Did I screw up big time? Bromine by mistake.

[LennPrice]

I have a Dolphino 15' UG pool now hooked up to a Hayward Pump and Sand filter to eliminate the cost and uselessness of the paper filters and mickeymouse pump.

I swear I read the forums and all 100 tips and so on...

OPened the pool, filled her up and hopefully followed the right advice of 1 gallon of bleach to start. The pool has been open for only 2 weeks and is still crystal clear. Havn't got around to grabbing a better test set but have been testing the cl and ph with a cheap Walmart set.

The ph seemed right (can't do exact measurement with cheap kit) and the the CL seems ok also. About ever 3 days I've add a few cups of bleach to raise the CL level.

Today, when I was cleaning up the shed I realized I had filled the puck feeder with bromine tablets my brother in law gave me last year! The "feeder" has been in the pool since day 1.

I've read the posts about bromine but still can't get a handle on the chemistry part of it and if I can continue what I'm doing or dump and refill the pool, or wait it out.

I'm sorry for this really newbie question...

Should I take the bromine pucks out and replace with CL pucks? Do I even need the feeder? Should I continue for the season with bromine and just keep checking the bromine levels? I'm getting a better kit tomorrow.

Thx in advance.

(Darn, I was all excited about the 3 b's and looking forward to trying it for an easier summer).

[CarlD]

You better go to PoolSolutions.com and read about bromine, and you need to search this site for bromine references.

http://www.poolsolutions.com/tips/tip10.html

I believe you are in for a rough go getting that bromine out. You'll use up lots and lots of chlorine clearing it,
but I'm no expert on it. Draining and refilling may be your only option.

Some of our other members and PoolDoc are far more knowledgable about bromine conversions.

[waterbear]

Basically, from what I understand about it if you have used bromine tablets in the feeder you now have a bromine pool. The easist thing to do is treat it like it was a chlorine pool and just take out the feeder the feeder. Test the pool and treat it otherwise like it was a chlorine pool. Balance the water as usual and keep the chlorine levels normal and the shock levels normal. If your chlorine levels test normal then your bromine levels are normal. Much easier than draining and refilling. Eventually the bromine will be gone. You can also drain and refill or you can convert all the way to bromine by adding sodium bromide to create a bromine bank, keeping bromine in the feeder, and then just keep using chlorine to reactive the bromine. Bromine is an effective sanitizer, just more expensive than chlorine.

[LennPrice]

Well I ditched the bromine tablets and I guess I'll start on the long road back to CL. If things go screwy then I guess I'll have no choice but to refill. It's only a 6000 gallon pool so it's not so bad.

We'll see...

[waterbear]

you shouldn't have problems
check out thie post by pooldoc in this thread
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=2439

[LennPrice]

Thank you for the reply: Sounds like I may be ok with my small AG pool in direct sunlight. Even up here in Canada we're seeing 80 degrees now, just in time for the Hockey playoffs.


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But, if it's an outdoor pool, and you've had sun on the pool, the bromine is probably gone, and the pool is stabilized. Check the stabilizer level. Without stabilizer, or with stabilizer AND bromine, you'd probably have lost that chlorine / bromine already.

Ben
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I'll just continue with the daily testing and see what happens. Good news as the neighbours might get suspious with 6000 gallons of water in their back yards when it hasn't rained for a week... 8)