Getting ready for O/B Bicarbonate Startup

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The POOL circuit should be your main filter schedule, SWG run time, and the lowest speed you want your pump to run.

In ScreenLogic, the POOL circuit should be assigned to POOL for Circuit Function assign POOL, set the RPM to 1250, Check Chlorinator present

If you want a POOL HIGH circuit, select an empty Feature, set the name to POOL HIGH, circuit function Generic, set the speed to 3000.

Find the Aux Circuit that your lights are wired to and set the name to POOL Light, Circuit Function IntelliBrite



Feature circuits are basically alternate pumps speeds that you can program. All they will be able to do is change the pump speed until you get some valve actuators.

An Aux Circuit is connected each one of your relays and they function as a switch that the automation will turn on and off for you. Your pool lights and landscape lights are examples of Aux Circuits.
 
bdavis466 said:
The POOL circuit should be your main filter schedule, SWG run time, and the lowest speed you want your pump to run.

In ScreenLogic, the POOL circuit should be assigned to POOL for Circuit Function assign POOL, set the RPM to 1250, Check Chlorinator present

If you want a POOL HIGH circuit, select an empty Feature, set the name to POOL HIGH, circuit function Generic, set the speed to 3000.

Find the Aux Circuit that your lights are wired to and set the name to POOL Light, Circuit Function IntelliBrite



Feature circuits are basically alternate pumps speeds that you can program. All they will be able to do is change the pump speed until you get some valve actuators.

An Aux Circuit is connected each one of your relays and they function as a switch that the automation will turn on and off for you. Your pool lights and landscape lights are examples of Aux Circuits.
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Wow, thanks! That gives me a good plan to follow. I knew I must have been missing something about how the POOL circuit was supposed to work!

The only thing I got correct was your explanation of how the lights were supposed to be set up. The 3 Intellibrites are controlled on Aux 1 and the 2 bubblers are on Aux 2. These are properly labelled as Intellibrites, so the automation recognizes them and synchronizes them.

Aux 3 and 4 are set up to control the actuators for the slide and the bubblers. I've appropriately named them, and right now am just turning the bubblers on and off manually (via the iPad) when I want them on (no schedule.)

Features 1-8 are various pump speeds from low to high (I wasn't sure what I'd need, so I just programmed a bunch!). I've scheduled my pump run times throughout the day only using Feature 1 (1200 rpm).

When I have time I'll see how well I can follow your explanation above for setting the POOL and POOL HIGH circuits. I can see how this will be necessary to get the SWG working in sync with everything.

Thanks again, Brian! You've been a huge help.
 
Valve actuators will operate when assigned to either an AUX circuit or a Feature Circuit. Since you have no power requirements for your bubblers and slide, they would be better suited as feature circuits.

The AUX circuits are used when an actual power delivery is required like a pool light or a separate pump. You can use the AUX circuits for for your two features but you'd be needlessly be wasting relays.

The POOL circuit should be your main filtering schedule and lowest pump speed. Any additional pump speeds that you want to schedule and also have the SWG operate need to overlap the POOL schedule. Example: Pool 1PM-6PM, Pool High 2PM-3PM. With this schedule the pump will turn on at 1PM, ramp up to high speed at 2PM, return to the POOL speed at 3PM and turn off at 6PM. The SWG will be on the whole time since the POOL circuit was also active for the entire time. I suggest this opposed to: POOL 1PM-2PM, Pool High 2PM-3PM, POOL 3PM-6PM. In this example the SWG would not have power for the 1 hour Pool High is activated since the POOL circuit was not scheduled. Since chlorine production is the primary driver for pump runtime, having the pump active on a schedule for periods where chlorine is not being produced is a waste of energy.

You don't need 8 pump speeds unless you have specific goals you are trying to achieve. 3 is probably plenty. One for filtration, a medium speed and a high speed. The only real way to know is to experiment and see what your needs are. This is extremely easy since you have ScreenLogic.
 
This is great, thanks! It will give me something concrete to go by tomorrow when I try to tackle the new programming.

A couple of questions: If I find the minimum pump speed that the SWG will generate chlorine, does it generate more chlorine if I put the pump on a higher speed, or only if I increase the output percentage?

Also, what might be the reason why I'd want to have a scheduled high speed pump run in the middle of a normal pump run? For more effective skimming during that time? Or maybe if I had a pressure side cleaner that needed the higher speed to clean during that time? I'm just trying to understand the reasoning so it will help me as I tailor your suggested programming to my needs.

Thanks again, Brian. You're the best! :)
 
The SWG's chlorine production does not change with flow. Changing the output percentages only allows the cell to run longer within a given hour. If you set the cell to 50%, the cell will be on for 30 mins each hour, 75%= 45 mins each hour, etc. The actual chlorine production only changes because the cell is on or off for more or less of the time.

You probably don't need a high speed schedule. Some like it, I don't. I run mine at 1200 RPM for the entire schedule and only ramp up the speed for my spa's spillway (and thats just for appearance).
 
That makes sense. If we are adding chemicals to the pool and want to manually increase the pump speed for circulation during a short period of time, is that where we could use a Feature set to a higher pump speed and manually select it to override the lower speed set on the POOL schedule?
 
Starting with a salt level of 400, we added 14- 40 lb bags of salt to undershoot our 3400 ppm target (7 bags yesterday and 7 bags today-- instead of the 17+ bags total that pool math calculated.) After testing, my salt is at 3000 as expected, although the SWG is saying it is 4050. Is this a problem? I've read that as long as the SWG is happy, then just go with it, but I wanted to check to be sure. I'm assuming I should not add an more salt to get to 3400 since I don't want the SWG to think I have too much. Do I need to drain and fill to reduce the amount of salt the SWG thinks I have?

Also, since we manually dosed with chlorine last night until the rest of the salt was added to the pool today and I get the system programmed to run the SWG tomorrow, we've been treating the pool as a non-SWG pool and targeting FC=8 with our CYA=70. Tonight, our FC was still at 8, so even though I'm ready to program the system for the SWG to take over, I was thinking I should let the FC drop to closer to SWG chlorination levels (target 5, never less than 3) before I start. Does that make sense?

Thank you for the continued help. Getting all these final chemical and system programming questions out of the way before the baby comes is huge for me.
 
MarianParoo said:
We ARE going to "beat the baby"!!!
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:) I sure hope so!

Never mind about the high salt reading on the SWG... I turned it on this morning and now that it is running I'm getting a reading of 2800 (low alert) so that seems closer to what my test said and more reasonable. I'm going to add 1 or 2 more bags of salt.
 

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Jamie,

+/-200ppm variation between the cell and the K-1766 is completely within spec. Looks like you nailed it pretty good. No worries on the low salt alarm either, the unit will still generate chlorine. Two things to keep in mind -

First, highly concentrated salt water created when you first dump the bag in is a lot heavier than fresh water. Even after all the salt crystals dissolve, it can take a very long time for the water to mix and homogenize. I know TFP says 24-48hrs but, in practice, I've seen it take longer than that. So going slow, like you're doing, is the best bet.

Second, and to make matters more difficult, the Pentair ICs only take a salinity reading once at startup and then again every 12 hours of elapsed time. So, the reading you are seeing can be quite old and there is no "instant read" function unless you cycle the cell power.
 
Thank you, Matt. I'm glad we are on the right track.

Since it's been awhile since I've posted a full set of numbers (and tested for the extra ones) I thought I would check them and get opinions as to how we are doing. I'm mostly interested in how our CSI looks. This is our first day with the SWG running after having kept the FC at manual dosing levels for a CYA of 70 with bleach. So I know the FC is higher than I need it to be for the SWG.

PH=7.7 (Target 7.5, therefore add 32 oz acid)
FC= 7.0 (Target 5, therefore adjust SWG to let FC come down a bit)
CC=0
CYA=70 (assumed, since it is still dissolving in the socks and that's what I targeted)
CH=175 (same as the last reading I got on 4/6)
TA=175 (down from 225 on 4/14)
Water Temp=74
CSI= -0.02 (PoolMath says it will go to -0.21 after the addition of the MA, and FC coming down to 5)

Are we doing ok? Is there anything I should change? Thanks!
 
You're doing fine Jamie.

As the temperature increases, your CSI will get more positive. As long as you keep it on the negative side of zero, you'll be all good.

The biggest issue you're going to run into with your new plaster and SWG is going to be acid demand. There's going to come a time when it seems like your pool is literally drinking acid by the gallon. It's normal and we will work on getting your TA as low as possible to help alleviate the demand. So keep track of your acid use as the record of the trend will help.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
You're doing fine Jamie.

As the temperature increases, your CSI will get more positive. As long as you keep it on the negative side of zero, you'll be all good.

The biggest issue you're going to run into with your new plaster and SWG is going to be acid demand. There's going to come a time when it seems like your pool is literally drinking acid by the gallon. It's normal and we will work on getting your TA as low as possible to help alleviate the demand. So keep track of your acid use as the record of the trend will help.
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Thank you Matt. I've been keeping track of our nightly PH readings and how much MA PoolMath is telling us to add. My understanding is that as the TA comes down with the additions of MA, then the acid demand will level off, as you said. Right now I've been targeting 7.5 each time I add acid, but should I target a lower PH number to help speed up the process of lowering the TA?
 
I think you're beyond the plaster cure phase now so if Brian has no objection I think you can lower it down to 7.2 and then send the munchkin-army into the pool to splash & play like crazy. Use the bubblers too to get extra aeration. Wait until you get up to 7.6 then lower it to 7.2 again. Cannon balls and lots of splashy water fights are your best bet.

Measure the TA and see where it goes. Try to target a TA of 80ppm at first and see what your acid demand is at that level. Once you do get to 80ppm TA, only target a pH of 7.6 and only lower pH when you've gone above 7.8.
 
The trouble with dropping the pH to 7.2 and trying to maintain it there in attempts to lower the TA is that your CSI would be very negative. While your plaster is well beyond the initial curing stages, it can still be effected. Lowering the pH to 7.5 as you are doing now will still lower the TA with time and keeps the CSI high enough to protect the plaster, but low enough to not have scaling in the salt cell.

Your CH level is still very low and the higher TA is compensating for that. I suggest you continue doing what you are doing but if you feel the acid demand is excessive then you certainly can lower the TA more aggressively but you will need to increase the CH - something I'd never recommend in an arid climate.
 
It probably wouldn't hurt to raise CH to 250. I haven't tested fill water recently, but it used to be about 160. In the last couple of drought years 2013, 2014, my CH got to a high of 450. It dropped to 410/420 in 2015. I haven't tested it yet this year (or I didn't log it) but, I expect it will be down 30 or 40 again with all the rain we've gotten.
 
pooldv said:
It probably wouldn't hurt to raise CH to 250. I haven't tested fill water recently, but it used to be about 160. In the last couple of drought years 2013, 2014, my CH got to a high of 450. It dropped to 410/420 in 2015. I haven't tested it yet this year (or I didn't log it) but, I expect it will be down 30 or 40 again with all the rain we've gotten.
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You are obviously much more aware of the climate in that area and that being the case, your suggestion is a good one. I just dumped a third of my pool's volume and my CH still isn't close to your level...Send that rain over here
 
Ha! Wish we could! This all or nothing rain over here is getting old! Couldn't keep grass in the pastures for a couple of years and then last year we got too much rain in the spring for the grass to grow! This year is pretty good so far. Grass is nice and tall for a change. Donkeys are gonna be fat!
 
Thanks for the varying perspectives, guys. My husband and I discussed it, and since we are fairly conservative in our approach to things, and we haven't been too concerned with the amount of acid we've been adding daily, we will stay the course for now and continue targeting 7.5 for the PH while waiting for the TA and CH to adjust on their own based on what we've been doing so far. We can always revisit being more aggressive in lowering the TA more quickly later, or bringing up the CH more quickly if evaporation/fill water doesn't do it for us. I will keep an eye on the CSI as we go, but knowing we are ok where we are gives me some peace of mind.

I'm glad to have pooldv's perspective on the CH too, so thank you for that. I'm sure we'd be ok bringing the CH up to 250, but for now we'll just see how it goes a little while longer to give us a little bit of a buffer should this summer be a scorcher.

Thanks again for all the insight and help. I'm glad to hear we are ok for now.
 

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