Bromine startup problem

[organic]

Hi.  I've had my 7x7, ~350 gallon  Master Spa tub for five years.  It does not have a circ. pump, but it does have an ozonator bubbling into the water.  Hopefully, that's really working, but I don't think it does much.

I'm starting up with bromine for the 2nd time after using chlorine for the first four years. It's been about 24 hours since I filled the tub and added about 2oz of Sodium Bromide as a bank and some(half cap) of MPS.  After 10 hours, Taylor test reads zero ppm bromine.  I added some more NaBr and MPS expecting that to register a few ppm of bromine on a Taylor water test, but it's still reading zero after another hour.  I have a bromine 1" tablet floater in there, too, with about one tablet exposed. Am I missing something?  I'm reluctant to sprinkle in any chlorine in there to activate the bromine because then I'll always wonder if I'm just registering a chlorine reading, not a bromine reading.

FYI, when I used to use chlorine, if I registered zero ppm of chlorine for more than a day or two the water would completely cloud up and I usually drained the tub.

Thanks for any advice.

[JWM6687]

Hello.  I'm going to assume you are following waterbear's 3-step method from the sticky on this forum.  That also assumes you adjusted TA to 50-70 ppm, adjusted PH to 7.4-7.8, and adjusted CA to at least 130 ppm before adding the sodium bromide.  Assuming this is all correct, my first question would be do you have pure sodium bromide?  The container it came in should state that it is at least 99% sodium bromide, otherwise waterbear's suggestion for 1/2 oz of sodium bromide per 100 gallons of water would not be applicable.

If you have pure sodium bromide, and followed all the other steps, my next question would be if you used a purging product (such as Ahhsome) before draining?  You could have some nasties (biofilm) in the lines creating a sanitizer demand.  I would suggest purging if you haven't already done so.  I use pool chlorine (10% sodium hypochlorite) to oxidize my bromide bank, so I'm not sure how much MPS should be used for the initial shock.  Bleach works well for bromine oxidation, its cheaper and it gives immediate results.

[organic]

Thanks so much for responding.  I was basically following the Leisure Time bromine guide, but now I'll reference waterbear's pinned post.  It's Leisure Time 99% Sodium Bromide.  I first added Calcium Hardness to 110, but ran out of product.  Then, added baking soda to get alkalinity up and it's at 90.  pH was 7.8.  Now it's about 7.6.  Then added a couple ounces of the NaBr and about a tsp of MPS. Over the years of keeping a chlorine tub I've never liked MPS.  I've found that it doesn't seem to do much and I was always better off(water stayed clear and test showed some chlorine) if I added dichlor after tubbing and barely ever used MPS.  After 24 hours of zero bromine, I added more MPS, waited, and tested.  I got more Calcium and so have the hardness up to 200 now. Still zero ppm of bromine and so then last night I put some granular dichlor in.  30 mins later I recorded 1ppm of Br(or .5ppm Cl?, it's the same test!)  I have a Taylor 2105 Complete(low) test kit.

The biofilm statement is very interesting.  I don't use the tub all summer and have never had success fully blowing out the plumbing, so I just drain it in June and let it sit 'as is' and when I fill it in Oct I turn it on and blast the jets for just a few mins and the gunk in the plumbing enters the tub.  I turn it off and drain and refill again.  I've done that the last 2 years.  The 2nd filling still had a little bit of gunk but it's filtered to clear now.  I think I used Ahhsome or similar once, but did not this time. My thought was the chlorine and bromine will essentially do the same thing and run 24hrs vs. 15 mins of Ahhsome.  I'm interested to hear your wisdom, though.

I fear you're going to tell me to use Ahhsome and then drain and refill.  If so, it's really such an effective product?  Can I chlorine superdose the tub and get the same result without such effort?

[JWM6687]

I would personally suggest sticking with waterbear's guide.  It has made my maintenance a breeze once I figured out my feeder setting.  After the initial balance I only have to put new tablets in the feeder and maybe up my TA with some baking soda once a month.  PH stays right at 7.8 until the TA starts to drop over the course of the month.

As far as purging goes, this forum is full of stories about biofilm and purging products.  You will find Ahhsome highly recommended throughout the forum and @Ahhsomeguy is around for any questions you have about it.  As far as effectiveness goes, dlleno did some great independent research on different purge products that can be found in his blog https://rvdoug.com/hot-tub-maintenance/

I purge at every refill myself after reading many horror stories on this forum.  That along with following waterbear's 3-step bromine system has kept my tub crystal clear and everyone in my family safe.  I'm not an expert by any means, but would run a purge cycle or two or three until you stop getting gunk out of the lines if I were you.