brome

[fleurflace]

hi, has any one any experience of a bromine pool, ours is a year old 11x5 shell type pool.  It runs around 30 deg but we have trouble keeping the brome levels up to the min level unless we shock it every couple of days.  We are running the pump 24 / 7 at max brome input.

If we dont shock it it tends to go green quite quickly.  We have 6month old twins who we take in each day and so I am a bit concerned as to the levels

any one with suggestions or experience would be a help

thanks

[Poolguy]

Hi

What are the levels of Brome .. can you keep it between 3-4 PPm?

If you cant keep your water in this 'safe' range I would recommend that you absolutely do not take your babies swimming. The risk of infection is increased by a factor of 8 for every .5 ppm below the safe range and as you are aware, even 6 month old babies are very vulnerable to infection from these water borne bacteria (e-coli and the like). You have not mentioned what your pH is... this is very important in the maintenance of the Brome levels. I presume that your pool is an indoor pool as Brome does not work outside. Bromine is very unstable and cannot be retained by the addition of Cyanuriic acid like chlorine so it dissapears to the heavens very quickly which would explain your problem.

Is there a particular reason why you chose Brome rather than direct chlore to sanitise the water?

As you are super dosing with Chlorine every few days, you are at present running a chlorinated pool.I would recommend that you forget about the Bromine system and revert to a minimum dosage Chlorine system if nothing else for the sake of the health of your babies.

If you want more specific help let me know?

Andrew

[fleurflace]

hi, thanks for getting back so quick, I will not be taking the littles ones in today!

The pool is outside and we are in 17.  We can just about maintain the levels  1.3  but the ph is ok, now and again we have to increase it.

We were advised to have the bromine system by the installers of the pool, Alliance picines as I did not want to have cholrine as the older children spend so long in the water .  When we phoned the pool supplier last year as we had even less brome in the pool and could not get the bromine to register on the colour scale they came and moved the brominater, it did help but they are a new company and seem to have little experience of the chemical side.

I have been reading about the pools and the books have said the same regarding outside pools and bromine.  If this is so why do the pool shops have such supplies of bromine surely the buyers cant all have indoor pools in this part of france?

I realy appreciate your help, and what would we need to do to change system to chlorine?

thanks again

[Poolguy]

There are many issues to discuss which could be best done over the phone if you want to Pm me your phone number then I can talk you through the science.

In short, the notion that chlorine is bad for you is a fallacy. The substance used to sanitise baby's bottles for example is the same basic substance used to sanitise your pool water - Sodium Hypochloride. I certainly would not use anything anywhere near my one week old baby if there was a possibility harm to come of it. Its effective and its safe.

Bromine is not - Its a waste of time in an outside pool. Its only good for spa's and indoor pools where there is no possibility that the sun will get at the Brome and burn it off. Did you know that the Bromine you buy is half chlorine - but its not enough to do the job on its own on an outside pool. I am very sorry that you have been misinformed and probably spent a bit of money on this system as well. I cannot see how you can maintain a safe pool unless there is some 'magic' stabiliser been developed that I don't know about.

The Health Department in France will only recommend Chlorine for swimming pools, and if your commercial they positively insist on it. Not salt/chlorine either - direct injection, mostly chlorine gas for faster dissemination.

I can help you change your system if you decide to go that way.

Andrew