Hello everyone!
I'm sure this has been covered at some point, so forgive me.
We just closed and moved into our house last week. Yesterday we were preparing to shock the pool, or as I call it, the tadpole infested swamp, we had a few gallons of regular household bleach and had brushed the sides, started the pump and already backwashed a few times just to make sure everything was in order. Our new neighbor comes outside, and says I wouldn't do that, she converted that pool to bromine 2 years ago. So, being from North Carolina, clearly we were like OK, what is bromine? Nobody around here uses that. Which leads to my first question, WHY??? Would she do that?
Anyway, we did find a huge bucket of bromine tablets in the basement, and what appears to be a place to put them beside the pump.
So we stopped what we were doing right then. Because obviously we had no clue what to do from that point on.
Its a fairly small pool, 4 feet deep, below ground, just enough for 3-4 adults to float around and maybe play some volleyball.
The test kit looks EXTREMELY complicated. its digital, nothing I was used to as a kid (a LONG time ago) when we had our pool, where we just had test tubes and put the drops in. Its like a little mini computer that reads out all these digital numbers. I just sat it down and walked away frustrated thinking this has to be easier.
So, question number 1, what was the benefit of even switching this over? Why would we want to spend the extra money on bromine vs chlorine? We budgeted a chlorine pool when purchasing, not bromine. (yes we should have asked, but keep in mind, NOBODY here uses anything but chlorine or salt, and it obviously wasn't salt, so the question never crossed our mind)
Question 2, would we conceivably be able to switch to chlorine, or at least use bleach along with the bromine tablets to even everything out now that it essentially has nothing in it but algae, since we just closed, with two kids, on city water, draining the pool and refilling it not an option, unless we just don't open it this year, which would highly disappoint them.
Now just for giggles, I called the local pool store and explained the situation, he said I could switch. But I needed to bring him a water sample today. Which, I am doing so there's that. Also thinking of purchasing a simpler tester kit while I'm there.
Any advice much appreciated.
I'm sure this has been covered at some point, so forgive me.
We just closed and moved into our house last week. Yesterday we were preparing to shock the pool, or as I call it, the tadpole infested swamp, we had a few gallons of regular household bleach and had brushed the sides, started the pump and already backwashed a few times just to make sure everything was in order. Our new neighbor comes outside, and says I wouldn't do that, she converted that pool to bromine 2 years ago. So, being from North Carolina, clearly we were like OK, what is bromine? Nobody around here uses that. Which leads to my first question, WHY??? Would she do that?
Anyway, we did find a huge bucket of bromine tablets in the basement, and what appears to be a place to put them beside the pump.
So we stopped what we were doing right then. Because obviously we had no clue what to do from that point on.
Its a fairly small pool, 4 feet deep, below ground, just enough for 3-4 adults to float around and maybe play some volleyball.
The test kit looks EXTREMELY complicated. its digital, nothing I was used to as a kid (a LONG time ago) when we had our pool, where we just had test tubes and put the drops in. Its like a little mini computer that reads out all these digital numbers. I just sat it down and walked away frustrated thinking this has to be easier.
So, question number 1, what was the benefit of even switching this over? Why would we want to spend the extra money on bromine vs chlorine? We budgeted a chlorine pool when purchasing, not bromine. (yes we should have asked, but keep in mind, NOBODY here uses anything but chlorine or salt, and it obviously wasn't salt, so the question never crossed our mind)
Question 2, would we conceivably be able to switch to chlorine, or at least use bleach along with the bromine tablets to even everything out now that it essentially has nothing in it but algae, since we just closed, with two kids, on city water, draining the pool and refilling it not an option, unless we just don't open it this year, which would highly disappoint them.
Now just for giggles, I called the local pool store and explained the situation, he said I could switch. But I needed to bring him a water sample today. Which, I am doing so there's that. Also thinking of purchasing a simpler tester kit while I'm there.
Any advice much appreciated.