Salt level keeps rising

[VinceL]

Over the past 5 days, the salt level in my pool has been increasing without the addition of any salt to the pool. Five days ago the salt level was 3400, and today it is 4100. I have confirmed the salt reading that the SWCG is giving by manually testing the water with salt strips. Today, the reading from 2 test strips was between 3900-4000...close enough to the SWCG reading I think.

We had major flooding 3 weeks ago. The pool actually overflowed (even with 2 overflow drain pipes) and we got a lot of dirt in the pool. We vacuumed to waste to get the dirt out, I cleaned the filter cartridges and cleaned the contacts in the ORP and pH sensors. All of the pool chemistry was out of whack from the flooding. Two weeks ago, I added salt, baking soda, and calcium chloride to get the levels back to normal. I added some stabilizer last week to raise the CYA. The weather for the past 5 days has been cloudy with just a little bit of rain.

Given that I added salt 2 weeks ago, I find it hard to believe that it has taken this long for the salt level to rise. But, maybe?
Given the recent cloudy weather, we haven't had major evaporation to raise the salt concentration. And, we have an auto-fill which would tend to lower the salt concentration.
Since the only recent addition to the pool has been stabilizer, is there anything in stabilizer that would cause an increase in the measured salt level?

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[RobbieH]

You might try the salt drop test kit. I've had more consistent results from it than strips.

Stabilizer won't add salt.

 

[Poolsean]

x2 on the Taylor silver nitrate test kit. You may be getting errors due to high TDS in the water, which can be picked up as salinity.

 

[ping]

My guess for the for the higher salinity is that you added more salt than what you needed. If the SWG is happy and making chlorine I would leave it alone, you might get more rain.

Sean,
What components that make up TDS can be picked up as salinity that are not salinity? My SWG has been a few hundred points higher than my Taylor test since after the first year. I know the Taylor test is accurate to a certain level and I don't have any problems with salinity, but I would like to know what the SWG might possibly read as salinity that isn't.

 

[RobbieH]

My SWG was not properly calibrated, CompuPool sent me instructions on how to calibrate it. I don't know that this is the problem with your Jandy, but wanted to put it out there in case it could be.

 

[jblizzle]

My drop based salt kit also reads around 4-500 ppm higher than my new SWG ... not sure which is wrong, but they are self-consistent.

Drove me nuts for awhile when the kit said 3200, but the SWG would not work at 2700. I tested another members pool and found that my test was reading higher than his SWG and test strips as well. So, just added more salt to make the SWG happy and know that my test seems to read high.

 

[ping]

My SWG was not properly calibrated, CompuPool sent me instructions on how to calibrate it. I don't know that this is the problem with your Jandy, but wanted to put it out there in case it could be.

I can recalibrate my Jandy unit to match the Taylor test, but I'm interested in if the SWG is reading some part of the TDS to make it read 300-400 points higher than the Taylor test.

For the first year, testing and the SWG matched but since then the SWG reads higher than the test strips or Taylor test. It seems I added borates around that time. I have also had to install a couple of new sensors and each one read exactly what the old sensor read for salinity and temp.

 

[Poolsean]

ping, TDS is mostly made up of salts (Calciums, Magnesiums, sodium) and metals in the water. The silver nitrate test kit only tests for the sodium chloride component.

 

[VinceL]

Thanks for all the replies.

I ordered the Taylor silver nitrate test kit today. So, that should tell me if my high reading is truly salt or reflects high TDS.

The pool water is very clear so I'm suspecting I added too much salt and it just took a while for it to fully dissolve. With the cooler, cloudy weather for the past several days, we haven't been using the pool and I've only been running the filter a few hours per day.

 

[Newyork art]

Just had same problem, high salt Hayward Goldline SWG kept triping out. Frustrating !!!!! Then found the SWG had changed some how to a T-3 cell config. Reset it to my T-15 and all is good now.

 

[VinceL]

I received my Taylor silver nitrate test kit and ran the test today. It confirms what my SWCG is reporting. The silver nitrate test came back with a reading of 4200. I guess I did add too much salt.

I drained a bunch of water out of the pool. Once the auto-fill gets the water level back up high enough for the skimmer to work, I'll fire up the pump and see if I have lowered the salt level enough.