bad spa water

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wkussmaul

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Aug 29, 2010
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Hello TFP gurus,
I have had little trouble with my spa these many years, using bromine + floater + ozonator + occasional bleach as needed.
I test the bromine every 3-4 days using the ColorQ system.

I recently noticed the bromine levels climbing, climbing, climbing-- without my adding anything-- then the water turned greenish but not cloudy.

I figured something is growing in there and binding all my bromine as "bromamines", analagous to chloramines in the pool.
So, I shocked the heck out of the water with bleach and MPS.

Did I do right?

If so, is there a way to measure free and total bromine similar to free and total chlorine? The ColorQ just gives one bromine reading.
If I could have measured the effects earlier, I might have shocked the water sooner.
 
Of course that would be an option. I do drain and refill every 4-6 months (the spa doesn't get frequent use).
I recently refilled and didn't want to waste the water.

I am still curious about answers to the questions I posed in the original post.
 
As you add more bromine to the tub with tabs, the bromide bank increases and the ozonator will create more bromine from it. After some amount of time using tabs after a fill, you can probably remove them and just have the ozonator generate more bromine from the bromide bank. If you have too much bromide so that your ozonator is making too much bromine, you'd have to reduce your ozonator on-time.

I'm not sure why the water has a green color unless your pH got high and you've got metals in the water.

There isn't a test distinguishing between free bromine and combined bromine because monobromamine (NH2Br) is in equilibrium with monobromammonium ion (NH3Br+) and that produces a very reactive positive bromine ion (Br+) that reacts with DPD and other sanitizer indicator dyes. That's why all bromine tests are for Total Bromine and is also why monobromamine is still considered to be a sanitizer, even though it can smell.
 
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