Bromine pool conversion to chlorine question

[Shekkie]

Howdy y'all,

So we are in the midst of purchasing a home that has a fantastic inground pool. It is "L" shaped and about 30k gallons. I have been reading this fantastic forum for a few weeks and was all set to take over care of the pool upon moving in in September. I plan on ordering one of the recommended kits when all of the inspections of the house are wrapped up and we are 100% sure it's a go (we are currently about 95% sure).So today we had our house inspection and the current owner was on scene so he walked me through some of the pool ins and outs. Apparently it is treated with bromine. I was all set to load up with bleach and now I was thrown this curve ball.

I did some searching and was unable to find a clear answer to this question......
The water looks perfect as it is. The owner didn't get into specifics but said he'd walk me through the pool care when we take possession so I figure I will run out the season (about a month at that point) with his system. My question is will this be an easy switch to the preferred bleach method recommended on this site upon opening next year?

Here are a few pics of the pool and the mechanicals......

 

[chem geek]

Unfortunately changing from bromine to chlorine requires water replacement because the spent bromine is bromide salt in the pool so adding any oxidizer to the pool, including chlorine, just reactivates the bromide to bromine. You'll probably just need to operate it as a bromine pool for a while and with each winterizing you'll dilute the water more. If you get summer rain overflow or regularly clean/backwash your filter then that will help dilute as well.

As a bromine pool you may notice a higher chlorine demand/loss during the day from breakdown from sunlight. Over time as the bromide bank gets used up and you start seeing chlorine instead, you may notice the chlorine usage dropping if you have CYA in the water. If you don't have any CYA in the water, then the chlorine usage will increase. Up to you which indicator is best for you (i.e. to have CYA in the pool now or to wait until chlorine usage increases indicating chlorine is in the water instead of bromine).

 

[Shekkie]

Great info that I almost understand. Thank ya' much!