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Put Leisure Time Bromine Tabs In Spa Frog Cartridge... Couple Other Questions


farwellbooth

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Hello,

I'm a bit of a spa newbie (2 months on first fill) and I have taken apart a Spa Frog cartridge and running Leisure Time bromine tabs in it. A setting of 1, the lowest and least amount of holes has been keeping my bromine level at an ideal level of 1-2 ppm, testing with a Taylor kit. A few questions:

-Does anyone see any major problems with doing this? I have a 550 gallon Caldera Cantrabria and it eats through Spa Frog Bromine cartridges (the original non-modified cartridges) in 1.5 weeks at a setting of 4 (this kept my bromine level at 1.2 ppm). Lost of water and a quite a bit of use being new to us. Only 2 of us though...

-Do I always need to add the Leisure Time Renew tabs at non shock intervals? I shock with these once a week of which gets the bromine at 6-8 however mid week my bromine has occasionally gotten close to zero. Once I add a bit of Renew, it comes right up. Is my reserve too low (I added enough sodium bromide reserve at initial fill) or do I just always need to add a bit of Renew? The bromine tabs themselves have dichlor correct, which should activate the bromine without renew, meaning not enough tabs are dissolving? When I shock though there seems to be enough bromide ions converting to hypobromous acid.

-Can I use regular bleach instead of Leisure Time Renew tabs with the Leisure Time bromine tabs?

-My system has 2 Spa Frog cartridges stacked on top of each other. The top cartridge is a mineral cartridge of which I have left alone and opened all the way to 6, per the instructions. I'm assuming this will work fine with my bromine tab modification in the lower cartridge? And with or without the modification, do the minerals actually do anything? The package doesn't state ingredients. I take the cartridge out to shake once in awhile and none of the "rocks" seem to be dissolving. Being a new tub it has an ozonator and I like the idea of keeping the bromine low with the use of minerals and ozone however not sure if the Spa Frog mineral cartridge is BS and worth changing at water change/3 months?

-My water has always been very clear with chemistry relatively in range. My only problem is the PH has a tendency to go up. I use the tub with 2 waterfalls, full air in the jets and often times air on/TONS of aeration. The aeration I believe is driving my PH up? I've read the alkalinity and PH threads here and trying hard to balance. Even when my alkalinity is locked in at 80, the PH will creep up. The PH is at 8 usually, is this too high? I add PH down, then alkalinity goes down, I add alk up, ph goes up, it has been a bit of a ph alkalinity roller coaster. If my alkalinity is at 80 and ph is at 8, is ph too high? Is this damaging?

Many thanks all, appreciate the forum and help!

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-Does anyone see any major problems with doing this? I have a 550 gallon Caldera Cantrabria and it eats through Spa Frog Bromine cartridges (the original non-modified cartridges) in 1.5 weeks at a setting of 4 (this kept my bromine level at 1.2 ppm). Lost of water and a quite a bit of use being new to us. Only 2 of us though...

I don't know if there's anything wrong with the mix you are doing, but certainly having bromine tabs in a feeder is OK. It would seem that putting them into the Spa Frog cartridge and dialing to what works for you should be OK, but I don't know.

-Do I always need to add the Leisure Time Renew tabs at non shock intervals? I shock with these once a week of which gets the bromine at 6-8 however mid week my bromine has occasionally gotten close to zero. Once I add a bit of Renew, it comes right up. Is my reserve too low (I added enough sodium bromide reserve at initial fill) or do I just always need to add a bit of Renew? The bromine tabs themselves have dichlor correct, which should activate the bromine without renew, meaning not enough tabs are dissolving? When I shock though there seems to be enough bromide ions converting to hypobromous acid.

Leisure Time Renew Tabs are non-chlorine shock (MPS) with some pH balancing so they aren't as acidic as regular MPS products. What you describe is normal and not an indication of the reserve being low. When you add an oxidizer, be it Dichlor, MPS, bleach or ozone, then if bromide is present it will get converted to bromine. If your bromine level gets low, that simply means you aren't using enough oxidizer after each soak to handle your bather waste.

-Can I use regular bleach instead of Leisure Time Renew tabs with the Leisure Time bromine tabs?

Absolutely. This will be a lot less expensive. Just note that MPS will oxidize some bather waste before it converts bromide to bromine whereas chlorine reacts more quickly to convert bromide to bromine. Even so, most bromine spa users find that they can use chlorine rather than MPS to keep their water clear and to produce the extra bromine (beyond that provided by tabs) that they need.

-My system has 2 Spa Frog cartridges stacked on top of each other. The top cartridge is a mineral cartridge of which I have left alone and opened all the way to 6, per the instructions. I'm assuming this will work fine with my bromine tab modification in the lower cartridge? And with or without the modification, do the minerals actually do anything? The package doesn't state ingredients. I take the cartridge out to shake once in awhile and none of the "rocks" seem to be dissolving. Being a new tub it has an ozonator and I like the idea of keeping the bromine low with the use of minerals and ozone however not sure if the Spa Frog mineral cartridge is BS and worth changing at water change/3 months?

The minerals are not necessary if you properly maintain a disinfectant level. With the ozonator and a bromide bank and also with bromine tabs you should be able to maintain a background bromine level at all times. You just need to make sure you add enough oxidizer after your soak so that the bromine level doesn't get to zero anytime after the soak.

-My water has always been very clear with chemistry relatively in range. My only problem is the PH has a tendency to go up. I use the tub with 2 waterfalls, full air in the jets and often times air on/TONS of aeration. The aeration I believe is driving my PH up? I've read the alkalinity and PH threads here and trying hard to balance. Even when my alkalinity is locked in at 80, the PH will creep up. The PH is at 8 usually, is this too high? I add PH down, then alkalinity goes down, I add alk up, ph goes up, it has been a bit of a ph alkalinity roller coaster. If my alkalinity is at 80 and ph is at 8, is ph too high? Is this damaging?

Yes, the aeration forces more carbon dioxide to outgas from the water and that causes the pH to rise. If your TA is lower, then there will be less of this outgassing and less pH rise (TA is mostly a measure of the amount of bicarbonate in the water), but if you lower your TA a lot, say to 50 ppm, then I'd strongly suggest supplementing with an additional pH buffer such as 50 ppm Borates you can add from boric acid. The pH of 8 is not a problem in a bromine spa, but if your CH is too high then you have the risk of calcium carbonate scaling. If your pH were 8.0 and TA 80, then at 104ºF temperature the saturation index is near zero with a CH of 60 ppm so if your CH is much higher than that then you could get scaling and that would be bad. It's probably best for you to lower the TA level (i.e. don't raise it when it gets lower from adding acid) and don't try to have the pH stay down at 7.5 and only add acid when it gets to 7.8. The 50 ppm Borates will slow the rate of pH rise, though won't save on the amount of acid you have to add -- it's the lower TA and higher pH target that lessen the amount of acid needed over time.

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  • 2 years later...

I just started using the LT tabs in my Frog cartridge. Results seemed ok. My bromine was also on the high end even with cartridge dialed to one. Plus chlorine now read high on the test strips, when it hardly appeared at all with the Frog bromine.

My question is am I getting the same result when I see the Leisuretime tabs have less of the active ingredient and other similar named ingredients.

Leisuretime Bromtabs

  • 1-bromo-3-chloro-5, 5-dimethylhydantoin - 54%
  • 1,3-dichloro-5,5-dimethylhydantoin - 28.9%
  • 1,3-dichloro-5-ethyl-5-methylhydantoin - 15.9%
  • Other Ingredients - 1% Directions for use:

Frog bromine cartridge:

1-Bromo-3-Chloro-5,5-Dimethylhydantoin: 96%

Other Ingredients: 4%

Thanks

Ron

P.S. I see plenty of other name brand tablets that have same ingredients as Frog bromine cartridge, it's just I bought 3 bottle of the Leisuretime online to save and am stuck with it for now.

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