Taking over care of parents pool

[FormerBromineUser]

Chris: I keep seeing you online. Do you have any questions or are you good?

[cconte]

Yes I seem to need some advice. I apologize for bringing up a bromine question but I can't really find any other place to go. The pool was opened about three weeks ago. after being open about a week the pool went from a nice blue to green but clear water. I immediately suspected a lack of bromine. I emptied out the bromine canister myself and confirmed that water is at least flowing into the canister. I reloaded the canister with Bromine and then put some tablets in the skimmers and ran the pool continuously for a couple days. This seemed to restore the normal water color. Unfortunately at the time my new Taylor kit had not arrived so I was flying blind. This was on a sunday, the following thursday I had the water tested at Leslies, the results were Bromine 1 ppm, pH 8.0. TA 100 ppm, Dissolved Solids 700, calcium 200 ppm, and phosphates 1000 ppm. The pool company came and "inspected and flushed" the Bromine Cannister the following saturday, told us it was ok, and left a nice bill behind. My taylor kit came the same day and on Sunday (last sunday) I tested the water using the kit with the following results Bromine 0.5 ppm, pH 8.0, TA 160 ppm,calcium 280 ppm. I then tested again today and the Bromine is down even lower, i'm just guessing .25 or less ppm, everything else is the same as monday. Obviously there is something wrong, my question is is it definitely the delivery device for the Bromine that is not working (despite the pool company's claim that they checked it and it is fine) or could there be something going on chemically with the pool water. I'm starting to see a little black (I think) algae pop up which I've brushed and treated with polyquat. I'm just getting nervous that a full algae bloom is not far of given the low Bromine. I was hoping that Leslie's would give results for individual metals rather than TDS but I think i'm going to risk it and start shocking with choline to try to get the bromine levels back up. Any thoughts?

The pool is a 36,000 gallon in ground gunnite/plaster with DE filter. Test kit is Taylor K2006

Anyone know of a reputable pool company in Northeast MA?

[CarlD]

I'm not knowledgeable about bromine but your pH is too high. You need to bring it down to the mid 7's. If bromine is anything like chlorine, it's gets far more effective at lower pH levels. Also I have NO idea if you use Cyanuric Acid with bromine and how much. But it sounds like you desperately need to shock the pool. I don't know what will happen if you use chlorine, either.

[FormerBromineUser]

Carl is super correct about getting that pH down. Yes, you can use liquid chlorine/bleach to shock your bromine pool but when testing for shock level, use FC, not Br. My previous history with a bromine pool was that adding CYA actually made things worse.

How old is the water?

[CarlD]

FBU knows bromine (hence her name). So I defer to her on that.

[FormerBromineUser]

Reading your whole thread again, I realized I somehow missed the bit about how old the water is and that you need a replastering job. Sometimes on my phone I scroll too fast. Sorry. Forget that question from the previous page. Get that pH down as CarlD suggested, also on previous page.

Here's a new one: Is the bromine canister called a bromine/chlorine feeder? Is it inline?

Do NOT add liquid chlorine/bleach to your skimmer as mentioned last year with any bromine tabs in that feeder.

Add your chlorine in the evening as the sun will burn a lot of it off during the day. Distribute it evenly around the pool or slowly in front of a return jet in the deep end.

Water that old (1997-2000) that has been treated with bromine can be rather risky. There is a compound called DMH that is used in producing the bromine tabs that never really goes away and just builds up over time. High levels in your pool can cause bad skin rashes.