How much salt do I need for my Intex SWG?

[Elle]

I ordered this and it should be here next week. While we are waiting we wanted to put the salt in the pool and make sure we had it all set.

I can't find a recommended amount of salt for this generator. Does anyone know? We have a 24ft round pool. About 13,500 gallons. Once I know how much I need I know I can use the pool calc to figure it out.

Thanks

 

[MikeInTN]

The recommended amount is 2500ppm - 3000ppm, with 3000 ppm supposedly being ideal. For 13,500 gals, that works out to 337 - 338 lbs of salt.

I would recommend testing your water first to see if you have any existing salt in your water (salt is a byproduct of using chlorine in your pool). Subtract that from the amount you need, and figure up how many lb's of salt that corresponds to. Since salt comes in 40 lb bags, I would then subtract 40lbs or so from that amount and go ahead and add it to the pool, mix it up with your brush, and 24 hours later, test again. If you're close, go with it. If needed, add the other 40 lbs of salt, brush, and test again.

Salt's one of those things that, if you get too much of it in the pool, the only way to lower it is to drain water, so I like to undershoot and keep adding till I get it right. It dissolves fairly quickly, so it's not that big of a pain to add to the pool.

Just my .02.

 

[Elle]

Thanks for the quick reply! I did test to see what was already in there and it read about 550. We added 3 40lb bags and I figure we will test again tomorrow and see where that puts us. I didn't want to add to much at first!!

I have 6 bags total so I will probably need a couple more? I'm not sure.

 

[MikeInTN]

OK, so we're figuring on 337 lbs for 3000ppm for your pool, or 0.1123 lbs per 1ppm (337 / 3000). So, figuring that you've already got 550 ppm, you still need to come up by 2450, so 0.1123 x 2450 is roughly 275 lbs of salt to add. You've added 120lbs so far, so that would leave 155 lbs to add; minus the 40lb safety factor would be 115 lbs, or 3 more bags. You might need one more bag, you might not. Add the other three bags and see what it measures then. If my math's right, each bag should add around 356 ppm, so see if you're around 2600 - 2650 after you've added 6 bags. If you are, go get another bag to get you up to 3000 or thereabouts.