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Converting From Bromine To Chlorine


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I have had my tub for 2 months now. The first 2 weeks were he'll untill I found the advice of this board. I have been using 3 step bromine without a single problem. 6 weeks in my 200 gal tub with daily 1 hour soaks and the water looks like day 1.

I think I have enough of an understanding about water chemisty to give the Dichlor/Bleach method a try. I have no problems with bromine other than a very slight smell it gives off. Just wanted to see what was on the other side of the fence so I will know which sanitizer is right for me.

Question: Can I convert my Taylor test kit from bromine to chlorine simply by getting chlorine reagents. I see the testing unit has a place to read CYA, another reagent??? I need to pick up more bromine reagent anyway. Maybe i will stop by my pool store and see if they can help me out. Also if I decide I like the dichlor/bleach method where is a good place to get CYA??? Thanks in advance for any advice to help me with my switch.

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If you have the Taylor K-2106 kit for bromine, then you can just approximate by counting each drop in the FAS-DPD test using a 10 ml sample size as being 0.5 ppm chlorine instead of 1.25 ppm (technically, each drop will be 0.56 ppm chlorine, but 0.5 is close enough). If using a 25 ml sample, then each drop will be about 0.2 ppm chlorine instead of 0.5 ppm bromine (technically, each drop will be 0.22 ppm chlorine, but 0.2 is close enough). If you want to be able to test for Combined Chlorine (CC), then you'll need to get R-0003 reagent. If you want to test for Cyanuric Acid (CYA), then you'll need additional components, but you can probably get away not testing for that explicitly.

As for CYA, just use Dichlor initially until you've cumulatively added about 33 ppm FC since that will get you 30 ppm CYA. Should take about a week or so depending on spa usage. After that, you just use Dichlor one day per month to boost the CYA by about 5 ppm since it tends to drop that much each month. All other times, you use bleach. The important thing is to get your TA level way down and to use 50 ppm Borates so that your pH becomes more stable. See Dichlor/bleach Method In A Nutshell.

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If you have the Taylor K-2106 kit for bromine, then you can just approximate by counting each drop in the FAS-DPD test using a 10 ml sample size as being 0.5 ppm chlorine instead of 1.25 ppm (technically, each drop will be 0.56 ppm chlorine, but 0.5 is close enough). If using a 25 ml sample, then each drop will be about 0.2 ppm chlorine instead of 0.5 ppm bromine (technically, each drop will be 0.22 ppm chlorine, but 0.2 is close enough). If you want to be able to test for Combined Chlorine (CC), then you'll need to get R-0003 reagent. If you want to test for Cyanuric Acid (CYA), then you'll need additional components, but you can probably get away not testing for that explicitly.

As for CYA, just use Dichlor initially until you've cumulatively added about 33 ppm FC since that will get you 30 ppm CYA. Should take about a week or so depending on spa usage. After that, you just use Dichlor one day per month to boost the CYA by about 5 ppm since it tends to drop that much each month. All other times, you use bleach. The important thing is to get your TA level way down and to use 50 ppm Borates so that your pH becomes more stable. See Dichlor/bleach Method In A Nutshell.

Thanks for the info. I will pick up the R0003 reagent and I already have dichlor and proteam supream plus borates on hand. I will give it a try to see how the dichlor bleach works with my tub. Thanks for being such a great contributor and resource for newbies like me.

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Just to double-check... you know you have to drain and refill to get rid of the bromine, before you start dichlor/bleach? You can't switch off of bromine in mid-stream, as it were; the bromine doesn't go away like chlorine does.

Typically with a new tub you want to do the first water change after just a couple months anyway.

--paulr

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Just to double-check... you know you have to drain and refill to get rid of the bromine, before you start dichlor/bleach? You can't switch off of bromine in mid-stream, as it were; the bromine doesn't go away like chlorine does.

Typically with a new tub you want to do the first water change after just a couple months anyway.

--paulr

Yes, thanks for the heads up. My tub is 200 gal and I am 6 weeks into the fill. The water still looks great but has a stronger bromide smell that I can't shake even with a shock. I use the tub 1 hour daily. Must just be organic build up causing the smell. I would like to stretch the fills out to 8 weeks, want to see if dichlor/bleach will let me do that.

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  • 8 years later...

We’re switching from bromine to chlorine in our hot tub because we put a salt water pool in the backyard and don’t want to mess up the pool chemistry. The hot tub is a 2004 Tiger River Bengal model, which came with our recently purchased house.

The hot tub sat empty in the yard for 2 months while the pool was built. We refilled it, added a product called Clean Start, ran it for a few hours, and found the water had turned a sickly greenish yellow color, which we we drained. I took a picture in to the local spa store. The clerk there gave me another bottle of Clean Start and some SpaGuard chlorinating concentrate. He told us to run 3 caps of the chlorinating concentrate for a few hours or overnight and the the Clean Start again and that should fix the issue. The water was lighter in color, but this time I took a sample in to be tested. I spoke to a different clerk, and he tested the sample and told me there is a lot of bromine in the water along with chlorine, and not to get in it because it is harmful. He thinks the bromine is stuck in the plumbing. He gave me two bottles of Clean Start, told me to put both in and run the jets overnight, which I did. It’s running now. When my husband gets home from work today, we will empty the tub again, refill it, and take a sample in for testing.

I just found this forum, among other publications, one of which said that it is not possible to switch from bromine to chlorine. Is that true? Is trying to change the chemistry in our spa an exercise in futility? Please help.

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