DrAchoo

Just as an update, I believe I discovered my problem. Old bleach. I ran out of the old bottle and bought a new one. Because 8 oz hadn't been budging the bromine levels I started with 16 oz of the new bleach. It shot the levels far past 10 ppm. I've bubbled it down closer to 10 and will check it in the AM.

I soaked my filter in TSP and gave it a good hosing. Then I put 8 more oz of bleach into the tub and still only got a bump to 2 ppm. Thinking about it more I'm not sure it's actually being eaten up. I would imagine I would get a spike that would quickly disappear rather than no spike at all. I check for the spike maybe 15 minutes later and an hour and a few hours not knowing the exact kinetics, but I have never seen more than 4 ppm. I do have a spa frog and I have been reading on the controversy of whether the silver is helpful or not, but that couldn't be a cause for no spike, correct?

I am definitely using a sodium bromide product (99% sodium bromide on the active ingredients). I keep adding 8 oz of bleach (probably added a total of 32 oz over 48-72 hours). I've gotten a reading as high as 4 ppm, but it drops quickly back to the 1 range. To me it seems like something is eating it up. I'm not sure where to look for that source. I'm going to retry cleaning the filter, but it wasn't particular dirty to the eye. I am using the OTO drop test. I added a drop of bleach to the test container once to see what a super-high concentration would look like and it went orange not colorless. Any other suggestions?

I'm changing water in my 400 gallon tub for the first time. I have followed the Bromine for Beginners but am having trouble getting the Bromine to spike after adding bleach. I used 2 oz of sodium bromide for the reserve and started with 8 oz of bleach. I didn't get a reading at all. I added another 8 oz bleach and am at about 2 ppm. This is probably about 1 hour later. pH is 7.5. TA is 80+. Hardness is 200. Recommendations? Am I doing something wrong?