DGmarie Posted August 9, 2006 Report Share Posted August 9, 2006 Am I reading this correctly? Instead of Spa Shock I can just use a cup of plain old bleach to shock my 400 gallon bromine spa? I currently add very little to it, some metal out weekly, some water clarify weekly, some bromine in the floater weekly, and shock 3T weekly with Leisure brand spa shock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterbear Posted August 10, 2006 Report Share Posted August 10, 2006 Am I reading this correctly? Instead of Spa Shock I can just use a cup of plain old bleach to shock my 400 gallon bromine spa? I currently add very little to it, some metal out weekly, some water clarify weekly, some bromine in the floater weekly, and shock 3T weekly with Leisure brand spa shock. Correct, the sodium hypochorite will be instantly converted to hypobromous acid because of the bromine reserve in the water (you DO add sodium bromide each time you refill the spa, don't you?) If you look at the ingredients on bromine tablets you will find that they all contain chlorine or MPS. Bromine does not form an active sanitizer (hypobromous acid) without the addition of an oxidizer (chlorine, MPS or ozone) to activate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGmarie Posted August 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2006 Correct, the sodium hypochorite will be instantly converted to hypobromous acid because of the bromine reserve in the water (you DO add sodium bromide each time you refill the spa, don't you?) If you look at the ingredients on bromine tablets you will find that they all contain chlorine or MPS. Bromine does not form an active sanitizer (hypobromous acid) without the addition of an oxidizer (chlorine, MPS or ozone) to activate it. We have only just filled this spa for the first time and it has only been filled since the end of May. We followed the spa store instructions and added a bromine concentrate (Leisure brand) at set up to create a "bank." Since then we only put the little pucks in the floater and shock weekly. It has been chugging along fine ever since. I just bought a $25 bucket of spa shock so I guess it will be a while before I will need the bleach, but this is good to know. Does the bleach fade swimsuits in the spa post shock? Should we wait longer than 1 hour before getting in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterbear Posted August 10, 2006 Report Share Posted August 10, 2006 We have only just filled this spa for the first time and it has only been filled since the end of May. We followed the spa store instructions and added a bromine concentrate (Leisure brand) at set up to create a "bank." Since then we only put the little pucks in the floater and shock weekly. It has been chugging along fine ever since. I just bought a $25 bucket of spa shock so I guess it will be a while before I will need the bleach, but this is good to know. Does the bleach fade swimsuits in the spa post shock? Should we wait longer than 1 hour before getting in? I would shock after you use the spa since it can take up to about a day for the bromine levels to drop to 6-8 ppm. for a 400 gal spa 1 cup of regular bleach or 3.4 cop ultra bleach is the upper limit to use. I would start with about half that amount and if you get any cloudiness or your bromine levels are too low I would increase it. The only advantage to MPS shock (non chlorine) is that you can go in sooner but you still need to check the bromine levels and make sure they are not above 8 ppm. It can still take as long as with a chlorine shock! The floater (which contains both bromine and chlorine in the tabs) is used to help maintain a constant bromine level between shocks...ususally about 6 ppm. It is not really necessary but it does make keeping a constant bromine level a bit easier....but at the price of having to keep closer tabs on your pH and Alk! The bleach will not cause any more fading than you have right now. It is instantly converted to hypobromous acid when it reacts with the bromide ions in the water. The bromide ions don't care whether the oxidizer is hypochlorous acid (chlorine), Potasium Monopersulfate (MPS...non chlorine shock, doesn't matter what brand, they are all the same and manufactured by DuPont under the trade name Oxone. DuPont developed and patented the product), or ozone. The net result of bromide ions reacting with an oxidizing agent is the formation of hypobromous acid in the water. That is your active sanitizer in a bromine system. A second advantage of bleach is that it will not cause the pH to drop like non chlorine shock will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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