SJ Hart Posted November 12, 2009 Report Share Posted November 12, 2009 I've noticed that I'm constantly taking my bromine floater out of my spa as the bromine level seems to get too high. If I leave it in, I have it on the minimum opening. If you have a proper bromine reserve and an ozone system, is the floater necessary? Also, does adding non-chlorine shock raise bromine levels? Does the ozone system constantly use up the reserve? There doesn't seem to be anyway to measure the bromine reserve. I'm thinking of not using my bromine floater unless we are out of our home traveling, etc. Thanks. SJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quantumchromodynamics Posted November 12, 2009 Report Share Posted November 12, 2009 Oxidizers like chlorine, ozone and potassium monopersulfate (aka MPS or non-chlorine shock) will oxidize bromide ions into active hypobromous acid. There is no cheap way to measure just bromide ions. There are cheap tests that will test for chloride that will also count bromide (and probably iodide, and fluoride (edit-probably not fluoride-end edit) as well). The bromine reserve is in the form of bromide ions. The bromide ions are oxidized to form hypobromous acid. As the hypobromous acid is used up, it becomes bromide ions again. Therefore, the reserve never goes away. (Well, it does go away slowly through dilution and other forms of dissipation.) The only difference in active bromine and inactive bromide ions is the number of electrons in the outermost "valence" electron shell. Active bromine has 6 electrons in the outer shell and bromide ions have 8. When a bromide ion is oxidized, it loses 2 electrons. When bromine oxidizes things in the water, it takes two electrons from the other compound and becomes bromide again. I will usually modify a floating tab feeder by closing it all the way and drilling a few small holes to limit the water transfer rate. Also, use only 1 tab at a time. Caution: Don't create a situation where tabs are in a feeder with no water flow as that could lead to excessive buildup of concentrated bromine. The floater is not necessary. The ozone will do all, or part, of the oxidation of the bromide ions. You can do the rest with bleach or MPS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJ Hart Posted November 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2009 Thanks for taking the time to provide such a complete answer. Helps a lot. SJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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