Hello. I read the sticky note on Bromine usage for a hot tub and I have some confusion. I'm going to do a drain and fresh water fill because it's been about 4 months since my last water change. I always use the HTH Bromine Reserve packet once the hot tub has been refilled and then I use bromine tabs in a floater after. I always thought this was the proper way to do this, but then I'm reading I have to add chlorine once a week to convert the bromine to sanitize? I thought the bromine was sanitizing? I don't have an ozonator on my hot tub because it's an older model 350 gallon Jacuzzi hot tub. I have been fighting the low TA/ high PH problem but I think I've solved it since reading these threads because I'm keeping my TA way higher than I need to. If I have to add something after my bromide reserve and before my bromine tabs, please tell me what I need. I always seem to battle high bromine in my hot tub every time I fill my floater, even though I keep it on the lowest setting. Thanks.
Bromine Help
- Thread starter digger0713
- Start date
- Jul 3, 2013
- 9,028
- Pool Size
- 15000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool SJ-40
The best luck I had was taking my hot tub to SLAM with liquid chlorine once a week but I just could never get bromine right... I tried and tried then went to chlorine and worked way better..
taking your TA down to about 60/70 should help with PH rise, it will still go up depending on how much the tub is used..
taking your TA down to about 60/70 should help with PH rise, it will still go up depending on how much the tub is used..
Chlorine converts bromide to bromine(your sanitizer).
The bromide tabs also contain an ingredient that converts bromide to bromine.
You could skip the tabs and just add chlorine as needed since you have a bromide reserve from the HTH packet.
The tabs are handy if you want to "set it and forget it" but they make it more difficult to keep the levels in the ideal range because they're adding when it might not be needed, or might not add enough. You have more control when adding the chlorine as needed based on bather load, testing, and experience. The tabs don't know if there were 7 kids in and out of the water for an hour or there hasn't been anyone in there for 8 days.
The bromide tabs also contain an ingredient that converts bromide to bromine.
You could skip the tabs and just add chlorine as needed since you have a bromide reserve from the HTH packet.
The tabs are handy if you want to "set it and forget it" but they make it more difficult to keep the levels in the ideal range because they're adding when it might not be needed, or might not add enough. You have more control when adding the chlorine as needed based on bather load, testing, and experience. The tabs don't know if there were 7 kids in and out of the water for an hour or there hasn't been anyone in there for 8 days.
Thanks for the help. I definitely think my PH rise is due to me keeping the TA so high. I'm going to keep it much lower. I think I'll give chlorine a try this time around since I'm doing a fresh fill anyways. I'll see how that goes. Hopefully I can keep better control of the ppm with liquid chlorine instead. Thanks.
I used the HTH Bromine Reserve packet first. I've since begun adding chlorine following the pool math calculations with good results so far. I plan to continue to use this method and put my bromine tabs and floater on the shelf for awhile. I like keeping better control of my chlorine level. Using the floater it would continue to add to my hot tub and put my numbers high all the time. Right now I'm in the process of lowering my PH to 7.2 to drop my alkalinity down to around 60 from 100. I think that is the reason I get so much swing with my PH level always being high. All recommendations from other websites and testing packages recommended the TA between 80-120. I didn't know any better and kept it in the higher range and could never control my PH properly. I think I'll have much better success around 60 or 70 ppm for Alkalinity. So far pool math has been right on.