcl, so Cc is just a matter of subtracting one from the other. Should it be at 0 after a shock?
 
TheCatLady said:
Well, that ship appears to have sailed as I already added the boric acid. But the ph seems to have stabilized some. I left the jets running for a good 30 minutes after adding chemicals and the ph is around 7.3 - 7.4.
Click to expand...
No biggie- but now you know for the next fill. Borates are the last thing on the list.
TheCatLady said:
Yes, I can test Cc's. At least I can test Fcl and Tcl, so Cc is just a matter of subtracting one from the other. Should it be at 0 after a shock?
Click to expand...
With a freshly purged clean tub I would say yes but technically anything .5 or less is acceptable. Immediately after use there will usually be some cc’s because the fc is doing it’s work - so long as they go away you’re good.
I generally have no cc’s except immediately after use so when the .5 or 1 cc starts showing up it’s usually around water exchange time.
After using the tub or adding chems/chlorine you should leave the lid off a bit so the cc’s can escape. This is also better for the longevity of your cover. It’s a good idea to leave the cover off every now & then even if you haven’t been using the tub for this reason. The sun can help dissipate cc’s as well. Doesn’t have to be direct sunlight.
 

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