SWG and inline Chlorinator Combined

mnittler

0
LifeTime Supporter
Sep 17, 2012
58
South Texas
Salt Water Generator used with in-line Tri-Chlor 3" tablet Chlorinator

I have a SWG and have not added additional chlorine (tablets, or powder) for 1-1/2 years until last week when we returned from a vacation. The CL was barely over 0 so we added a bag of Di-Chlor shock. Everything is now fine (cl 3.0, Ph 7.4, cya 20) but it got me to thinking. I have to add about 1 gallon of acid a week to my pool in addition to the IntelliPh set at 100% to keep the Ph below 7.6 and this causes me to also add 10 lbs baking soda per week to increase the TA which in turn causes me to add more acid. We run the pool pump 9 hours per day. The PB says that our pool chemistry is almost perfect. Our incoming water has a salt content of 700. I also have to add a quite a bit of stabilizer several times per year because of the high salt causing me to dump water. We never have to add Salt and only drain to keep the salt around 3400ppm.

I was wondering if we added an inline Hayward Chlorinator and used the 3" tri-chlor tablets as a balance with the SWG if it would help with the Ph control and Stabilizer additional. :idea: My logic is that the Tri-Chlor tablets will raise the CL, help lower the Ph, and add Stabilizer and just set it to whatever is needed and lower the setting on the SWG? The SWG setting will be lowered and thus not require as much Acid (in our case)? This will take some testing but I am sure someone must have already done this.:stirpot:

The Tri-Chlor,Acid, and baking soda are not cheap but there might be a $ balance somewhere?

Any Comments?
 
What is your TA at right now?

CYA of 20 is too low in a salt pool. You need to be more up around 70. I do see you stated you have to dump a lot of water though.

FC of 3 is too low. That's right on the bottom fringe of where you need to be. If you start dropping below 3, you could have problems.

I have to add a gallon of acid a week to my pool, but it's twice the size of yours and I have fresh plaster which makes the problem worse. Do you run your fountain (geyser) all the time? Is there possibly anything else running all the time (other than SWG) that might be driving down pH?

If you could get your TA at about 70 then add borates to bring it to 50ppm (I estimate around 50 lbs boric acid - it's easier than borax and MA), it may help stabilize your acid requirement.
 
TA is 70 and when it hits 60 we add 13.5 lb bag of Baking Soda from Costco and 1 gallon of acid from the pool store. We very seldom run the geysers and they were only added because the 1hp pump was bigger than the slide needed. We just used the geysers to create a water feature to get rid of some of the excess water pressure to the slide. To answer your question the geysers are only run when the slide is on and someone is actually sliding (may once per week).

Maybe TMI
Pool test 5/26/14
Cleaned filter grids
PH SET AT 100%

5/27/14 CL2.4 PH7.5
2qts acid pool

5/29/14
2qts acid pool
12qts acid to tank

5/31/14 CL2.4 PH7.0, TA60
6lbs TA+

6/1/14
7.5lbs TA+
2qts acid

6/2/14 CL2.4 PH7.2

6/5/14
8qts acid tank

6/6/14 CL2.7 PH7.2

6/9/14/ CL2.7 PH7.2 TA60
2qts acid pool
13.5lbs TA+
4qts acid tank
Salt blinking high
Replacing 1 inch of water per day

6/10/14/6am CL2.4 PH7.2 TA85
----IntelliChlor 65%----
-----IntelliPH 100%-Pool 88°

6/14/14/2pmCL2.4 PH7.4 TA85
3qts acid pool
8qts acid tank
24hs

6/15/14/8am CL4.0 PH7.0
6lbs TA+
1qt acid pool
Large pool party

6/16/14/CL2.0 PH7.4
2qts acid pool
1cap phosfree

6/19/14/ CL1 PH7.5 TA60
Salt3600
13.5lbs TA+
4qts acid pool
4qts acid tank

6/20/14/3pm CL2.4 PH7.2

////////::
6/25/14
back washed
///////..
13.5lbsTA+
8qts acid tank
4qts acid pool
2caps phosfree
9pm CL2.0 PH7.0

6/29/14/ CL3.0 PH7.5 TA80
2qts acid pool
7.5lbs TA+
Pool 86°

6/30/14/CL2.0 PH7.5
2qts acid pool
8qts acid tank

7/3/14/5pm CL1.0 PH7.5
2qts acid pool
!!!!!1bag dy-CL2!!!!
First bag of chlorine ever

7/4/14/5pm CL3.6 PH7.0

7/5/14/11am back washed
6pm CL2.4 PH7.2 TA90
1lb CL

7/6/14/6pm CL4.0 PH7.2

7/8/14/CL2.4 PH7.4
2qts acid pool

7/9/14/CL3.0 PH7.2
Salt 3400
CYA15
8qts acid tank
 
You don't need that phosfree. It's just a wallet eater.

It looks to me like your FC is dropping down low repeatedly. That shouldn't happen in such swings with an SWG. Are you running it full blast all the time? It could be the low CYA, or it could be a nascent algae bloom.
 
Before I went to spending money on a tablet feeder and tablets, I'd let the pH run about 7.8 and raise the CYA to 70 and lower the salt to the bottom of what's recommended.

That way your swg will be set to a lower percentage so it won't raise the pH as much and therefore you won't have to add as much acid. You may also find that by letting the pH get to 7.8 or so it'll stabilize more and you won't have to run the IntellipH as high. Also I'd let the TA stay at about 60 ppm and see what that does. Don't automatically raise it when it gets to 60. I'd be comfortable with letting it go a little below 60.
 
Well, I went ahead and installed the Pentair Model 300 offline tablet chlorinator to run in conjunction with the Pentair IntelliChlor IC60 to assist in reduction of acid consumption and increase CYA. I installed the model 300 tablet chlorinator after the DE filter and the output after the heater. I added 9 each 3" Tri-chlor tablets and set the setting at 1.5 on the dial. I also added 4 pounds of stabilizer to the pool. Preliminary Setup: We reduced the IntelliChlor pool time from 8 hours to 4 hours, reduced the IntellipH setting from 100% to 75%. The CYA was very low so the addition of stabilizer will begin to help the chlorine demand also. We will let it settle in and modify the settings as required to see what happens. I have never regretted having the in-pool popup cleaners running in conjunction with a Polaris 360 (much to the objection of the PB) so let's see what happens.
The worst thing will be that I have to plug 2 each 3/8" holes in the pvc pipe to abandon the offline tablet chlorinator?
 
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