Converting from SoftSwim to Salt

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C

chuckc1

0
May 2, 2014
5
South Carolina
Hi folks, I am new to the site and I am in a dilemma. I purchased a Hayward Accutrol-HP Salt Chlorine Generator for 20K-gallons. Our pool is 18x33x4 and just a little under 18K-gallons. Installation was no big deal and went less than the 30-minutes as suggested by Hayward. The wife and I checked the balance of the pool, and because it is a softswim pool, we knew we should not see chlorine, free or total, using the standard test strip. The test strip displayed the ph high, as expected from the winter non-use and tons of rain, and we treated for high ph. We then treated to raise the stabilizer to an OK level. I believe it is around 50-ppm. We then added the salt. We added the 11 bags of salt from the Hayward calculation chart. I also did the math and both were within a few pounds of each with 440 actually being too much. Then we started the generator and allowed it to run on low speed for several days. I also need to clarify that after the other changes the pool was allowed to circulate for 24-hrs at high speed.
After 3 days we checked and we had no chlorine and we decided to shock the pool. We added 4-lbs. of shock and 12-hrs later, it seemed to have balanced the pool. However, 24-hrs later, no chlorine. To date we have added an additional 2-lobs of shock with the same results. The display on the Hayward shows the the pool at 3200 ppm, and around 3.5 amps and a little over 4 volts. The water has a slight green tint and a clear looking slime or flakes on the surface. We vacuumed the pool this past weekend and we now need to vacuum again. I am really becoming frustrated and regretting ever touching the **** thing. It is a big pain in the butt. I do hope you can help. This morning, no chlorine!!!
 
Welcome to TFP!

When converting from SoftSwim to chlorine (salt or otherwise) you need to go through a conversion process, which is somewhat involved. What you are seeing is common during the first day of a conversion. There are full instructions in the How To area of Pool School on doing the conversion, or you can read some of the topics in the Baqua area about how it went for other people.

The conversion process is fairly involved, but the result will be a pool that is much simpler to take care of than a SoftSwim pool.
 
Thanks for the welcome! I have been at this conversion for several weeks.After reading the process in the pool school, I believe I should have used liquid bleach instead of shock. As I stated earlier, if I shock the pool, all the readings seem to be normal for a day. Then the next day the FC is 0 and the TC might be a 1. Does liquid bleach work better and last longer? How long does this process normally take? Sorry for all the dumb questions.
 
Liquid shock and bleach are exactly the same chemical, though perhaps at different concentrations. It doesn't matter which one you use.

Have you done an overnight chlorine loss test? That will give a good indication of how far along in the conversion process you are.
 
You are correct and should only be using liquid chlorine at this point. I think you need to review the conversion process again, you need to be adding chlorine every hour or so ... not once a day. It can take a good many days to complete a conversion.
 

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CC stands for combined chlorine. It is an intermediate breakdown product, formed while chlorine is in the process of breaking down organic contaminates.

Yes, the TF100 includes the FAS-DPD chlorine test, which measures both FC and CC.
 
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