I can't seem to get my levels up on my bromine. We got a new to us spa about 5 weeks ago. The dealer told us to start by placing about 4 tablets into the filter housing, and later get a floating feeder. The tablets just made the filter sit funny, so I got the feeder and removed the tablets. I've drilled more holes into the feeder and that seemed to raise it just a bit for a day. This weekend, my wife brought home a bromine starter pack so we dumped that in. Again, it raised it for a day. I got diffrent test strips to make sure I didn't have a bad batch. Both sets agree. As of last night, my ph is at 7.5, bromine at 0, alk at 180, cyanuric acid is at 0 and hardness is at 0. The spa feels great. Nobody has had any kind of skin issues, and the water is crystal clear. I'm concearned that with the low bromine levels, there may be something in there that we can't see.

Go buy some DIFFERENT testing strips from another place... just be sure they're within their expiration date.

Do that first - then report the results.

That's what I did. I had a small bottle of the test strips that the dealer gave me, and just in case they we're off, I got another bottle this weekend. They are both good according to the dates and they both test exactly the same.

Tested it again last night with bot sets of strips twice. I did one test with a quick dip and the other with a good dunk up to the elbow. All 4 strips still read 0 on the Bromine scale. It's got to have bromine in it. I'm adding about two or three tablets a week to the floater. theres some in the bottom that are almost all the way gone.

Maybe I'm not shocking it enough. I've been shocking with 3 oz once a week. We're family of 4, ususlly 3 of us use it 3 nights a week, maybe for an hour each night.

Any out there have any ideas, suggestions, comments, home remedies?

Hate test strips, always did. I am a chlorinator and not a Brominator but there is no replacement for using a real titration test kit. You can't just use an HTH kit that you buy at WalMart. You would need to buy a Bromine based kit. The other tests are standard.

So, one question is do you have an Ozone Generator?

AGE

Havent used bromine in a long time, that sure sounds drastic drilling into the floater. I recall there was some kind of thing you twisted on the floater, that increased or decreased the dose.

There is a ring to turn to open the little window a little more or less on the floater. But as all my readings were stuck on 0 all the time, I drilled the holes in an attempt to give it a little more. It was onbly $4.99 so if I end up one day with the holes being an issue, I can easily get another.

Both test strip kits are for Bromine.

No ozone generator. The tub is setup for one. I might get one later on.

On another forum, I was told that I needed to add a starter pack to activate the bromine tablets. I've allready added one Brom-Start pack and it was suggested that I add two more. Almost like it needed a kick start or something.

Last night I crunched up one bromine tablet and sprinkled it in as the jets we're running. After about 4 hours, one of my test strips showed the bro levels raised a bit more, the other showed them off the chart. This was the first time they disagreed. I seriously considering getting away from the test strips and possibly going to chlorine.

We have a lot of folks comong over this weekend and I want to make sure the spa is ok for them.

Well, since I need to rebuild the tub surround anyway, I'm going to drain it and go with Chlorine when I refill. I'll probably start it this weekend.