hitmanx

And I raised it too high because I used too much mps vs the smaller bather load this week?

I finally received the Taylor kit... I shocked the spa and tested an hour later Using the test strips first the bromine was very dark, like 10+ ppm, so I verified with the new kit... It took 28 drops at 25ml sample, so the bromine was 14ppm! Whoooooo! TA 80ppm Ph 7.4 CH 300ppm Then I tested again 24hrs later and the bromine is still 11ppm... I really was hoping to take a soak as I haven't used the spa in a couple days. Should the residual really be so high? The spa was uncovered for a couple hours yesterday and then covered again...

Yes this is all starting to make sense. If my Taylor kit would ever get here I could have a better handle on this situation. Im not sure i am at the right ph as the colours are so close on the strips and my CH is 800+ so i need to figure that one out too before my heater and pump blow up. I will start shocking after each soak and using the floater for background. Is there a preferred time for the shocking to work uncovered when using mps vs bleach? Also up here in Canada I can only find regular bleach which doesn't have % listed, and disinfectant bleach which is 7.5% and ultra that is 8.25%. So given these numbers I can work out my dose if i knew how much total ppm i needed for shock. Thanks again.

I wasn't getting proper residuals the last two days even though the floater was half open, so I ended up shocking again and then also adding another 0.75oz of sodium bromide like the bottle says (total of 2oz)... I shocked again and left the tub to sit for a day... Still using test strips, but as of this morning the bromine was 3-5ppm... The family went in today so I will check the bromine again tonight. I have heard of people shocking after each session, but the bottle says to shock once a week... Its hard to find a balance it seems... With mps shock I have read that it builds up other substances over time requiring water changes more often. Obviously I'd like to minimize the hassle of shocking and just try to maintain the residuals with the pucks. What is considered a high bather load?

My scale arrived and I weighed the amount that I added the other day and it was only 1.15oz so I added another 0.1oz to bring it up to the correct amount for 250 gallons, then I added 11g of shock and circulated for 30min... I checked bromine residual with test strips and I finally got a decent reading of 3+ppm Can I add too much bromide? Upon further reading, the start-up product says to add 2oz to pretty much all size Spas... I shocked again after a long soak last night, but I'm gonna test again today to see if there are proper residuals as I have the floater fully open too. Thanks for your input. Hopefully all remaining questions will be answered with the Taylor 2106 that arrives tomorrow.

For reference... Brilliance in Spas Start-up SECTION 3. COMPOSITION/INFORMATION ON INGREDIENTS CAS OR CHEMICAL NAME SODIUM BROMIDE (NABR) CAS # 7647-15-6 % RANGE 95 - 100

Thanks for the reply but that isn't the product that I used. It's not the regular bromine granular, but a product called startup. It's designed to make the bromine bank but like I said it doesn't list the concentration and I couldn't find the msds for it. Where did you find it for the granular? I haven't been able to hit some of the local pool shops because of holiday closures and out of all the box stores only Walmart sold anything mentioning sodium bromide. Trust me I would love to just walk into a store and buy a bucket of pure sodium bromide. But finding a Canadian source online is proving difficult. That ahhhsome product is a cleaner before I make my next water change? Thanks again. Edit: I just found a local spa store that has liquid sodium bromide with 32% but nothing else listed. The nice lady said they use it as a generator to start up hot tubs for bromine with pucks. Another edit: I just got off the phone with a nice man named Dewy at Brilliance for spas and he told me that the start-up is 95% sodium bromide and he's sending me the msds to confirm... So if I added 1tbsp of 95% NaBr to 250 gallons should I have enough of a bromine bank? Are there already too many nasties growing to keep up? Are my test kits bunk? The shock I'm using says add 11g weekly and 22g at start up and because I don't have a scale yet (coming in mail with my Taylor 2106) I guessed roughly based on the equal weight of tablespoon of sugar weighing 12g but all this silliness is not very accurate

Hello, I picked up a new hot tub with the basic knowlege of water chemistry but ignornace is easy to obtain... I'm having trouble getting the bromine system to work... 250 gallon Foam walled insulated vinyl spa Temp at 95 to 101 Bather load of 2 adults and 2 small children for 20min/day Dec 23rd Hot tub filled (thought it was soft but ended up being hard like 800+ppm out of tap, pH 8.2) Quik stix test strips (came with chemical kit) Spa-pure bromine pucks in floater on level 2 Added 50ml of mps shock Alk too high No bromine reading PH high Dec 24th Found these forums and read until my eyes started to bleed... Going to use the 3 step bromine system with mps shock to start... Dec 25th Finally got TA to somewhere around 100 to 120ppm with pH down and aerated to bring pH up to 7.4 (test with aquarium drops) couldn't find source of sodium bromide... Dec 27th Continued search for NaBr and finally found Brilliance Spa-start at walmart which apparently is NaBr but it doesn't list the concentration... It says use 60grams for up to 1900L but I used the 1/2oz per 100gallon amount which gave me 1.25oz but I didn't have a scale and it was late and i was frustrated so I used the density of NaBr (3.21g/cm³) to calculate 13.24ml and used that to decide to add 1tbsp of the start-up then added about 50ml of shock and left cover off for and hour and tested. 1-3ppm of bromine!! Dec 28 No bromine residual with test strips Bathed with family anyways during first snowfall of year! Was so nice, but getting out was torture! Added 25ml of mps shock Uncovered for 1hr Maybe 1ppm bromine TA good PH good after 15min aeration CH 800+ What gives? I have a Taylor 2106 on its way and a digital scale too so I can be more accurate, but did the brilliance spa- start give me enough of a bromine bank? Or has the bather load actual contaminated the tub so much that the bromine is having trouble keeping up with the established nasties? Thanks, I am glad I found this site. Nigel