Hi all. i have been looking for a spa forum and this one looks fairly active. So. i'll ask my question here. My spa makes goo. goo that sticks to the sides and you can even see it forming on the top of the bubbles when you use air. It's not a lot of goo, but i'm not a goo person at all. The bubbles turn kinda yellow on top and the stuff winds up sticking to the sides of the spa. Gross. Turns kinda brownish on the sides.
I use Bromine and have finally gotten the chems right after 3 months and one spa dump. I keep it pretty close and then i use an enzyme treatment that is supposed to eat the scum. Any help on the goo would be a good thing. we hardly use the air anymore and thats part of the spa we like.

The goo could be:

- Dissolved solids in the water coming out of solution due to high pH
- Gummy binders used to hold your bromine tablets together
- Oil from bathers

If you could post some water test results that would be a good start.

Hi spishex, i have test strips and i maintain the PH, ALK and bromine all at the correct levels. I also from time to time use an enzyme for body oils. I dont know how to test for toatal disolved solids, but this sounds like it could be an issue. As a new owner, i tended to overmedicate the spa at first and wound up dumping after about 4 weeks. I found out that the reccomended 30 minutes between chemicals added needs to be more like 24 hours.
Maybe i need to be less shy about the enzyme?

What are you using as a sanitizer?

Bromine.

Oh, right. I already read and acknowledged that. " title="Rolling Eyes" /> The enzyme acts as an oxidizer, but can also be destroyed by bromine. I'd ditch it in favor of a monopersulfate or chlorine shock. Unless the water is more than 4-6 months old or has been used daily I wouldn't worry too much about the TDS. You can maintain clear water at 4000ppm TDS or have scummy water at 500. Do you use any shock now or just the enzyme? Most of the stuff that will accumulate as goo is oxidizable so the first thing I would do is shock the tub. Also, what type of filtration options do you have? Does the spa filter a set amount of time, or does it only come on to heat?

I use a shock/oxidizer made by Dupont. The shock is supposed to re activate bromine that was used in sanitizing. I add one or two bromine tabs to a floater when bromine starts to read lower. As far as i know there is a maint mode that heats and filters as needed. Also, when i get out there is a "Set" button that starts this maint mode.
I have read here that chlorine is simpler to manitain, i may make the change when i use up the bromine tabs and chems i already have.
I was under the impression that i could not use a chlorine shock along with the bromine sanitizer, am i wrong?

You can use Chlorine in a Bromine system. Doing the opposite turns a Chlorine system into a Bromine system, but that's more relevant in pools than spas because of UV light (spas are normally covered). As far as maintenance goes, they're pretty much the same. Bromine has a few characteristics that make it the sanitizer of choice in spas (more effective over a wider pH and temperature range) and not in pools (expensive, unable to stabilize it against UV light). Stick with Bromine tabs but keep some granular chlorine handy.

There are a few products on the market that you can allow to float in the water that will soak up oils (scum bugs, etc.), but that shouldn't be necessary on an everyday basis. Unless the bathers are covered in oil or fur this problem should still come down to either water balance, oxidation, or filtration.

Test strips are notoriously inaccurate. Do you get your water tested at a store ever? How old are the strips?

There are no places i know of to test water in my area, the test strips are relatively new since i test just about daily. I ahd the tap tested and the water is very high quality (29.9 calcium) You have given me much to think about. Filtration being one. I have ordered a new filter and intend to dump in a few weeks. end of Jan will be 3 months on this fill (the first one lasted maybe 3 weeks). On the first fill i used the 30 minute rule for adding chemicals and wound up adding about 10 oz of spa down. i know this was wrong somehow and the foam would turn brown on top after a week. So i dumped and took much longer to balance this time. Much less chem too.
Since i had so much trouble with the first fill i suppose the filter could be the problem. I cleaned it chemically a few weeks ago, but maybe i need to replace it with the new one and clean the older one and let it dry.
Also, do you use enzyme at all? I suppose the enzyme or even the foam down could be part of the problem.

Enzymes just aren't necessary and can spend more time reacting with your sanitizer than with organics in the water. Anti-foaming agents shouldn't be, but sometimes it happens. Excessive use of either will cause issues. I would suggest not using enzymes and only using anti-foam when the tub is completely covered in bubbles about two-deep.