So that's very interesting and shows that you are losing the bromine only during the day. However, the amount of consumption is higher than one would normally expect. Did you ever test the CYA level in the pool? It shouldn't normally help with bromine, but if it's low then you could try shocking with Dichlor not only to make more bromine but to add CYA to the water to see if that helps. Test the CYA level first.
Need help with bromine pool
- Thread starter DTFUDGE
- Start date
I took a whole bottle if water with me this morning, can I still run a CYA test on that or do I need to get a fresh sample?
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You can do the CYA test on that sample you took with you. CYA doesn't degrade or decline quickly. Same is true for CH. It's mostly FC (of TB -- chlorine or bromine) that drops and the pH can change as well so for those two readings one doesn't want to wait, but for CH and CYA and salt the waiting doesn't matter.
Ok I just made it back over here. The water looks crystal clear. The pools 15lbs bromine feeder was empty. I filled it up last Thursday. The test results were:
Br .45
pH 7.4
TA 90
CH 180
Cya 0
This pool cannot keep eating that much bromine. Its going to cost a large fortune.
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Br .45
pH 7.4
TA 90
CH 180
Cya 0
This pool cannot keep eating that much bromine. Its going to cost a large fortune.
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BobbyR
0
I was just reading, if I understand it right, that once you have a bromine bank you have to add very little bromine. Instead you just add chlorine to oxidize the bromide back into bromine. Can anyone confirm this?
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Yes, that is correct. There is a small loss of bromide from water dilution and from some bromine outgassing and from some combined bromine with organics getting caught in the filter, but you shouldn't need to use only tabs for bromine. The main use of the tabs is that they slowly dissolve so are automatic dosing.
15 pounds of bromine tabs is equivalent to 10 pounds of bromine which in 22,000 gallons is 54 mg/L (ppm) bromine so over 7 days that's 7.7 ppm per day which is a bit high. More normal usage would be around 5 ppm or so per day. 7.7 ppm bromine per day is equivalent to 3.4 ppm FC per day so not unheard of for daily usage.
You might try seeing if using CYA in the water helps reduce the loss rate. If you want to experiment first using a large bucket of pool water, you can do that. At least with the bromide bank you can use chlorine to activate more bromine and that will be less expensive than using bromine tabs, but using most chlorine sources would require adding chlorine every day or two. It might be possible to use Trichlor tabs in a floating feeder, but you can't use them in the bromine feeder as its designed for bromine tabs.
15 pounds of bromine tabs is equivalent to 10 pounds of bromine which in 22,000 gallons is 54 mg/L (ppm) bromine so over 7 days that's 7.7 ppm per day which is a bit high. More normal usage would be around 5 ppm or so per day. 7.7 ppm bromine per day is equivalent to 3.4 ppm FC per day so not unheard of for daily usage.
You might try seeing if using CYA in the water helps reduce the loss rate. If you want to experiment first using a large bucket of pool water, you can do that. At least with the bromide bank you can use chlorine to activate more bromine and that will be less expensive than using bromine tabs, but using most chlorine sources would require adding chlorine every day or two. It might be possible to use Trichlor tabs in a floating feeder, but you can't use them in the bromine feeder as its designed for bromine tabs.
It is a Pentair commercial chlorine / bromine feeder ( model HC3315). So I could use the chlorine abs. Can I mix chlorine and bromine in the feeder at the same time? I will get some tabs this weekend and do some testing with some cya. I'll use two buckets, one with and one without cya and see the difference in loss. Do you have a suggested cya level? I'm not sure how to do five gallons worth, the pool calculator would only do 50 gallons and it was calling for .3oz to get a level of 50. I guess I could put it in 10oz of water and then only pour in 1 oz. Anyway, besides the testing what do I do in the meantime? Do I add enough bleach to get to the correct Br level?
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Oh I forgot, this is a 25,000 gallon pool if that make any difference.
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That will be about a gram for 5 gallons depending on your CYA strength, but Richard will get you straight on the precise math.
For now, I would not mix those product in the feeder. Maybe I am wrong about that, but I would absolutely not do it if it were me.
For now, I would not mix those product in the feeder. Maybe I am wrong about that, but I would absolutely not do it if it were me.
Yeah, it's 1 gram for 5 gallons to get 50 ppm CYA. With bulk density of around 0.82 g/ml, this is 1.22 ml or 1/4 teaspoon.
I would not mix the bromine tabs with the Trichlor tabs. I don't know for sure that they are incompatible, but I wouldn't risk it (we know that Trichlor and hypochlorite, especially Cal-Hypo, are incompatible). You could call Pentair since they call it a combo feeder and put them on the hook for liability.
I would not mix the bromine tabs with the Trichlor tabs. I don't know for sure that they are incompatible, but I wouldn't risk it (we know that Trichlor and hypochlorite, especially Cal-Hypo, are incompatible). You could call Pentair since they call it a combo feeder and put them on the hook for liability.
what about the pool? Do I just add enough bleach to get it to the correct bromine level and keep adding it to maintain it till something else is figured out?
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Yes, you can use an oxidizer like bleach to lower your cost, but the downside is that you need to add that frequently. You could split the difference and use some tabs for at least some background and make up the rest with periodic addition of an oxidizer. There's not much else you can do for the pool until we figure out if CYA will help. I don't want to waste your money on CYA if it's not going to help.
Im goning to run the bucket tests later this week, but I just had an idea. Could I put a SWG on the pool and let it do the work of renewing the bromine? That would be a lot easier than getting the homeowner to put bleach in everyother day.
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Yes, you can do that, but you'd need to add salt to the pool as with any SWG system.
I just didn't know if it would hurt to have both the salt sell and the bromine feeder line in the system.
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You can ask the saltwater chlorine generator manufacturer to be sure, but the bromide level is relatively low (especially compared to the chloride level) so the generator will generate chlorine and the chlorine will then convert bromide to bromine. So I don't believe there will be a problem, but ask the manufacturer.
Do you think i should take the bromine feeder out of the system and just let the SWG do the work? From what I've read, in a couple of years there might not be any bromine left if I quit adding it.
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Yes, if you get an SWG, stop using bromine tabs. Over time, the amount of bromide/bromine will decline and the pool will eventually become a chlorine pool, though that may take some time depending on the size of the bromide bank.