Bromine pool with algae... help!

[Cjefoster]

Hello everyone - this is my first post, so please excuse any faux pas on my part.

I have a 20,000 IGP, and use bromine as the sanitizer. I had the pool built 3 years ago, and the builder told us that bromine was the way to go, so we went with his advice. Apart from the high cost of the bromine, we haven't had any complaints or issues. Until now...

I open my pool on Tuesday and was greeted by a green pool smiling back. I added 6 x 1lb bags of non-chlorine shock, as that is all I had on hand. I filled up the bromine feeder with 1 inch bromine tabs and turned it up to max, and left the filter running 24 hours a day.

I called my pool shop (who also built the pool 3 years ago). They suggested I pour in 5 gallons of chlorine and a sodium bromide algecide product.

My wife tested the pool on Wednesday and told me that the bromine level was 1ppm. This seemed odd to me as I was expecting virtually no Bromine to be in the pool. On Wednesday I cleaned out the filter, added the 5 gallons of chlorine and algecide recommended by the pool place, and have left the pump running 24 hours a day. The pH was slightly low, so I added pH up and got the pH to 7.4. By the way, we have the Taylor FAS-DPD Bromine test kit.

One Thursday the pool was a slightly brighter shade of green, perhaps from my brushing the pool (the plaster is white).

On Friday I cleaned out the filter again, brushed the pool, and added another 5 gallons of chlorine and another bottle of the algecide. Shortly afterwards we tested the bromine level and it was off the chart. We stopped adding drops when it got to 10ppm (we usually try to keep the pool at around 3ppm).

I'm looking for advice on how to proceed here. My current question is how to apply the SLAM approach to a bromine pool. The technique describes how to test CYA and FC, but I don't think those apply to a bromine pool so I'm not sure how to get started. Also, I don't think my test kit can test for FC, but I can pick up one if needed.

I'll post a picture of the pool shortly.

Looking forward to the journey that lies ahead!

Chris

 

[MarianParoo]

Liquid chlorine will "regenerate" your bromine bank, which is the one advantage to bromine. I had an outdoor bromine pool for 11+ years. I switched to chlorine when I had to get a new liner. It is probably the best decision I ever made besides getting a home testkit.

 

[cowboycasey]

Chris, welcome to TFP

Almost all Bromine on here are spa's and hot tubs so not many deal with Bromine.. I use to but I could never get it right also... I know it works, because people have done them... With that said this is all I can really help with and I am sure you know most of this already since you have been doing Bromine, sorry about this.. I know from reading you have the great Bromine test kit

How do I use Bromine in my spa (or pool)?)

 

[Cjefoster]

Here is a picture of the pool when I first opened it on Tuesday.
I'm not sure whether I should be testing the bromine level or not, so will try adding a couple of gallons of bleach (12% strength) a day along with regular brushing and cleaning the filter.
I will keep you posted [emoji85]

 

[Donldson]

SLAMing your pool will be roughly the same as with chlorine, you will just target 20 ppm Br level instead of 10 FC. Use pool math and divide your numbers bromine by 2 in the current FC and target FC places to figure out how much bleach to add to keep yourself at SLAM level. Be careful of going over 20 Br since it is unstabilized. Other than that follow the directions until you get things clear. When you get the water clear you can run the OCLT with 2 ppm Br instead of 1 ppm FC as your overnight loss limit.