Hello All
This is my first time here. My name is Jackie and I live in SE Georgia. I have just moved into a house on the marsh which has a hot tub on an upper deck which is roofed and screened. Water temp without heater is about 86 deg. The previous owners thought it was 15-17 years old. It is a Baja octagon shape, acrylic, I think (shiny marbley finish) and holds about 800 gallons of water. It is 8' by 8' and about 30" deep. They had not used it for 2-3 years and it had water in it when we bought the house but they said it had been empty pror. The water didn't look too bad considering but we drained it anyway and scrubbed it all down with bleach and it was sparkling. We have excellent well water. We have a water softener attached and a pervector for sulphur. Using a test kit there is no chlorine, the ph and total alkalinity is in the ideal range.
After filling we put the recommended amount of bromine tablets in a floater and kept adjusting until it was in the ideal range.
There are only 2 of us (adults) and we use it about 2 hrs/day. The filtration system runs about 12 hrs/day.
After about 5-7 days of use these filmy tissue like strands, mucus looking, started showing up in the water. They were also clinging to the thermometer string and the plastic around the jets. If I could manage to get one out of the water, it was mucus like, mostly clear with some white. Also every day an unpleasant odor got more prounounced. I thought it might be the bromine smell. By the eigth day the water was very cloudy and when you turned on the air for the jets the smell was sewer-like.
I drained it scrubbed it, hosed off all the "mucus', drained it out and kept hosing and emptying until it was all gone.
I then refilled and started her up. Again the same cycle took place with the pieces starting to appear after about 3-4 days.
I am now on my third emptying. It is now empty and I would like some advice before I proceed further. I have removed the new filter (cartridge type) and it is full of gunk but only in one spot about 4-5" in diameter about 2/3 of the way up the filter. The rest of the filter is clean. The cartridge holder smelled like a sewer when I removed the lid. When filling the inside ring with hose water, it came out the holes in spa bottom and water in the outside ring came out 2 of the 4 jets. The water was very cloudy and I pumped it out. I have put the top back on the cartridge holder and left the cartridge out.
Thanks in advance for your help
Jackie

Hi Jackie,

I'm a newbie to hot tubs but after a bad startup with a bromine based system I'll offer a suggestion that has worked well for me. (Thanks to the threads on this forum for the advice and tips)

Change to Di-Chlor chlorine based sanitizer and an oxidizer for shocking. Follow the instructions on the bottle for startup quantities.
Based on 2 people for 2hrs a day - that would be considered heavy use.
- add 1 Tbsp di-chlor after every use
- Shock it with the oxidizer (non-chlorine based) every 3-4 days to help break down all the organic stuff you add to the water by using it.
- Test daily to see what the levels for Alk, PH and Chlorine are
- add a scum sponge to soak up the oils and gunk from hair products and body oils and lotions.

I've been following this for a few weeks and water is clear and odor free.

The previous suggestion is a good one.

Let's first talk about what you were doing before. Bromine tabs work great if a spa is never used. With usage, bromine tabs are not enough. You still need to use one of the following after each and every use.
Granular "dichlor" chlorine.
Granular Bromine.
Spa Shock- monopersulfate- "non-chlorine" oxidizer.
Bromine tabs tend to drag pH down over a week or so. An addition of pH plus (increaser) is usually needed regularly.
Addressing the filter, it sounds like it's in a pressure-type canister. If so, once the spa is up and running you need to bleed the air out so the whole filter is submerged. Your lid should have a little air bleeder valve for just an adjustment.
Good luck to you.