High Bromine but I've never added any to the pool?

[trwoodburn]

I've got these test strips that test for both Chlorine and Bromine separately and my bromine levels keep showing high, like the upper limit of the range on the test. See photo. This is a new pool, I used well water that has been run through a home filter and a water softener, and the only products I have used so far are chlorine and muratic acid with some Clorox pH Down in the very beginning. I've also added 2 bags of Clorox Shock xtrablue. The water is highly alkaline from the well (water softener didn't do much, will need to check that on a separate note) and I have been adding muratic acid daily to keep the pH down and work on getting the alkalinity into range.

The one test strips I bought from walmart had bromine and chlorine on the same line with the same test.

So what the heck is going on with the bromine? Does chlorine simply interact with the bromine strip regardless of whether bromine is present, or is there something else going on here that I am missing?

Thanks!

 

[V___25]

Hi and welcome!

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news but test strips (aka guess strips) are worthless. They are notoriously inaccurate and I can attest this from first hand experience. If you have not added bromine products, you most likely don't have bromine and the guess strips are leading you astray.
Please get yourself a good test kit. Also, as a general rule, don't add anything labeled as "Xtrablue" or anything blue as those products often contain copper that you don't need in your water.