How do I use Bromine in my spa (or pool)?

[chem geek]

You can switch from chlorine to bromine at any time. It's going the other way around from bromine to chlorine that requires a water change.

You don't need to buy anything new to test for bromine. You can use your existing chlorine test kit. Just multiply your FC reading by 2.25 to get ppm Total Bromine. If you use the R-0003 and measure the CC separately, then add it to your FC reading -- for convenience you can just start off the test adding the R-0003 drops to get Total Bromine immediately. Technically, you shouldn't see CC in a bromine spa since bromamine (or monobromammonium ion) is supposed to register as FC as it reacts with the DPD dye, but some have reported needing to add the R-0003 to see all the bromine.

You don't need to worry about CYA with bromine as they do not bind to each other. Just target a 4-6 ppm bromine and you are good to go. If you have an ozonator, that adding sodium bromide to create a bromide bank should have the ozone create bromine for you so you might not even need to use bromine tabs in that case.

 

[chem geek]

If my hot tub is balance (CSI =0), do i need to had weekly stuff like "Stain and Scale Control "?

I didn't notice this question before (and the user may no longer be around), but you don't need to use stain and scale control or any other metal sequestrant unless you've got a metals (usually iron from well water) problem. Also, your hot tub need not get to CSI balance since it's usually acrylic and it's better to have a somewhat negative CSI to ensure you don't get scaling in your heater even if the pH gets too high.

 

[Sandib210]

I managed to find bromine tablets, but not sodium bromide. So to create a reserve in a hot tub currently sanitized with chorine and no ozonator, how do I do that? is the next best trick to crush tablets up?
Thanks for your help.
Sandi

 

[chem geek]

You don't have any of the following nearly pure sodium bromide products available to you?

Rendezvous Broma Start ($1.94 per ounce)
Spa Specialties Robarb Bromine Energizer ($1.50 per ounce)
Leisure Time Sodium Bromide ($1.57 per ounce)
SeaKlear Spa Sodium Bromide ($0.98 per ounce)
Natural Chemistry Spa Bromine Start ($0.77 per ounce)
hth Brom-Start ($1.19 per ounce)

If you use bromine tabs, the used bromine will mostly revert to bromide (some outgases or gets combined with organics). So you will slowly build up a bromide bank at roughly the rate of your cumulative bromine usage.

 

[Sandib210]

Will call around to nearby pool stores tomorrow. If all else fails, will order online and continue with chorine until I get some.
Thank you

 

[Sandib210]

So to my surprise, most pool store workers didn't know what I wanted when I asked for sodium bromide. I was able to find this:


Here is my concern, the label says:
dichlor 47.6%
sodium bromine 14.88%

I'm wondering how this affects building the bromine bank. Does this mean that I will not need to shock after adding this? Also how do I know how much to add to get my 30 ppm starting point? This has just added more confusion for me.
Suggestions?
Thanks

 

[chem geek]

That's chlorine (dichlor) with some sodium bromide so that it will make bromine. That's not much better than getting bromine tabs except it makes bromine faster (i.e. tabs dissolve more slowly), but it doesn't build up bromide that quickly.

What about going to Walmart and getting Brilliance for spas Start Up? Or what about the startup salt used with Genesis systems (they start with sodium bromide for their bromine generators)? Or Leisure Time Sodium Bromide?

 

[Sandib210]

I'll check at Walmart today. Thank you.

 

[Hedgie]

ok - really silly question but I want to make sure I am not missing something. I switched to Bromine in the spa. The test strips the dealer recommended measure both bromine and free chlorine. I am at "OK" levels of bromine, but there are only trace amounts if any of Free chlorine. My assumption is that when using bromine you should not expect to see free chlorine and vice versa, but we all know about assumptions

I also realize I need to get a full test kit and will do so shortly, but in the meantime is it safe to use a spa with good bromine levels and no FC?

 

[chem geek]

It looks like the test strips for Free Chlorine don't see bromine, but I bet that any strips for Total Chlorine do. For the drop-based tests, the bromine should show up as Free Chlorine if you were to use a chlorine test.

You're probably OK, but it's hard to know given the test strips.

 

[bbrock]

Thanks for this great post and the one at pool spa forum entitled Bromine for beginners.

I have a leftover bottle from the former owner of 10% chlorine. I tried to use the ratio formula to figure out what amount I would need of 10% bleach in my spa but it doesn't work as actually shows I would need more volume. In reality it should be less as it is more concentrated. So I can't use 2 oz. of 6% equals X oz. of 10%. Can anyone shed some light here on how much 10% bleach I would need per hundred gallons?

Thanks in advance. I learned so much from these 2 forums.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

.
Best I can do on that is to think of the percent of chlorine as units. If you have 1 oz of 6% bleach you have 6 units. 2 oz and you have 12 units. The 10% is 10 units in 1 oz. so 12 units divided by 10 is 1.2 oz
2oz 6% should be equal to 1.2oz of 10%

As for how much to use in your spa per hundred gallons, what level are you trying to reach and have you tried using the "Pool Math" calculator to just punch in the 10% value in FC for your spas total gallons ??
http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

 

[Fed]

Thank you for this forum. It is helping my understanding of my Hottub, that I recently converted to Bromine.

Can you please confirm that my understanding is correct:

Bromide is the reservoir. You add it first.

Chlorine can be used as an oxidizing agent that converts the Bromide to Bromine, which is the active form. Bromine kills bacteria and other organic compounds.

Bleach can be used as the Chlorine based oxidizing agent for both shocking and basic Bromide activation.

Is thins correct?


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