Bromine: I couldn't get the water to turn pink

[Modawg2k]

Howdy. Been getting down the basics of my pool for the past few weeks on this site. I started the process of maintain my hot tub now.

I had about 5 people in the tub a couple weeks ago and the water has been a bit cloudy ever since.

Tonight I started as follows.
Initial readings with K-2006
Bromine: I couldn't get the water to turn pink with adding the DPD powder, leading me to believe my bromine was very low?
pH: 7.8

I added muriatic acid (amount based of calculator), then sodium bromide (amount based on labeling), refilled my floater w/ 3 bromine tabs, then about 2/3 cup of 8% bleach.

Retested
FC: 6, which I multiplied by 2.25 to get a bromine level of 13.5ppm
pH: Still around 7.8 so I added more MA per pool calculator.

I hope I understood this thread correctly and I'm on the right track!

 

[chem geek]

I think you are on the right track. You had a heavy bather load that depleted the bromine. I'm not sure though why you needed to add more powder in your first bromine test. If it did turn pink but then only needed a drop of FAS-DPD reagent to turn clear, then yes the bromine level was low. Later adding the sodium bromide helps to boost the bromide bank from which bromine will come when you add an oxidizer. 5 people in the tub is a lot and if in a 350 gallon tub for even 30 minutes, then that's 2.5 person-hours of soaking and if the tub was hot (104ºF), then without an ozonator this would require the equivalent of 2.5*3.5*2.25 = 19.7 ppm or around 20 ppm bromine. You probably didn't add nearly enough oxidizer to produce the needed amount of bromine to get rid of the bather waste (urea, ammonia, creatinine from the sweat and urine).