Erratic Bromine levels

[chumley]

Hi,
This is driving me crazy.  I have a new Marquis hot tub with an ozonator and built in Frog Bromine cartridge system.  I have set the Br to 2 on the Frog cartridge as instructed by the mfg and what is happening is the Br levels go down to 0.5 ppm (tested with Taylor color change drops) and then I shocked it and waited two hours and it went up to 14.5! so I left the cover off for an hour and let pump run and then it was down to 1.5 ppm so I used it. The next morning it was 0.5 ppm and I shocked it with about 1 oz and in two hours it went up to 2 ppm.  I used it once and it went down to 0.5 ppm again. I can't seem to get it to stay in the "ideal" range.  The TA is 120, H is 240 and pH is 7.2.  Temp is 100 deg.
The tub is brand new and only3 months old.
Any help would be appreciated.  I am totally new to this and decided right away that the test strips did not help since I am color blind and the Taylor test kit suits my mad chemist bent.

[chem geek]

It sounds like you did not initially establish a bromide bank by adding 1/2 ounce per 100 gallons initially.  If you did, then a properly functioning ozonator would be producing more bromine from the bromide bank -- probably enough to maintain a bromine level when not soaking, but you would still likely need to add an oxidizer (usually chlorine or non-chlorine shock, MPS) after each soak unless you soak infrequently and for a short time.

[chumley]

Thanks very much for responding. I really appreciate it.

It sounds like you did not initially establish a bromide bank by adding 1/2 ounce per 100 gallons initially.

I assume that I did that by opening the cartridge to #3 setting for 24 hrs on the Bromine cartridge as instructed and then setting it to #2 from then on.  The water has been in the spa for a month now and should have a Bromine bank as you say and should be stable by now. I talked to the guy at the spa showroom and he said that the levels would initially rise high after shocking, understandably, but then would come down to the "real" level after 24 hours. It just seems that it crashes to nothing or almost nothing even though I have everything set as per instructions it is not maintaining the proper level.
I guess I am being a little impatient.  I just don't want the water to go cloudy again and have to spend 4 or 5 days clearing it up.

[Bill]

I also have a Marquis tub with bromine.  I've discovered that simply opening the spa frog does not added sufficient bromine reserves.  I always add additional bromine when replacing water and then fine tune the level with the spa frog.  If your tub has this feature, you can modify the filtration times and duration allowing additional bromine to flow.  I am able to keep the spa frog on the lowest setting under most bathing loads.