Bromine start up/reserve

[jbolton2911]

Thank You @Mdragger88, that’s pretty much the summary of my situation and aligns with thoughts as well. I have since gotten somewhat of a grasp on the spa but I don’t think Im not quite sure yet if I’m a fan of bromine either, the limited amount of experience I have makes it hard to say but so far imo it’s a little bit finicky. So I do services every Mon,Wed,Fri and I’m allotted 1.5 hours dedicated to the spa on each of those days, Br is stable at about 4ppm but water is getting a little cloudy in between services while br still reads 4ppm, more so over the weekend than during the week, I assume due to higher bather load but a dose non chlorine shock usually clears it up although one time it didn’t so I did a double dose and it cleared up but br jumped to like 20ppm. Only other issue I’m having is that ph just recently started rising to >8 on me and I’m not quite sure why. Alk does not rise with ph and since I’ve been adding acid to keep ph in range the alkalinity gets lower each dose and is now almost out of acceptable range(80). I’m thinking that maybe adding borax on the next fill might help with that, anybody have thoughts on the ph issue or cloudiness between services?

Edit:
Now that I’m thinking about it we did just get over a foot and a half of snowfall and I feel like that’s about the time the ph started climbing perhaps the snow and runoff could be a contributing factor? Also is it possible to lower ph without affecting alk with a single product or would I have to add acid to lower ph then add baking soda to raise alk?

 

[Mdragger88]

Thank You @Mdragger88, that’s pretty much the summary of my situation and aligns with thoughts as well. I have since gotten somewhat of a grasp on the spa but I don’t think Im not quite sure yet if I’m a fan of bromine either, the limited amount of experience I have makes it hard to say but so far imo it’s a little bit finicky. So I do services every Mon,Wed,Fri and I’m allotted 1.5 hours dedicated to the spa on each of those days, Br is stable at about 4ppm but water is getting a little cloudy in between services while br still reads 4ppm, more so over the weekend than during the week, I assume due to higher bather load but a dose non chlorine shock usually clears it up although one time it didn’t so I did a double dose and it cleared up but br jumped to like 20ppm. Only other issue I’m having is that ph just recently started rising to >8 on me and I’m not quite sure why. Alk does not rise with ph and since I’ve been adding acid to keep ph in range the alkalinity gets lower each dose and is now almost out of acceptable range(80). I’m thinking that maybe adding borax on the next fill might help with that, anybody have thoughts on the ph issue or cloudiness between services?

Edit:
Now that I’m thinking about it we did just get over a foot and a half of snowfall and I feel like that’s about the time the ph started climbing perhaps the snow and runoff could be a contributing factor? Also is it possible to lower ph without affecting alk with a single product or would I have to add acid to lower ph then add baking soda to raise alk?

I’m guessing this is an outdoor somewhat uncovered tub since you mentioned run off? Bromine is not really stable in the sun & gets broken down quickly.

It sounds like your active sanitizer level should be increased a little to accommodate for the higher bather load & the uncovered times. Perhaps targeting 6ppm Total Br. (Not sure if you have some sort of regulation you must adhere to)

There’s no chemical that lowers ph only.
Acid will have some effect on ta but usually if you attempt to adjust ph to the higher 7’s (7.6-7.7) the ta won’t get tanked.
Any ta 50 or above is fine. Some people do fine with 40.
If it gets down to 40 use a little baking soda to get it back to 50-60. Trying to maintain ta of 80 will put you on a merry go round of acid & soda.

*Note that it is very hard to adequately maintain a spa on a schedule like that as a maintenance person.
It is similar to having a joint bank account and you are the one who attempts to keep up with it & prevent overdraft while the other party goes on spending sprees without telling you/before you can put enough cash in the bank.

All you can do is raise the sanitizer level when you come & hope that it lasts until your next visit.