I need some help! Bromine pool

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J

Jeffwantstoswim

0
Jun 1, 2013
29
We installed a 35,000 gal in ground pool about 4 years ago and I've been able to keep very clear water, until this year. I cannot get the water to clear up for nothing.
I have a sand filter, use bromine run the pump from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm - not much use this year due to weather.
I opened the pool early April to seal the pool deck, didn't really do anything to the pool other than a quick cleaning, balanced the chemicals -while sealing, I did get some of the solvent based sealer in the pool. Because the weather has been so bad, I really did not do anything to the pool except add bromine into the feeder. About 3 weeks ago finally got the solar cover off and have trying to clear the water ever since.
I cannot get the bromine levels up, even though I've added a lot of powdered bromine directly into the pool - thought I might have algae, even though the water is blue (kind of) so shocked at 4 times the normal level - still cloudy.
Pool store people told to add a clarifier which makes a huge mess - then add phosphate remover...
I' m stumped
It seems I cannot get my Ph levels to go up

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated - I'm thinking of draining water and starting all over again.

Ps: when I say cloudy there is about 3 feet of visibility; cannot see the bottom in the deep end.
 
Re: I need some help!

Welcome to TFP!

You need to properly shock the pool. There is a good article in Pool School on how to shock. Everything there applies to bromine except shock level, which is always 12 for bromine. However, please post a complete set of water test results. It is very likely we will see something there that will make a big difference in the effectiveness of shocking.
 
Re: I need some help!

Thank you for your reply.
When I test the water using the test strips, it looks like my ph is a little low, and my Alky is a bit high. I went to one of the box stores to have my water test so I could have exact number for you and they used a test strip and said bromine is low; here, Buy this pool first aid - so of course I did.
I've also used filter aid...
When, I say I shocked, I normally use 3-4 bags of shock. Yesterday I used 11 bags.
I also took about a dozen 1" bromine tablets crushed them up and put them directly in the pool - and my bromine levels are still low?
Would the pool first aid help.
I feel I'm quickly runnining out of time - nobody can use the pool until we can see the bottom clearly.
 
Re: I need some help!

I did not re-shook yet. After reading some of the articles on this site, I purchased a good test kit and confirmed low bromine levels, less than 1, high alky which started at 200 - brought the alky down to 140, but it has gone back up a little to 160. Ph is 7.4, I've been aerating and adding a little water from the facet and we've had a lot of rain lately.
 
Re: I need some help!

I found my alky was high - around 200; with all the rain, it is down to 120.
Pool is starting to clear up, but I still cannot get my bromine up. My feeder is a pentair 300 off line feeder - it is original equipment. I'm thinking it is undersized.
I'm going to install a new feeder. It would be easier for me to install another off line feeder; is there a huge difference in out put between the inline and off line feeders?
 
Re: I need some help!

I let. The kids swim today and the pool turned into pea soup.
My ph is 7.4, alky is 14o-150, bromine is still 0
Is there somebody I can talk to or is there a person in Cleveland area we could pay to have stop out and help?
 

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I wouldn't worry so much about the higher TA since bromine is fine at higher pH and you've got a vinyl pool so if your CH isn't high you have a low risk for calcium carbonate scaling.

I would focus on getting the bromine level up by shocking with an oxidizer -- bleach or chlorinating liquid is fine for this purpose. Since you've been using bromine in the pool for quite some time, there should be plenty of bromide in the water so when you shock with chlorine it should produce bromine. So please follow The Shock Process. Since you have a bromine pool, get your bromine level to 20 ppm for shocking (roughly equivalent to 9 ppm FC). You can use The Pool Calculator to calculate dosing by using 9 ppm FC as your target. Just so you know, the bromine level is always 2.25 times the chlorine level so you can readily go back and forth and the test kits do not distinguish between chlorine and bromine -- they just have separate scales for each.
 
before the kids went swimming, I had crushed up 8 bromine tablets, mixed in a bucket of water and dumped int o the deep end - to make sure the water was safe.
last night when I got home the water was clear. Still working on installing a new bromine feeder.
 
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