Hello,
Fresh fill 3 step bromine spa started last week. Yesterday was the first day we had been able to use it since fresh fill (used Ahh-Some to clean it really well). Prior to using the spa yesterday, levels (tested several hours before with Taylor K-2106) were as follows:
Br - 5 ppm
Alk - 90
pH - 7.8
CH - 120
The four of us used it yesterday afternoon over the course of about 2 - 3 hours. Floater was removed for some of it while the kids were in it but was put back when we finally closed the tub up for the afternoon. Tested the water later in the evening before the evening filter cycle (I run two filter cycles for two hours each 12 hours apart for a total of 4 hours total filtering) and I knew immediately the Br level was low since adding two scoops of DPD powder hardly turned the water pink at all. One drop of titration turned it clear so at the 25ml level of the test kit, that equates to .5ppm Br. Decided to wait a couple more hours till the evening filter cycle ran to see if the combination of the ozonator (only runs when pump 1 is running) and the floater would raise the levels. Sure enough, Br was up to 1.5 Br about an hour into the filter cycle.
Just tested again this morning during the filter cycle and Br was up to 3.
So I guess my question is, is it normal for the Br to drop so drastically over the course of 2 - 3 hours with multiple people in the spa? I know that Br isn't UV stabilized and of course the lid was open all this time plus the addition of bio-load from all of us makes me think this could be normal. Should I have added some amount of oxidizer (I use dichlor since I still have quite a bit of it from before it was a bromine spa) after we closed it up for the day to at least boost the Br levels back into the 3 - 6 ppm range? I didn't really want to shock and boost the Br level all the way above 10ppm because we plan to use it again today and it can take some time to bring levels down. When I fresh filled it last week, I put a bit too much dichlor in to activate the bromine bank and the levels shot up to 20ppm Br. Took almost 2 full days to get it back under 10 ppm.
Thoughts?
Note: I realized last week after the fresh fill that I also added a bit too much baking soda. Initial Alk and pH was 100 and 8.0 respectively. So I added a total of about 15ml of muriatic acid a few days ago to bring the "resting" pH (i.e. no filtering/cover on) down to 7.7-7.8. This dropped Alk to 90. I could probably use a bit more acid to drop it further but I've been waiting to see if the bromine tablets from the floater would also do it on their own. So far, I don't believe their acid input has done anything at all to the buffering capacity of the water.
Fresh fill 3 step bromine spa started last week. Yesterday was the first day we had been able to use it since fresh fill (used Ahh-Some to clean it really well). Prior to using the spa yesterday, levels (tested several hours before with Taylor K-2106) were as follows:
Br - 5 ppm
Alk - 90
pH - 7.8
CH - 120
The four of us used it yesterday afternoon over the course of about 2 - 3 hours. Floater was removed for some of it while the kids were in it but was put back when we finally closed the tub up for the afternoon. Tested the water later in the evening before the evening filter cycle (I run two filter cycles for two hours each 12 hours apart for a total of 4 hours total filtering) and I knew immediately the Br level was low since adding two scoops of DPD powder hardly turned the water pink at all. One drop of titration turned it clear so at the 25ml level of the test kit, that equates to .5ppm Br. Decided to wait a couple more hours till the evening filter cycle ran to see if the combination of the ozonator (only runs when pump 1 is running) and the floater would raise the levels. Sure enough, Br was up to 1.5 Br about an hour into the filter cycle.
Just tested again this morning during the filter cycle and Br was up to 3.
So I guess my question is, is it normal for the Br to drop so drastically over the course of 2 - 3 hours with multiple people in the spa? I know that Br isn't UV stabilized and of course the lid was open all this time plus the addition of bio-load from all of us makes me think this could be normal. Should I have added some amount of oxidizer (I use dichlor since I still have quite a bit of it from before it was a bromine spa) after we closed it up for the day to at least boost the Br levels back into the 3 - 6 ppm range? I didn't really want to shock and boost the Br level all the way above 10ppm because we plan to use it again today and it can take some time to bring levels down. When I fresh filled it last week, I put a bit too much dichlor in to activate the bromine bank and the levels shot up to 20ppm Br. Took almost 2 full days to get it back under 10 ppm.
Thoughts?
Note: I realized last week after the fresh fill that I also added a bit too much baking soda. Initial Alk and pH was 100 and 8.0 respectively. So I added a total of about 15ml of muriatic acid a few days ago to bring the "resting" pH (i.e. no filtering/cover on) down to 7.7-7.8. This dropped Alk to 90. I could probably use a bit more acid to drop it further but I've been waiting to see if the bromine tablets from the floater would also do it on their own. So far, I don't believe their acid input has done anything at all to the buffering capacity of the water.
Bromine gets a bit tricky (IMO) so I'd like to call on the assistance of 