Bromine Swimming Pools in Costa Blanca

Due to local conditions, more and more Costa Blanca pool owners and professionals are switching to bromine sanitizers.
If you have a "problem" pool (with heavy bather load), a community facility or would just prefer not to swim in chlorinated water, Bromine Systems are the only logical options.

For Pool Professionals: Bromine is a far more efficient sanitizer than Chlorine, slightly more complicated in use and slightly more expensive as far as product cost is concerned.
However labour is, by far, the most expensive element in any pool plan. Once familiarised with the use of Bromine, the frequency between visits can be reduced dramatically and time-consuming problem-solving visits eliminated completely.

Please study the following comparison of the two plans and see the Bromine Schedule for precise usage instructions.

To B . . .
		. . . or not to B!

Both Bromine and Chlorine work well as sanitizers.  Both have good and bad points.
Important to remember with both is that the normal dose, whilst bathing is going on, should not exceed certain limits (for safety and comfort). Within these limits both products are only able to kill bacteria and contain (by combining with) the bather waste and other extraneous matter in water.
Chlorine needs occasional or regular shocking (according to climate and bather load).
Bromine will not work at all until it is released by an oxidising agent. Chlorine will oxidise Bromine.

Perhaps this all sound complicated but below you can compare the two products individually.

CHLORINE

BROMINE

GENERAL QUALITIES

Chlorine is a gas and can only be used for domestic pool sanitation by combining with other chemicals because it is destroyed by UV light of which we have a lot in Costa Blanca.

Bromine is a liquid and a very similar chemical element to Chlorine.

Bromine is also affected by UV light but, unlike Chlorine, it remains in the water for reuse.

Chlorine products contain Cyanuric Acid which helps to stabilise and "hold" them in the water for a time. Unfortunately this stabiliser increases over time and, if not removed, more and more chlorine is required. Eventually it hardly works at all.

Chlorine kills bacteria, controls algae and combines with the remains and other debris in the water (bather waste, dust etc.) to form Chloramines (Chlorine + Nitrates & Ammonia).

Bromine products have to be oxidised with chlorine or oxygen to produce the bromine sanitizer.
If chlorine is used the bromine is not affected by the Cyanuric Acid.

Bromine kills, controls and combines with debris (just like chlorine) and forms Bromamines (Bromine + Nitrates and Ammonia)

Chloramines are smelly, irritants and POOR sanitizers.

Bromamines have little smell and are VERY GOOD sanitizers.

Shocking also removes the Bromines by breaking down the Nitrates into Nitrogen but this is seldom necessary because the bromamines eventually "burn them selves up" and the Bromine element remains for re-use.

The real advantage is that Bromine simply does not smell. Even with a properly maintained chlorine pool the chlorine smell is unavoidable on skin and hair. This is because the chlorine continues to work after bathing, breaking down the "natural debris" that forms on the body and forming chloromines.
Even showering does not completely remove the smell because tap water contains a lot of chlorine.
With a Bromine pool, better NOT to shower off after bathing.
NB: Showering BEFORE is vital with either chlorine or bromine.

For optimum effectiveness with chlorine sanitizers the pH of the water is critical and must be kept between 7.4 and 7.6

With Problem Pools (with high cyanuric acid heavy bather load and/or general abuse) the only way with Chlorine is regular (sometimes daily) shocking and long filter running times as this is the only way to control the Combined Chlorine (Chloramines).

Taking a typical problem pool scenario: There is a gross bather overload & abuse, the filter is small and the pump under-powered.
Within 3 days of shocking, although the Total Chlorine is 3.0 ppm, around 2.0 ppm is Combined.
The pH has drifted to 7.8 and, because so much Chlorine is going in, the Cyamuric Acid level has exceeded 150 ppm.
The little remaining Free Chlorine no longer sanitises and the water is a dangerous culture for bacteria and virus - that's if it's not already green or swimming has stopped due to the bad odours and sore eyes!

Bromine systems are often the answer for Problem Pools because the Combined Bromine (Bromamines) are just as effective killers of virus and bacteria as the Bromine Sanitizer whereas Cloramines are quite useless.

The pH can go as high as 8.0 and, with Bromine, the sanitizer is still working.

Nevertheless it is still necessary to shock the Bromamines occasionally because, if they are allowed to build up, the water becomes turbid.

Cyanuric Acid build-up is not such a problem  because bromine is not affected Cyanuric Acid.

PLEASE NOTE: Once a pool is treated with Bromine it is always a Bromine pool - until it is drained.

BATHER EXPERIENCE

A lot has been said about Chlorine being smelly and an irritant but, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that Chlorine, at the correct level, is virtually undetectable.
It is the Chloramines that cause all the trouble and these are usually caused by poor pool maintenance or lack of knowledge about shocking.
There is no doubt that some people are allergic to Chlorine and others suffer from sore eyes and skin irritations after prolonged bathing.
If shocking is neglected smells, sore eyes and skin irritations are virtually guaranteed.
Another problem with chlorine is that partial draining annually is vital every in order to keep the cyanuric acid at the optimum level - and water is expensive in Costa Blanca.

Bromine is commonly use in the USA and many pool owners, once they have tried it, would use nothing else.

Bromamines, like Chloramines, cannot be avoided.
However Bromines have no taste or smell, do not irritate and go on sanitising the water.

If you use a chlorine product to produce (oxidise) the bromine, you may think that you are back to having a chlorinated pool but this is not the case.
The chlorine oxidises the bromine ion to form Hypobromous Acid (the sanitizer) and the chlorine gasses off - you only have the bromine left!

EASE OF USE

Nothing could be simpler than a Chlorine system. The Chlorine level is easy to measure and control. The only real requirement is that the water is shocked regularly and the pH maintained - well, most of the time anyway!
Most chlorine products contain cyanuric acid. If this is not controlled things can go very badly wrong.

Using Bromine is slightly more complicated and requires support initially from the pool supplier.

Bromine Salt (Sodium Bromide) has to be added, and replenished (usually twice a year, to allow for water loss) in order to establish a "Bromine Bank".

Any chlorine product or monopersulfate (an oxygen product) is then added, on a regular basis, to maintain the "Free Bromine" level.

RELATIVE COST AND TIME

Chlorine is cheapest, without a doubt, in terms of product cost.

A chlorinated pool is pleasant and safe for bathing as long as it is maintained correctly and there is no bather overload or abuse.

In practice this is not so easy to achieve and a lot of time has to be spent.

Bromine is probably the only option for "problem" pools with an excessive bather load.
For normal pools the annual product cost is about the slightly higher.
However a bromine pool needs less frequent visiting, therefore is an economical option for pool professionals.

Most certainly, the sheer joy of swimming in Chlorine free water makes it all worthwhile.

Study the Bromine Annual Schedule for precise usage instructions.
Understand bather load and "abuse" -
Even without the bathers the pool purification plant will deal with a certain amount of extraneous material (dust, leaves, insects, pollen, algae etc.). It is also designed to cope with bather load.
Bather load refers to the extraneous material introduced by bathers and includes dead skin cells, make-up, sun oil, dirt & dust from the feet, sweat, urine (yes, the little one do!).
Therefore it is obviously important for pool users to consider the commonsense precautions, such as -

Showering-off BEFORE bathing.
Keeping the pool terrace swept and free of dust.
Cutting back tress and plants close to the water.
Keeping the pool topped up to the right level.
Talking to the children.
Putting fresh "Pampers" on babies and waterproof pants.

Now that's fine for the villa owner and friends but, when the property is let to holidaymakers, "bather abuse" can easily occur but placing signs does help a lot.
A colleague of mine maintains one of the largest community pools in Moraira and discovered that the bathers actually thought that the shower was just for cleaning up AFTER bathing (to remove the chlorine smell); when in fact, if they had all showered off before, it would have considerable reduced the smell.
The management committee put up multi-lingual signs and instructed the life-guard to blow his whistle when anyone broke the rules.
Within a few days the water quality improved and there was a significant reduction in chemical demand.

Bromine vs Chlorine Technical Comparison

Chlorine

Effective Disinfectant Form when added to water

Hypochlorous Acid (HOCl)

Reaction with Ammonia

Reacts to form Chloramines

Major compounds present are NHBr₂ and NBr₃

Considerably reduces disinfection ability

Chloramines or Bromamines as Bactericides

Chloramines are poor bactericides
and have only 5% of the activity of HOCl.

Chloramines are not effective viricides.

Bromine is an effective disinfectant in the
presence of NH₃. Low levels of NH₃
are therefore acceptable.

If you don't understand all this there is a simple similarity: A swimming pool is a battlefield, "goodies" against "baddies". In this case the baddies are bather waste, virus & bacteria; the goodies are the two different sanitizers, who fight in different ways.
The chlorine sanitizers capture, guard and imprison the insurgents. Eventually there are as many sanitizers as imprisoned insurgents and the only way is to kill (shock) them all (good and bad) and start over.
The bromine sanitizers have a different relationship with the insurgents and, once they are overcome and captured, they change sides, become "goodies" and help the bromine sanitizers in the battle.

Chlorine is strongly pH dependent and is only
22% effective of its active form of HOCl at pH 8.0.

Chlorine disinfection can produce eye irritation
from the formation of Chloramines.

Links about Bromine for swimming pools:

An interesting forum discussion: SWIMMING POOLS | Bromine Sanitizers.

Wikipedia | Bromine for Swimming Pools

Ask Alan about Bromine