Chlorine, bromine, or salt water?

[kteachrm]

My daughter just purchased a house with a pool and they are opening it today. How can she tell if it's been using bromine, chlorine, or is saltwater? I'm headed over there now with my TFP test kit but am not sure what to tell her about what to use. Thanks for any help!

Oh yeah ... all the info below is for my own pool!

 

[Shirker]

Run full set of tests with your TF100 and take pictures of the pool and equipment pad. Post here and sit back and watch the feedback.

 

[proavia]

Knowing a bit more about her pool and equipment might help. Also, look around her place for pool products.

Post a couple of pics here and someone may be able to assist in determining exactly what she has.

 

[Donldson]

You'll have to look at the equipment and any chemicals the previous owners may have left and make an educated guess.

Unless the previous owners cleared everything out, there's a good chance there will be chlorine or bromine tablets sitting in a shed somewhere.

 

[kteachrm]

Knowing a bit more about her pool and equipment might help. Also, look around her place for pool products.

Post a couple of pics here and someone may be able to assist in determining exactly what she has.

Thanks for the suggestions! We looked around and found an empty bromine container, wrappers from non-chlorine shock, a chlorine closing kit, stabilizer, akalinity, calcium hardness, and test sticks for both chlorine and bromine. There is no brominator. Her next door neighbor convinced her to drain the pool to make the switch from Bromine to Chlorine, but they never did a test to see what's actually in the pool. UGH! So now, the new question is .... her pool is inset in the ground on one side. They've drained it down to about one foot of water, so two questions .... can they continue to drain it dry without it collapsing since it's in the ground somewhat, and, if not, can they switch to chlorine (assuming it's bromine) with that small amount of water still in there. I told them to stop draining and test the water before anything else, but they tend to listen to neighbors more than moms. Grrrrr!!! I've attached pictures. And I can't tell you what size. They don't know but my guess is 21'. I told them how to measure it but not done yet! Thanks for any advice with what limited information I have. Kids!!!!

 

[IceShadow]

You have to leave about a foot of water in the pool or the liner could shift.

I don't know much about bromine but I do know that.

 

[Donldson]

If it had an appropriate bromide bank, then draining down to a foot and refilling won't dissipate it enough. Typically one adds a 30 ppm bank of sodium bromide, and then if tablets were used it would have likely increased. A pool that size drained down to 1 foot would only dilute it by about 75%, leaving about 7 ppm of bromide. That would still make it a bromine pool.

Unfortunately, there's no way to know if they actually added the bank or just put tablets in. Also no way to know if they added a bank and then used a bunch of tablets. It would be a fair amount of work, but I would add a foot of water, stir, and then drain the foot 2-3 times. This would dilute any bromide and whatever else is in there enough to hopefully not cause any issues going forward. I hate to suggest dumping thousands more gallons of water, but without knowing what is in the water I would want to get as much of the old out as is reasonably possible.

 

[kteachrm]

Also no way to know if they added a bank and then used a bunch of tablets. It would be a fair amount of work, but I would add a foot of water, stir, and then drain the foot 2-3 times. This would dilute any bromide and whatever else is in there enough to hopefully not cause any issues going forward. I hate to suggest dumping thousands more gallons of water, but without knowing what is in the water I would want to get as much of the old out as is reasonably possible.
[/QUOTE]

This was great advice and I don't know why I didn't think of that. She spent the day adding and draining and after about 7 times of doing that is going to hope that it was enough. She's starting to refill. After getting the water clear enough to see the bottom, they could see several patches, so she's thinking that they'll spring for a new liner next season so in the long run, I think it should work out for them. Thanks so much for your advice. Now, if it ever gets above 60 here, it will be good!