Fighting The Bromine Battle

[parttimer]

I recently picked up a used Jacuzzi tub and got it set up. I did not know about the bromide reserve and filed the tub, added the metal remover, dropped my floater in with tabs and added bromine crystals. That night I tested, and needed to lower my PH a tad to get in the 7.5 range, bromine levels were at about 5, and everything else was ok. We used the tub, and I checked the next morning, bromine was at zero. That night I added bromine again, waited about 1/2 hour, tested at a 6 and we used the tub. Seems like I was doing this process every day. Then I read about the reserve and adding bromide. I picked up 4 packets of HTH bromstart, added 2 of them, figuring my tub to be about 350 gallons. I checked the next day, nada, so i added bromine. I have been going back and forth with this for a week now. I even added another 2 packs of the brom start. I assume I am missing something since the bromide is not converting. I will say my house water is filtered to remove chlorine and other chemicals so I have pretty clean water. So what am I missing so I am not adding chems each day to the tub??

[AlbertD]

I'm new to this too, and haven't started getting my bromide bank/bromine up yet (I'm in the decontamination stage), but I would say to post up a full test result on your Spa's water values. That does sound excessive to me. But if you can start with letting the smarter people in this group know the rest of your reading, it may help lead them in a direction. Also make note of what exact spa manufacturer/model you have. As they may have different components that add to the mix (ozonator, etc).

PS. Welcome!

[chem geek]

Your used Jacuzzi may have biofilm, greases and oils in it consuming oxidizer (bromine). I suggest you get Ahh-Some to do a thorough cleaning.

[dlleno]

+1 on the purge. the clearest signal of biofilms is that your sanitizer levels quickly go to zero. after the purge, follow the bromine plans listed here. I personally like adding the bromine bank up front and then using bleach (oxidizer) for the bromine conversion.

[Sponge]

Had the EXACT same thing. Bought some Ahh-Some and followed the instructions. Afterwards everything went back to normal.

[dlleno]

great to hear Sponge! like hearing purge success stories :-) my spa was delivered pre-contaminated with biofilms (which grew in transit after wet testing), and i am a firm believer not only in the ahh-some product, but in the practice of purging regularly. I now purge my tub EVERY drain. Once you have corrected a biofilm problem with Ahh-some and a good 50ppm decon, my recommendation for portable spas especially is to simply dose with ahh-some right before you drain. raise FC to some reasonable level to insure a good kill of whatever ahh-some releases, and then neutralize if needed with peroxide before draining.

[KyleCT]

Normally the best bet is to add brom bank, but with that you need to add equal parts of an activator such as MPS, I would check out www.hottubchemicals.com and go to their knowledgebase area, helped me a lot with bromine questions and how to use it.

[dlleno]

If someone says you need "equal parts " of anything for a bromine spa i would turn around and leave.

The two step method described here works great. All you need is a sodium bromide bank and an oxidizer such as mps, dichlor, or bleach