It is currently May 24th, 2012, 2:50 pm

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]



 Page 2 of 2 [ 21 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2
Author Message
 Post subject: Re: Is the Saturation Index always Reliable?
PostPosted: January 19th, 2012, 10:31 pm 
Special Contributor
Special Contributor

Joined: March 28th, 2007, 2:40 pm
Posts: 5406
Location: San Rafael, CA USA
bobodaclown wrote:
I hope I'm not out of base here although I may be over my head. I've got a SWCG on my pool my TA is around 80 and I fight to get it down to 70 or so. I have added borates, and finally got my CYA down to 75 ish. I constantly fight the PH rise (major contributor to CSI). I bit the bullet and bumped my CH to 525 to get my CSI into a more acceptable range not less than -.6. My water/pool looks good and I haven't seen any scale on the SWCG plates (it does polarity reversal). The SWCG has been installed 8 months and hasn't required a cleaning.

I hope this is useful to the conversation. If not, I won't take offense if it's removed.

That's good that your SWCG cell isn't showing scaling. That's really the only reason for having the saturation index slightly negative so if the Borates are helping to prevent scale and you wanted to target something closer to zero, then that's fine, but certainly not anything to worry about. A lot of the recommendations we give are guidelines that should be tempered by your own actual experience. For example, the actual TA level that works to keep pH more stable for a pool is different for different pools. Yes, a very low TA will have less carbon dioxide outgassing always, but not every pool needs to get really low before seeing a benefit while other pools (usually those with more aeration) do better with a lower TA. In the same vein, not every SWCG pool needs to have the saturation index be negative to prevent scaling in the SWCG cell, especially if Borates are being used.

And remember not to sweat things if they aren't spot-on perfect in their values. The effects we are talking about for being somewhat out of range are long-term effects and for good plaster not even that much of a big deal anyway. There's a big difference between "oh my gosh, my TA is red so my pH is <4.5 from those darn Trichlor pucks" vs. "my saturation index is -0.5 but my pH is 7.5 or higher". And even if we move the recommended range up for SWCG to 350-450, that doesn't mean you can't use 525 if you wanted to if that got you closer to zero and you didn't see scaling in your SWCG cell. These are guidelines, not absolutes.



_________________
16,000 gallon outdoor in-ground 16'x32' plaster pool; Pentair Intelliflo VF pump; Pentair IntelliTouch i9+3s control system; Jandy CL-340 square foot cartridge filter
12 Fafco solar panels; Purex Triton PowerMax 250 natural gas heater (200,000 BTU/hr output); automatic electric pool safety cover; 4-wheel pressure-side "The Pool Cleaner"
Offline
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
 Page 2 of 2 [ 21 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  


TroubleFreePool.com The Web