Automatic Chlorine and Acid Pumps

[stanner]

Hi All
This is my first post but have read lots of posts over the past year.
I live in England but have a home in Turkey.

My pool is a concrete in ground tiled overflow channel pool, 11m x 5m x 1.7m deep. It also has a 3m x 3m x 1.7m balancing tank. Test kit LaMotte, Color Q Plus 2056. Taken care of by local pool store when I am not here.

It is 7 years old and runs from the beginning of May until the end of October. The options in Turkey are tablets, Dichlor granules, liquid chlorine and SWG. I am using the Dichlor granules I'm afraid. From start up until July the CYA increases to an unacceptable level beyond the chlorine/CYA table. I then get green grout lines that require brushing every few days.

From the knowledge I have gained from this site it seems common sense to me to go for an automatic liquid Chlorine and Acid pump with a weekly dose of the Dichlor granules to keep the CYA level correct. One of my friends has a SWG system but to be honest I don't like the idea of corrosive salt in my pool, hey, but that's just me!!

I am probably no where near as experienced as you chaps so therefore I am asking for opinions as I want to make a decision on this very soon.

Many thanks

Stan

 

[JoyfulNoise]

From the knowledge I have gained from this site it seems common sense to me to go for an automatic liquid Chlorine and Acid pump with a weekly dose of the Dichlor granules to keep the CYA level correct. One of my friends has a SWG system but to be honest I don't like the idea of corrosive salt in my pool, hey, but that's just me!!

Stan,

Chlorine automation will definitely improve your pool water quality as I am sure, like here in the US, the pool store is probably doing the bare minimum to take care of your pool...seems to be a universal shortcoming of all pool stores!

As for your comment about salt, I think you are mistaken about what a salt water pool is. Salt water pools operate at approximately 3,500ppm NaCl, that is 10X lower than sea water concentration. Salt water pools are not "corrosive" in any way and that is a huge fallacy when it comes to SWG operation. It's being used a lot here in the US (especially in the southwest) as a scare tactic to push people towards "alternatives to chlorine" systems (UV, ozone, minerals, etc) which are worthless at keeping a pool properly sanitized (but they are great a lining the pockets of pool builders with lots of extra profit).

And guess what, if you are using any kind of chlorinating product in your pool and you aren't dumping out half the water annually, then your pool is already a salt water pool. Many people are shocked when they install an SWG and initially test the chloride concentration levels where they find out that their water already has 1500-2000ppm worth of chloride in it. In fact, a lot of installers will fail to check the chloride levels initially and just dump in the amount of salt it takes to get to the recommended level. At that point, the water has too much salt in it and the pool owner has to dump water out.

Salt water chlorine generators are, by far, one of the easiest automation methods to implement. Once you get them dialed-in, they don't need anything more than some seasonal adjustments to their output. The notion that SWGs are corrosive is just absolutely false. Some types of soft stones (such as limestone) can be damaged by salt but TFP has yet to get any valid proof of this beyond the scare-pictures that are posted up by alternative-sanitizer manufacturers. As for metals, metal corrosion in pools is entirely dominated by pH, not salinity. When people experience metal corrosion, 99% of the time we find that they have not kept their pool water properly balanced.

You are free to choose whatever automation method you like, but do give SWGs a fair shot. Much of the information out there regarding their "corrosiveness" is just flat out false.

Good luck,

Matt

 

[Bama Rambler]

It sounds like you have a good plan on the liquid chlorine injection pump.

Do you know that you'll need to inject acid on a regular basis?

What's the reason that you're losing CYA on a regular basis?

 

[stanner]

Thanks Matt and Bama for your replies, much appreciated.

I forgot to mention that all round the edge of my pool where the water overflows is marble. That is the main reason I am concerned about the salt but I agree it seems the simplest method.

I did a reading of the CYA this morning and in 6 weeks of running from start up using Dichlor granules my reading is already 76 which means I have to keep my chlorine at around 9. Who knows what its going to be in another 6 weeks. I will probably have to dump the lot and start again.
I also take on board what you say Bama about acid usage, I haven't got a clue yet on how much I'll need.
What I need to check out is how much liquid chlorine and liquid PH minus I will need for the season together with cost and bulk.
It is definitely going to be one of these systems though!!!

Thanks again both of you. I'll post and let you know how I've gone on.

Cheers

Stan