Adding salt after conditioner

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Msantana00

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Oct 17, 2016
3
Suwanee, GA
Hello all! Brand new to this forum and pool ownership. We bought a house this summer and inherited a great pool. I choose to pay for a pool guy this summer because I didn't want to screw it up. That said, I took over the maintenance this week. I made the mistake of going to Leslie's where they immediately hit me for $134 in chemicals for my swg pool. Now I found this website and look forward to maintaining the pool correctly and keeping my costs down. That said, I added conditioner to the pool yesterday (CYA was 20)... the granule type. Is it safe to add salt today? Current salt reading is 2400ppm. Let me know your thoughts.

P.s. gonna buy the test kit as recommended here very soon!
 
Welcome to TFP! :wave:

Too bad about the Leslie's bill. If you let us know what you purchased, some of it might be mostly useless and if you have not opened it, you could return it.

How do you know your CYA is 20? Is that the number from Leslie's? Having your own test kit can verify what your CYA is at now after you've added some. I'd hold off on adding anything else until you get your kit. TF-100 is the best!

You can add salt at any time... is your SWG complaining about low salt and is that salt reading from the SWG unit itself?

Adding as many details as you can about your pool to your forum signature sure helps the experts out when giving advice. You can edit your signature here: Edit Signature
 
The CYA # came from Leslie's and their testing. The SWG actually says anywhere from 2700-3100 depending on when I look... so hard to trust.

The only major thing I bought at Leslie's was their "perfect weekly" product. Assume that is a waste?

I will def update my sig, just need to find a few minutes to do that.
 
The perfect weekly is largely useless. It contains 3 chemicals.

The first removes phosphates. Phosphates are indeed food for algae. However, who cares if there is a whole buffet of food but you maintain enough chlorine sanitation to prevent algae from living at all? If you don't maintain proper sanitation (chlorine) then removing phosphates can slow algae outbreaks. But it you're always maintaining proper FC levels, removing phosphates is worthless.

The second is an enzyme which claims to act as a clarifier. Clarifiers work by helping dead algae, pollen, dust, etc. to coagulate and be easier for your pool skimming and filtration to remove. If you're getting adequate skimming action during the day, brushing weekly, perhaps using a pool robot/cleaner and maintaining proper sanitation, clarfiers are seldom helpful.

The third chemical is a liquid solar cover product. These products aim to reduce evaporation from the pool, which is the major source of heat loss. In theory, these products work well as they form a thin protective layer over the surface of the pool and slow evaporation rates. However, because of surface turbulence, mostly due to wind and somewhat due to skimming action, these products seldom are able to form a consistent layer over the surface of the pool. In a still pool, with no wind or turbulence, I'm sure they work pretty well. But it's not often that my pool surface doesn't have some wind ripples and movement.
 
Msantana00 said:
I also just noticed that my Jandy Aquapure system is set to 100%. I have never adjusted this. Is that typical? Pool has run perfectly and with little chemical needs all summer long... but just wondered is we are overdoing it at 100%
Click to expand...

Whether that's normal or not depends on the size of your pool, how long the pump and SWG are running each day and the model number (and corresponding daily chlorine output) of your SWG. Yours is likely a PLC700 or PLC1400.
 
Welcome to TFP!

That conditioner does not add any CYA to the pool. Stabilizer is CYA.
Here is a handy chemical cheat sheet, Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

Salt tests and readings from SWG cells are typically +/- up to 400 ppm. So, a fluctuation of 300 or 400 ppm is fine and it is expected. Especially if there is water temp variation too. As water temp lowers the salt reading from the SWG will also lower.

I would not add salt to your pool unless 2 things occur. 1, the cell gives a low salt error and 2, a salt test confirms that the salt is likely below the recommended salt range listed in your SWG manual. With fall approaching it will soon be time to turn off your SWG and start using bleach anyway. I typically switch to bleach when my water temp drops below 70. Some folks wait until 60 to turn theirs off.

It is fine to add CYA (stabilizer) and salt at the same time. But, as JVTrain suggested having your own reliable test kit is the best first step. I use the TF-100 from TFTestkits.net. It is the best value, Pool School - Test Kits Compared

Add your pool info to your signature so that we can better help you. More here on what to add and how to do it, Pool School - Read This BEFORE You Post

Do a little reading in Pool School, start here
ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Pool School - Getting Started
 
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