Bromine pools??????

[Buffalo bill]

I just bought a house with a 20,000 gal inground pool. It has a 160,000 BTU heater and sand filter and everything is closed up for the New York winter. Well its all new to me so I figured I'll figure it out along the way...BUT..... everything I read is for chlorine pools and I know my new house is currently set up for bromine (there is even a partially used 5 gal bucket of 1 inch bromine pucks in the basement) and a bromine feeder inline with the pool.
So whats the big difference? should I convert when I open....why not keep bromine? If I need to convert how do I do it? What do I need to do to keep bromine maintenance? What am I in fer.... PLEASE fill me in guy's....what gives? :-D

 

[spishex]

Is this an outdoor installation or is it enclosed?

 

[Guest]

Bromine is not the best choice for an outdoor pool because it cannot be stabilized against UV light but it is suitable for use in indoor pools. Bromine chemistry is a bit different than chlorine chemistry but it is not hard to learn. It is more expensive than chlorine and really offers no advantages in a swimming pool. It is more useful in spas and hot tubs because of the higher water temperatures.

 

[Heckpools]

i agree with waterbear...

but i also think there is nothing wrong with using bromine, even though i like chlorine better.. i service an outdoor pool that uses bromine because the wife CANNOT swim in chlorine water. it is more expensive then chlorine.

as far as the weekly maintence goes, i do everything pretty much the same as my chlorine pools. Test the water making sure all levels are stable ( PH Alkalintiy, calcium hardness ect.) Depending on the weather may shock the pool every week or once every 2 weeks.. you can not use chlorine shock.. or bleach like ud use with the BBB method. you would use NON-chlorine shock. (100% Potassium Monopersulfate) correct me if im wrong guys..

to convert a bromine pool to chlorine pool- " Once a bromine pool always a bromine pool" is what they say anyway. The only way that i know of is to, drain the pool completely and refill.
This is not something you want to do with an inground pool without the help of a pro. If you have ground water under the pool u can really screw the pool up, not to mention ruin your liner if u have a liner in the pool.

So, i would say just stick with the bromine, unless you find a service company in your are with a good rep and have them drain your pool the safe way, and explain to them you would like to use chlorine and not bromine!

 

[chem geek]

Regarding "once a bromine pool, always a bromine pool", PoolSolutions has some info on that. Apparently, so long as bromine tabs were never used (BCDMH or DBDMH) and the bromide bank isn't too large, then eventually the bromine will dissipate though I can't tell you how long that will take. This makes me suspicious that the 5,5-dimethyl hydantoin (DMH) may have a CYA effect of at least partially binding to bromine, though it may not have the UV-protection effect of CYA.

You should be able to use either chlorine or non-chlorine shock (MPS) to reactivate the bromine. However, since the wife in that pool cannot tolerate chlorine, using MPS is better just to make sure there is no residual chlorine. It takes some time (hours) for either chlorine or MPS to reactivate the bromide to bromine. Unfortunately, there is no easy test to distinguish between bromine and chlorine just as there is no easy test to distinguish between bromide and chloride.

Richard

 

[Buffalo bill]

Thanks guys :-D I guess I'll keep it bromine and see how it goes especially since it's my first pool. I'd rather just pay a little more for chem. than open a can of worms.

 

[Guest]

you can not use chlorine shock.. or bleach like ud use with the BBBmethod. you would use NON-chlorine shock. (100% Potassium Monopersulfate) correct me if im wrong guys..

Not true. Chlorine can effectively be used to oxidize bromide ions into hypobromous acid (bromine sanitizer), as can MPS and also sodium percarbonate. In fact, if you read the label of most bromne tablets you will find that they also contain chlorine to activate the bromine.

 

[Heckpools]

learn something new every day...


makes me wonder why my first boss made it so important to never add chlorine shock into a bromine pool... Ive only had one bromine pool since then so i never looked into it myself

 

[Guest]

learn something new every day...


makes me wonder why my first boss made it so important to never add chlorine shock into a bromine pool... Ive only had one bromine pool since then so i never looked into it myself

Most people don't understand bromine chemistry and they rely on the manufacturers (who in this case appaently wanted to sell MPS which is more expensive than chlorine!)

It's the same mentality that tells people never to use bleach in their pools and then turns around and sells them "liquid shock"!

 

[Molson]

My outdoor inground is a bromine pool. I run the brominator in the spring during warm up, most of last summer the brominator was empty and I simply used liquid chlorine (bleach) to keep the numbers up. For my Br test I simply doubled my TC readings from the TF100 test (or halved it, would have to look, been a while ) all other tests were the same.

I use the brominator when I am going to be away also to keep things balanced.

 

[Guest]

If you are using a chlorine test for bromine you double the reading (actually multiply by 2.25 but doubling is close enough for government work! )

What Molson is referring to is once you have established your 'bromide reserve' in the water all you need to reactivate the bromine is an oxidizer such as bleach! Not exactly BBB but pretty darn close! The only caution with an outdoor bromine pool is that bromine will burn off in sunlight so if your pool gets a lot of direct sun you should test your levels a few times a day until you get an idea of how stable your sanitize leves stay in your pool.

 

[Molson]

exactly. My solar cover sits on the pool whenever its not in use. The pool is very low maintenance, I was adding bleach only every couple days, though last year there was a lot of rain. Pretty much all BBB principles apply, I just add the other B (brominator) occasionally.

 

[Buffalo bill]

Thanxs Guy's this read was a big Help

 

[budster]

And just for additional ammunition, I am under the belief that bromine tends to be more effective at killing bacteria over a wider range of Ph, so, in one sense, it is a more "forgiving" sanitizer. Halides are halides, but, there are plenty of significant nuances, eh?

 

[chem geek]

Not to disagree, but, well, that's what I do.

Bromine is more effective against algae compared to chlorine pools with high CYA levels because bromine isn't reduced in effectiveness by CYA. As for pH, the traditional industry graph showing how ineffective chlorine becomes at higher pH is not true. A comparison of the true graph when CYA is present compared to the industry graph that is only true when there is no CYA is shown here.

Going from a pH of 7.5 to 8.0 reduces the active chlorine (hypochlorous acid) concentration by a little over 50% when there is no CYA in the water and that's what the industry graph shows. However, with CYA present, the active chlorine concentration drops by a little less than 15% so not a huge deal. Note, however, that the huge drop in effectiveness without CYA is a moot point since the active chlorine concentration without CYA is so much higher -- algae wouldn't grow even with a 50% drop in chlorine levels if there was no CYA. To prevent algae growth, it takes less than the equivalent of 0.1 ppm FC with no CYA. The problem is that one cannot readily maintain that low an FC everywhere in the pool at all times. That's why CYA is so great -- not just for protecting chlorine from sunlight, but by being able to lower the active chlorine concentration while still providing a hefty reserve to not run out of chlorine locally. In a very real sense, it is an active chlorine buffer.

Richard