Spa chemistry question

[astroprojector]

I have a 400 gal spa. I have been using the bromine for couple of years, but it looks like I was using it all wrong. I have read the "How do I use Bromine in my spa (or pool)?" and have couple of questions. Every time I fill the spa with water, I just added the Leisure Time bromine starter powder and bromine tablets.I always was wondering what do I need to use to shock the water. I was under impression that bromine and bleach could not be used together, well apparently, it is not so. Since my spa does not have "ozone" and I am using the bromine tablets, I would need to use the 3 steps method.

Just want to confirm:

According to the 3 steps method I need to do the following: Once I fill the spa with new water, I need to add the Leisure Time sodium bromide. "Shock with your preferred oxidizer", I can use regular 6% or now 8.25% bleach. Finally add floater with bromine tablets.

 

[chem geek]

Yes, that is correct. How much oxidizer you need to add depends on how much you use the spa and what setting you have for your bromine feeder. Generally, if you aren't soaking every day or two you set the bromine floater to output enough to maintain a background level of bromine in between soaks and then you add an oxidizer (such as bleach) after your soak to oxidize your bather waste. If you soak more frequently, then you can have the bromine feeder opened up more if you want and then would add less oxidizer after a soak -- up to you at that point which way to go.

 

[astroprojector]

Thank you.

 

[TIMMAH]

i was told the same thing at the spa store. they said i couldn't use chlorine in a bromine system. they also said i couldn't use chlorine to convert bromide to bromine. i pointed out that bromainating granules was 82% chlorine and the tablets had 29% available chlorine. they still insisted i couldn't mix chlorine with bromine. like some toxic gas would be made.

i have to keep alk between 65-80 to keep my ph above 7.2
alk of 80 gives me a few days without worring about the ph drop from the tablets.

here is how i do the 3 step
i take out the floater when we use the spa. i have a 400 gal tub with a ozonator.
i have 1 1/2 tabs in the floater witch last about a week. when it gets down to a 1/2 tab i add another tablet.
i have to adjust the alk and ph every few days becasue the tabs i have are acidic. if alk is below 70 i add 1 tbsp ph up "aka baking soda" to raise alk and ph. if alk is 70+ i add soda ash or borax to raise ph.
i use 1 tps of granular chlorine, brominating granules or 2 tps mps for every 20-30 minutes of soak time per person after i use the tub. i run the jets for a min of 10 minutes "i do 20 minutes" then leave it uncovered for min 20 minutes to let it gas out so your cover last longer.
i take out the floater and shock to 20+ ppm every 7-10 days. witch is 1 tbsp of granular chlorine since i run around 6ppm bromine all the time. i leave the floater out until ppm drop below 10 ppm witch is the next day for me.
i can keep the bromine levels really steady like this.
the hard part is dialing in your floater.

ps: i tried the 2 step and the ozonator didn't cut it. i had to go with the 3 step if i didn't want to add chlorine every day. hope that helps, i've just been using bromine for the last 4 months so i'm still new to this. but i have to say i love knowing if i'm gone for a few days my spa is fine.