cheddardonkey

Hello everyone, first time owner of a swim spa here (or any pool care for that matter) and looking for some general answers to a few questions! I recently purchased a house that has a 1,900gal outdoor swim spa. I have a bromine system which most of the time has strong odors. Two floaters set at level 4 with bromine tablets and mps shocks regularly once per week of 12 oz. .. Water temp is 87, pH is bouncing from 8.0-7.6 , TA is 70 (90 yesterday) and I just added calcium chlorate to bring ppm from 100 to 180. I am using a taylor test kit and water is clear. My problem is the heavy odor which is kind of sickening and I have a 4 year old learning to swim. When I shock, bromine jumps to very high levels >15ppm and doesn't come down tp the 2-5ppm unless I open it up to the sun, pull the floats and run the jets for a day. Unit was filled about 6 weeks ago. Is this normal? I shocked last night and bromine is still at 12ppm.. is that safe to go in? What causes the chemical odor? I feel like I've done a decent job as a fist timer but I'm a bit lost on where to go here. I know TA should be up a bit... If oxidizing is meant to renew used bromine why is there a need to constantly add more and how do you know what that level should be and/or how frequently to oxidize? Thanks for reading