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[eerr]

A yellow and or white build up happens on the side of my tub but I can't see it in the light.
As such I can't really scrub it.
Does anyone have advice for revealing this stuff?

[~Neri]

That's sulfur buildup prolly.

[Orange Wizard]

Why is there sulphur in your bathtub?

[~Neri]

If he lives in an area with sulfur in the water table. Such as Utah.

Are you in Utah?

[Sappho]

A lot of places have hard water which is full of minerals. They can build up and cause these kinds of stains. (There's tons of limestone in the water where I live, which causes similar buildup.)

In most cases, I think vinegar works well for removing the buildup. I recommend putting vinegar in a spray bottle and spraying the entire inside of the tub (no matter if you see stains there or not, since you say they're hard to see). Leave it for a few minutes to soak, then wipe down the tub with a rough sponge and rinse it out. This should get rid of a lot of the buildup. If it seems to be working, keep doing it until it's all gone. If not, then you might need a different type of cleaner. It depends on what kind of mineral it is, I guess.

Vinegar is great because it's cheap, works well on stains, kills smells, and the smell of the vinegar itself rinses away very easily with hot water.

[wierd]

It could also be iron III oxide from reduced iron dissolved in the water drying out, then rusting INSIDE the porcelain/enamel. (This is usually from Iron II chloride dissolved in the tap water, but it is ESPECIALLY present in limestone laced well water, since limestone almost always has reduced iron present in the matrix.)

There are products to remove the iron stains, (that amusing should also work on removing the sulfur stains)
This is not an endorsement, just an example of such a product

My local walmart carries such cleansers, but your mileage may vary.  (It also works well to remove the "dingy yellow" from old white T-shirts and tighty whities)


 

[Orange Wizard]

If he lives in an area with sulfur in the water table. Such as Utah.

... that seems really obvious in hindsight.

[Eldin00]

I've lived in places with high iron, sulphur, and other mineral content in the water. A cleaning product (along the same lines as what wierd was talking about) which has worked quite well for me in removing that sort of buildup (assuming it is some sort of disolved mineral in the water) is called CLR.

[eerr]

oooh but really we have a sulfur base with rust added to remove the sulfur in a purifier.
thats either two or three different purifiers to deal with the problem.
Dad maintains them.

but I also don't use up my soap fast enough and that tends to run down the side too.

[wierd]

Iron AND sulfur?

Does it smell like rotten eggs?  Iron sulfide has a distinctive.. (ahem) odor.

Anyway-- Yes, The cleanser I listed is predominantly sodium salts of sulfur, and some sodium chloride salt to help buffer the ion exchange to help it work better.

The cleanser that he linked to is basically a detergent mixed with fairly strong hydrochloric acid.   Both work, essentially, the same way. Provide a new, more soluble compound to chemically reduce the iron stain, then wash the iron away in solution. 

For a water purifier, I could see adding sulfur to remove certain organic contaminants, and some dangerous metal salts. The iron afterwards would be to bind with the sulfur, and help it come out of solution. However, that is going to leave both sulfur and iron in the water at trace amounts. That's all you need to have yellowed whites in your laundry and iron stains in your toilet, sink, and tub.

Short of straight up demineralizing the water (like, boiling and recondensing the steam) there is little to do about this. The filtration system is the most cost effective solution, and the staining is a cosmetic issue.  Just use an appropiate cleanser to remove the stains.

[Eldin00]

The water at that place did in fact have a distinctive and unpleasant smell, somewhat reminiscent of rotten eggs. Fortunately, I haven't lived there in years. I used to fill water jugs at a convenience store a few blocks away with better quality water for drinking and cooking.

[ChairmanPoo]

A yellow and or white build up happens on the side of my tub but I can't see it in the light.

If I may ask... how do you know it is there, and what color it is, then?

[gimlet]

I think it depends mainly on whether you're male or female.  If female:  Look into different cleansers, hard plastic bristled brushes, and possibly spraying with vinegar first before applying a ton of elbow grease.

If male:  Put in a dimmer lightbulb.