Can't Get My Bromine Level Up!

[r4614]

I recently set up a used spa at my place and I'm having trouble getting the bromine level up. The guy at the spa store had us clean the spa out by running heavily chlorinated water through it, then we drained and cleaned it. When we refilled the spa, he had us add sodium bromine, a product to remove the metals from the water and a product to balance the ph, along with 2 bromine tabs in a floater.

On day one, the bromine level seemed fine, but I haven't been able to get it above zero (according to Aquachek test strip) since then. I had my water tested at the spa store yesterday and they confirmed that the bromine level was low and told us to add more bromine tablets to the floater. Yesterday afternoon I put 3 tabs in (on top of the remains that were left from several days ago), but this morning we're still at zero bromine.

I think the spa holds about 300 gal. of water... am I just not using enough bromine or could something else be wrong?

I have some people coming over to soak later today, and I'm concerned about having them in there if my water isn't just right.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Shock with MPS or chlorine to re-establish the used bromine in the tub.

[Elbyron]

The spa store probably sold you some "non-chlorine shock", whose main ingredient is potassium monopersulphate or something similar. This is the MPS that hillbillly refers to. Using MPS tends to slowly decrease pH and total alkalinity, and it adds sulfates to the water. Shocking with chlorine is probably a better choice (your tablets actually include some chlorine, but you usually still need to add more).

The store might sell chlorine as calcium hypochlorite (increases water hardness), lithium hypochlorite (expensive), or dichlor (ok, but still a bit pricey). Your best bet is sodium hypochlorite, which in its liquid form is found in ordinary unscented laundry bleach. For a 300 gallon tub, use 1 cup of regular bleach (5.25%) or 3/4 cup of ultra bleach (6.00%). Turn on the jets before dumping it in, and be careful not to spill on the tub or on yourself. Don't tell the spa store - they don't like it when people use bleach even though it doesn't do any harm (unless you spill on the tub).

If you test an hour after adding the bleach, your bromine reading should jump way up. If it doesn't, you don't have enough sodium bromide. Depending how high it jumped, you may have to wait several more hours before going in. You're not supposed to go in if the level is over 10ppm, but I've done it (not patient enough to wait for it to drop) and didn't get any irritation, though I did shower off afterwards.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

The spa store probably sold you some "non-chlorine shock", whose main ingredient is potassium monopersulphate or something similar. This is the MPS that hillbillly refers to. Using MPS tends to slowly decrease pH and total alkalinity, and it adds sulfates to the water. Shocking with chlorine is probably a better choice (your tablets actually include some chlorine, but you usually still need to add more).

The store might sell chlorine as calcium hypochlorite (increases water hardness), lithium hypochlorite (expensive), or dichlor (ok, but still a bit pricey). Your best bet is sodium hypochlorite, which in its liquid form is found in ordinary unscented laundry bleach. For a 300 gallon tub, use 1 cup of regular bleach (5.25%) or 3/4 cup of ultra bleach (6.00%). Turn on the jets before dumping it in, and be careful not to spill on the tub or on yourself. Don't tell the spa store - they don't like it when people use bleach even though it doesn't do any harm (unless you spill on the tub).

If you test an hour after adding the bleach, your bromine reading should jump way up. If it doesn't, you don't have enough sodium bromide. Depending how high it jumped, you may have to wait several more hours before going in. You're not supposed to go in if the level is over 10ppm, but I've done it (not patient enough to wait for it to drop) and didn't get any irritation, though I did shower off afterwards.

You need to wait longer than an hour to test or the bleach will give a false bromine reading. I would test the next day. We suggest MPS because it deacreases the bromine smell and will give you a reading of the actual bromine in the tub after a few hours. MPS can lower your PH a bit, but so can some forms of chlorine and others such as bleach can raise the PH.

Over time as you continue to add bromine tablets, your bromine reserve will continue to increase, you will notice this when you have to shock, the bromine level will be very high.

[Mwh]

I need to reactivate the bromine levels in my hot tub but I only have stabilised chlorine granules - is this ok to shock with or do I need to buy a specific shock treatment?