spanewb

Thank you for the detailed response! Forgive my ignorance, but my understanding of the point of using bromine was to avoid using chlorine. If we are using dichlor / bleach to oxidize the bromide, what is the difference between that and a spa that uses chlorine rather than bromine? Another question - my understanding was that bromine binds with the organics and loses some ability to keep doing so, and that using a "shock" oxidizer sort of tears those bindings up and then leaves the bromine more able to bind again. Is that way off? I guess I'm wondering whether bromine actually disappears after a while (and so more bromide needs to be added to make more bromine), or whether it just loses "strength" and can be reactivated with the oxidizer thus yielding higher bromine levels after the fact without having added any more bromide.

Thank you all. I think that Dlleno is right that the high CYA levels may have been inhibiting the bromine. I'm a bit confused about the statement "your chlorine is what generates the bromine from bromide...", as I'm not using chlorine. I take it that there is chlorine in the 2-in-1 bromine sanitizer? The bottle says 14.7% sodium bromide and 82.5% sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione. Is the latter one a chlorine I'm guessing? I take it that shocking with this sanitizer may be adding too much bromine, too much CYA, and not reactiving the existing bromine? Anyways, I've drained and started from scratch. The bad fumes I was having are gone, and I was surprised to see how little bromide it took to bring the levels to their ideal - much less than it was taking previously, which I think again supports the idea that maybe the CYA was inhibiting something. What is your ideal method for bromine treatment? Should I use this sanitizer mix, or is it better to have them separate so I can shock with a non-chlorine oxidizer and then see what the levels look like before adding additional bromine? Should I use a float or is it better to only add as needed or after use? I'd love to hear your process and exactly what chemicals you use!

Just using an extra dose of Bromine from time to time.

I have an indoor spa that I treat with Bromine. My Cyanuric acid levels are reading as very high (~300 ppm). While I'm aware that to lower those levels, the only solution is to add water (or drain and restart), however my questions are more about how it got there. From my research, i've seen that CYA accumulates because it is a stabilizer for Chlorine, but since I'm using Bromine, I'm wondering where the CYA is coming from? Additionally, are these high CYA levels an issue with a Bromine spa? Ie does it reduce the effectiveness of Bromine, and also is it a health hazard?