I suppose I have always done things in reverse order (i.e. bought and had a pool installed THEN decided to learn about how to care for it.) Long story short...I have ended up with a SWG that is a copper ion generating machine. Selling point was "ease of use and less daily maintenance." Ugh. One week after installation, copper registered 0.4 ppm and today was 0.7 ppm. (Had to stop by the pool store for muriatic acid and on a whim decided to see how close their results are to mine so I took in a sample...LOL) I don't see that number stopping as long as the generator continues to run. So far, we have had no adverse effects from the copper (staining or green hair).
I have turned the generator off for the moment. I've searched the forums and learned that the copper thingy can be disconnected.
How then does the SWG work to produce low levels chlorine?
I use TF-100 and my current results are:
FC 5 (full sun 12 hours daily)
CC 0
CH 200
TA 90 (currently doing some muriatic acid and aeration to lower just a smidge)
CYA 60 (got another sock hanging to raise that a little)
pH 7.2 (see TA reference)
salt 2000
Water appearance: clear and sparkly
This is the set up that I was suckered into buying: Simple Blue youtube