Initial hot tub chemicals bromine

[MoodyMaMa]

Tub came with starter chemicals. Says to use a whole bottle of Leisure time metal gon. I am on city water, and have seen no scaling or deposits of any kind in my tea pot so do I need this?

Water tested before adding anything

TA 20
CH 10
PH 7.5


So pool math says to add 6.5 oz (volume) of calcium chloride I have leisure times calcium booster is that the same thing?

If my ph is optimal now do I wait to adjust TA?

 

[MPurcell]

You don't need to use the metal gon product. You should not use a metal sequestrant unless you know you have metals in the water.

The leisure times calcium booster is calcium chloride, but it is in liquid form. Their MSDS only lists calcium chloride as the ingredient, so I would assume it is dissolved in water. The instructions say that one ounce will raise 500 gallons of water by 7 ppm. Pool math is assuming calcium chloride in the granular solid form, so the ratio will probably be different. You will have to calculate the amount to add from their instructions.

In a bromine tub, if you are using BCDMH bromine tabs in a floater, you will probably experience the pH tending to go down from the slightly acidic nature of the bromine tabs. So when you need to raise the pH, use baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) instead of soda ash (sodium carbonate) or borax to raise the pH, and you will raise the TA in the process. If the pH is rising then you must approach it another way.

 

[MoodyMaMa]

Ok, so I added calcium booster tested it 70
Then I added more, it should be about 140 it is testing at 0

At the same time I added Leisure time "renew" to give it the initial shock I put in the recommended amount for my tub and now my bromine is measuring 31.25.

The test strips say the CH is fine and the bromine level is sky high. But my Taylor kit which measured the CH at 10 initially then 70 after adding some booster is now measuring it at 0 after adding more booster and the renew. Is there some kind of reaction with the bromine? I am using a test kit meant for chlorine cause I already had it.

I did add the sodium bromide first thing after it was full.

And another question when the sanitizer is that high do I have to leave the cover off? It's taking a long time to heat...

 

[MPurcell]

Leisure time renew is non-chlorine oxidizer (potassium peroxymonosulfate, or MPS). It will oxidize the sodium bromide into active bromine (hydrobromous acid), and that is why your bromine reading is high. You used more MPS than you probably needed. 31 ppm bromine is approximately equivalent to 14 ppm chlorine, so it's high, but not extreme. It will come down quicker if you leave the top off, but you also increase the cost of heating by doing so.

Some of the tests will not work accurately when the bromine level is very high. I know pH will not read accurately above 10 ppm of chlorine, so I assume for bromine that would mean above 22.5 ppm. With the Taylor TA test, did you put the R-0008 indicator dye into the sample and it did not turn green? If that is the case, I would wait until the bromine is in normal range, say below 10 ppm, and try the test again. Your test strips might be a general indicator, but they will not be reliable for actual numbers. Since you put the calcium chloride into the water, it is definitely there. The bromine will not make it go away, but it could affect the test. Oh and one other thing. The purpose of the R-0007 thiosulfate reagent is to neutralize the bromine, so with high bromine, you could add more than 2 drops of thiosulfate before adding the dye.


With your chlorine FAS-DPD test, I assume you know to multiply by 2.25 to get ppm bromine. With a 10 ml sample, that is 1.125 ppm of bromine per drop.

 

[MoodyMaMa]

Yes, I did find that info, (2.25) I actually read through the whole how to use bromine thread, it's just kind of confusing at first. I wanted to use the chlorine method I used for our pool (we moved don't have one now) but was told it wouldn't work with the Ozonator in the tub so now I am learning all over again. The strips came with the box of Chemicals with the tub, I was/will only use them as a quick test to see if its low enough to bother with the real test kit.

Thank you so much for your help!