Help with Bromine

[lmath73]

Switched to a bromine system for our hot tub and need some help on how to get it regulated.  We started with three tablets in the tube and had no reading for 4 days.  Added 10 tablets and after a day we were over 18ppm.  Now we have been at about 8-9 tablets and each day that we test for bromine, there is none.  The tub is only used by two of us, each night.   The only way we get a reading is if we shock it with a non-chlorine shock.  Typically you would only do this once a week, but we have been having to do it every day for the past few days.  We have been adding an ounce of the shock each day and then we get a reading of 3-4ppm.   Is this typical with a bromine system to have it be so difficult to regulate?

(300 gallon hot tub)

Thanks for your help.

[southsidedean]

 Add 1/2 oz of sodium bromide per 100 gallons of water to create your bromide reserve in the water. This is the MOST important step with a bromine spa and the one most people ignore. If you omit this step you will not have a bromine spa for several weeks until enough tablets dissolve in the water to create the bromide bank and you will not have sanitized water! Sodium Bromide is available in packets and jars from several companies. You will need to re add it on each drain and fill.

[Chas]

My experience (25 years) with bromine has been that the chlorine in the product does serious, expensive damage to covers, pillows, and pump seals. Read the label on your tabs: most are 44% available CHLORINE, and that is hard on everything. I try my very best to talk people out of using tablet bromine.

If for some reason you absolutely must use bromine, use "Brilliance" brand. It has no chlorine built in. You will need to shock the tub with an oxidizer once a week, but you should be testing once a week anyway, so it's really no big. Why test once a week? Because a floater is NOT an automatic device: you can heavily overdose a tub and for some reason people don't take the floater OUT when that happens...

HTH