We just got the hot tub working at my house

[rdalcanto]

Sorry, newbie here. I think I got the basic understanding after reading this. But, we just got the hot tub working at my house. The bromine floater is wide open, but I'm not measuring any bromine yet. The spa repair man put a couple onces of non-chlorine shock in there and said it was o.k. for us to use it. We used it last night. Today I read the bottle and the shock says it is not a sanitizer. Now I'm thinking the repair guy was wrong. Can I add bleach and basically have a chlorine spa until I have a chance to get the bromine granules? The hot tub is pretty small. Octegon shape, probaby 6 feet across. Thanks.

 

[chem geek]

Re: How do I use Bromine in my spa (or pool)?

Regarding the Stain and Scale Control, you don't need that unless your CH is high (200+ for a spa). We normally recommend keeping the CH at around 120-150 ppm to help prevent foaming. If your CSI is 0 or less, you're good. It doesn't need to be kept up to 0 because you don't have any plaster or grout in tile in a spa (well, in most spas).

As for the bromine floater, you should also add sodium bromide and then add an oxidizer such as bleach or the non-chlorine shock. If you didn't add any sodium bromide and haven't used bromine tabs long enough then you don't have a bromide bank so can't rapidly increase bromine levels to oxidize bather waste. And yes, until you get that bromide bank built up you can just add chlorine, but it'll be very strong without any CYA in the water so it would be better to use Dichlor initially. If it's only for a short time, it's probably OK but you may notice that it doesn't stay in the spa very long since it will outgas faster without any CYA to moderate chlorine's strength.