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Show Highlights

When dealing with the carefully constructed micro-environment of a float tank, any tiny addition can really throw off the appearance or chemistry (just ask anyone who’s had to deal with their water turning orange or green!). The types of soaps you use in your float rooms, along with shampoos, conditioners, and lotions can and will enter your tanks, so it’s important to consider what impact they’re going to have.

Graham and Ashkahn walk through troubleshooting water chemistry problems for this question, to help solve a particular issue.

Listen to Just the Audio

Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: Today’s question is, “I have a sort of stringy white substance that’s been popping up in my float tanks. Is something gross happening? It seems too frequent for that and is in all of the tanks.” Interesting.

Ashkahn: Alright.

Graham: So first of all, we don’t know. So it’s almost hard without seeing something in person to tell what’s going on.

Ashkahn: Yeah just to hear someone describe something.

Graham: And even then it’s, there’s complicated chemistry going on with all that salt water, so you know there might not even be one set answer to this.

Ashkahn: It sounds like they’re hinting at a certain human substance.

Graham: Ejaculate. It’s okay, we can say that. We’re adults here.

Ashkahn: Yeah, well and that’s I don’t know. The way they are phrasing it, like all the tanks and frequency. That doesn’t sound right to me, like it doesn’t feel like that. All of a sudden one float center has this huge problem.

Graham: And it sounds like it doesn’t sound right to them either. You know like, yeah. Yeah.

Ashkahn: So my mind would go somewhere else I guess.

Graham: Yeah and like a couple things pop into my mind, which I guess both of them just involved something coagulating in the float tank water. Like we definitely know of some weird kind of chemical reactions that happen as the result of all the magnesium sulfate that might be happening with this case.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: And so one of those, it doesn’t sound like, kind of because of the regularity, but is worth mentioning which is we know of some enzymes, and it’s not uncommon to use enzyme cleaners to keep the float tanks hopefully a little clearer or something like that. But there are some enzymes that we’ve even tried in our float tanks at Float On, that immediately coagulate, and kind of leave this, like not a small amount of sort of white goopy substance in the tank. And that’s not as common, like I think we’ve only played with one thing that did that?

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: And the other thing that I’ve seen is, with soaps, which is maybe the more common thing that we’ve run into. So soaps kind of coagulating and in the salt water, and leaving behind a little, almost white papery sort of streaky things.

Ashkahn: Yeah I’ve heard of different soaps having a lot of different effects. Like sometimes when I hear from people having kind of almost like an oily layer or something like that, they have trouble with. My mind usually jumps to thinking about that as one thing worth changing and seeing what the effect is. Like you might just have shampoo that has something in it that’s kind of reacting strangely with the Epsom salts. Especially if it’s persistent and frequent and in all the float tanks, like that’s kind of my mind is like okay, I don’t know if it’s the answer or not or if it’s actually what’s leading to it, but it’s a real easy thing to change and test out, and then if it does go away, then I have a strong suspicion that, that’s probably what was causing it.

Graham: Yeah I mean so that’s the nice thing about starting with the soaps, it is it’s incredibly cheap and easy to run a test on seeing whether that’s the case or not. And a really easy way is just take some Dr. Bronner’s, which is not uncommon to use, kind of just a pure castile soap, and put that available in only one of the rooms, and see if that just stops the problem.

Ashkahn: ‘Cause we’ve definitely taken some soap we’ve had before and just like tried putting it into a little bit of Epsom salt, or the float water, and it just did immediately coagulate into this white kind of cloudy thing.

Graham: Yep so I guess that’s another test, one of the old bucket tests you know. Take anything that’s in the room really, your lotion, your shampoo, your conditioner, your body wash, whatever you have in there and try adding it to a bucket of saltwater, and see what the reaction is. You might again see an immediate result, that is enlightening.

Ashkahn: Yeah, so that’s definitely a great, easy, low risk place to start.

Graham: Which is not always the case with float tank tests, like lots of times, you’re like, “Wow, I have to completely redo my entire filtration system in order to figure out if this is the case.”

Ashkahn: And beyond that, it can be kinda hard to answer, you know there’s so many variables when it comes to float tank, the solution that’s in them, and what’s going on with it, from filtration to what type of sanitation method you’re using, to …

Graham: What kind of salt you’re adding.

Ashkahn: Yeah, the salt, like you know is there something in your water, if you’re not filtering your water, like there’s just so many kind of variables in there that it’s hard to pin something down very easily, but I have seen soap be a problem and create issues in people’s, soap and shampoo, stuff like that, create issues in people’s float tanks before. So it’s certainly on the list of possibilities.

Graham: Yep, and when I’ve heard this before, those are kind of the first two questions that I ask people. Probably because they are both easy to test is, are you using some kind of enzyme in the float tanks, what kind of soap are you using.

Ashkahn: And I’ve heard it ranging, not even just from film stuff. I’ve even heard of people having like suds, little bits of suds or something.

Graham: Sure.

Ashkahn: So it can have different kind of effects.

Graham: That’s true, yeah in addition to kind of the white stringy type of soap reaction, yeah there’s like the oil on top soap reaction. There’s the sudsy soap reaction. I guess that’s it.

Ashkahn: Yeah. He missed.

Graham: I was like on a roll. there, I wanted to like go into like three more things soap can react with, you know. So, try it out, write back to us if it doesn’t solve it, and feel free to send along some photos too, and we’ll take a look, and maybe take another crack at the exact same question, you know.

Ashkahn: Alright if you guys have other questions for us, you can go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast and submit them there.

Recent Podcast Episodes

Long Term Construction for Float Centers – DSP 260

Ashkahn is still gone, getting ready for the Float Conference. The festivities kick up this week, and he’s busy working diligently to make all our dreams a reality.

In the meantime, Jake and Graham tackle the notion of ongoing maintenance and the ever evolving nature of a float center. Jake sets the record straight on the concept of having a “finished” float center, as new problems always arise. It’s not all bad news, though, as these changes allow for new opportunities for your centers. 

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This is another fantastic episode that challenges the question on its face. 

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Graham and Jake are in the studio again while Ashkahn plots his marvelous float industry event. 

This time the guys are talking about how to make a float room ADA compliant. Lots of it is going to vary from state to state (and sometimes even city to city) but there are some useful tips and tricks for making sure you hit all the right marks for compliance when planning your build out. 

Jake and Graham share construction ideas, ways to think about ADA requirements, and some fun stories about Float On’s own adventures in making their building  accessible. 

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Now before you rush to the Resources section to see which ones are best, this episode lays out the reason to use Quietrock, when (and how) to compromise for more affordable options, and where you may not want to use this when planning your build out. 

Marketing to Older Demographics – DSP 256

Some communities have a much higher retiree population than others. It can be difficult to reach customers who don’t utilize social media as much, so how do you get their attention?

Derek and Graham strategize on how to market to the retiree community for float centers. This episode is filled with bingo jokes, rambling examples, and solid advice for reaching out to any demographic that may not spend a lot of time on social media. 

Latest Blog Posts

The Float Tour Blog – Issue #20

The Float Tour Blog – Issue #20

We now follow the trail of our ancestors, Meriwether Lewis & William Clark, whose expedition started in St. Louis and would, eventually, lead them to Oregon – just like us.

Except, unlike them, we didn’t actually start in St. Louis, don’t have a tour guide from the Lemhi Shoshone tribe, and aren’t carrying flintlocks (except for Graham).

The Float Tour Blog – Issue #19

The Float Tour Blog – Issue #19

Chicago is home to one of the oldest float centers still in operation – SpaceTime Float Tanks.

We had the misfortune of timing our visit as they were moving to a larger location, the only time in 34 years that they have ever been closed. It is with great regret that we were unable to see their historic float center in operation.

They were trailblazers even before there were trails to blaze – so many float centers in the entire Midwest trace their roots back to a single float at SpaceTime.

The Float Tour Blog – Issue #18

The Float Tour Blog – Issue #18

We made it back to America, everybody. It was a harrowing experience being in an uncivilized country where they think gravy and cheese curds on french fries is a meal but, thankfully, we’ve crossed the border back to a country where we know that chili and shredded cheese on french fries is a meal. Civilization.

Quite honestly, we might be in love with Canada. We’re definitely making another trip up there. For now, it’s about to MPH not KPH.

The Float Tour Blog – Issue #17

The Float Tour Blog – Issue #17

We hosted our second Float Tour Workshop here in Toronto and stayed in town a bit longer than we normally do, allowing us to get acquainted with the city. The sprawling metropolis is an amalgamation of old world pioneering days and modern multiculturalism. It was founded in 1787, and some of the currently standing buildings pre-date even that. Ancient architecture stands next to contemporary monoliths, weaving a tapestry of antiquity and avant-garde in this fair city.