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New to this first hot tub drain slip up

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Asha:
I’m currently using bromine and would like to switch to chlorine to help problem solve hot tub rash my wife is suffering from.  Being new to this I jumped the gun and drained my 3 month old new tub withought using a purging product.  After a full drain it left 1” of bromine water in the footwell along with probably the lines.  I have since than refilled the tub. My question is, can I still change over to chlorine with having a small amount of bromine left in the tub?  Thanks

Botswana:
Mistakes are always made, its okay.

In the future, you could have used a wet/dry vac to get the rest of the water out.  I bought a cheap portable sump pump to get most of the water out.  I've also used a leaf blower to blow out the jets (the best I could).  One could also look for pump drain plugs or just unscrew them at the unions.  You will never get 100% of the water out.  I think at some point it would be so diluted and trivial it wouldn't matter.  Its not like chlorine and bromine aren't compatible with each other in the first place, they are often used together.  I use chlorine to shock my bromine tub.

I wouldn't hesitate to just give it a go with what you've got now.  If it doesn't get any better, try doing it all again but use a purge product like ahhh-some (amazing but expensive).  Even then, you wouldn't know if the problem was fixed by purging or changing the chemical.

I myself use the spa frog bromine stuff and am also trouble shooting a rash problem.  I did a purge/flush two times and its made it a lot better, but it hasn't completely stopped, so I'm not ready to say if its due to a dirty tub (biofilm, etc) or the bromine chemical.  My ability to balance the water chemistry has also improve which I'm sure helps.

bud16415:
I have read switching from chlorine to bromine at any time is no problem. Going the other way you want to get every bit of water out you can and then flush it with water. Maybe not a total fill but enough you can run the pumps a little and dilute the bromine.

The reason being adding chlorine to bromine the reaction is that the bromine is dominate and will convert the chlorine to bromine. Thus the reason people use dichlor to shock a bromine tub.

My tub started out bromine and I had a bad reaction also, it kept me out of the tub for months I would get better and try the tub and again problems. When I switched mine over I drained it and then used a wet dry shop vac. After that I used the vac on blowing and stuck the nozzle in each jet then sucked it out again with the vac. Then I took my hose with a jet nozzle on it and blew water into each jet. Cleaned the filter and sucked out the tub a final time.

I then switched to Dichlor dosing daily and watching the stabilizer level. When it gets to about 50PPM I switch over to regular household bleach unscented and not the thickened drip proof kind. All my problems have went away.

As a side note based on advice I learned here I started adding salt to the water at water change time. I put in the same amount as if the tub had a salt generator system. the combination of cheap salt and cheap Clorox has the water feeling amazing.

Shower before getting in and moisturize after. Our skin has never felt better.     

Asha:
Thanks for the timely response.  What you said makes sense to me and was what I was hoping.  I did pick up a spa mineral sanitizer cartridge to try to minimize the amount of chlorine I need once I get the new water balanced.  I understand that ideally I should heat my new water up to 95 again then flush the tub out before draining for the second time.  (95 degrees which is a requirement for use spa purge).  Living in a house with a well makes this a 3 day process. 

Botswana:
Bud, can you elaborate a little more on putting salt in the tub before you drain it?  Why would one do that?

Also, 50ppm? Is that a typo? Why would it need to be soo high?  I'm thinking of switching, only reason I ask.

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