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Bromine and CYA


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Hi there.  I'm the maintenance supervisor at a hotel, and we are planning on changing from chlorine to bromine. Little backstory....

Years ago we used stabilized chlorine, but found it difficult to maintain a stable Cl level without the CYA shooting through the roof. Then we switched to an unstabilized chlorine and added a CYA conditioner, so the maintenance of that was easier. Problem was that the chlorine tablets we got were very fast dissolving, and we need to add chlorine to our inline chlorinator a couple times a day to maintain a good level. Side note, we tried adding a bunch of tablets to the chlorinator with the hope of tempering the level using the valve control, but our Cl levels were off the chart.

In the very near future, we are planning on switching to bromine. I was told by our supplier that we do not have to worry about adding and CYA conditioner to the tub while using this. 

True or no?

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Chlorine tablets, dichlor and trichlor, are bound with cyanuric acid (CYA), and CYA also binds active chlorine in solution. However CYA does not bind with bromine, and it would be best not to have CYA in a bromine tub.

In tablet form, bromine is bound with a chemical called dimethylhydantoin. Bromine tabs are 1-Bromo-3-chloro-5,5-dimethylhydantoin (BCDMH), containing both bromine and chlorine bound by the  dimethylhydantoin. When the tablets dissolve in water, the chlorine activates the bromine into hypobromous acid, the active sanitizer, leaving only bromine in the water. The dimethylhydantoin binds some of the bromine in solution similarly to CYA with chlorine.

In a bromine tub where no BCDMH tablets are used, referred to as the bromine two step method, you establish a bromine bank by adding sodium bromide to usually about 50 ppm. Then an oxidizer is used to convert the sodium bromide into hypobromous acid. The oxidizer can be either potassium peroxymonosulfate (MPS) or liquid chlorine (bleach). In this case there is no dimethylhydantoin in the water.

In the bromine three step method, a bromine bank is established, oxidizer is used to convert the sodium bromide to active bromine, and the bromine tablets (BCDMH) are used in a floater to keep the bromine levels up when the tub is not in use for longer periods of time.

It would be a good idea for you to understand the chemistry in a much more detailed way than this simplified explanation.

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