I recently began working at getting my saltwater pool back in order. It had spent the winter with laundry bleach as the sanitizer and it remained crystal clear. Since I need to replace most of my test kit I took a water sample to Leslie's. That's always fun!
The biggest deficit was salt. I added almost 200 lbs.. I depend on my chlorine generator to give me actionable results since it measures salinity while generating the chlorine. It's a CircuPool RJ45 with a cell that was replaced last summer along with most of the electronics in the control unit. I acid-washed the cell before installing it, and all seemed well. I was initially reading 3800 to 4000ppm on the salt. My pH 7.7, TA 71 (a tad low) CH268, CYA60, FC5.9. However, the RJ45 is behaving erratically. It's reporting between 4100 and 4400. I can watch the salinity swing while the cell is generating. Even more confusing, Today Leslie's reported only 3250 ppm on salt. Their initial read three weeks ago was 2330ppm and I added just short of 200lbs of salt almost immediately, so it's had plenty of time to dissolve. This makes no sense - salt level in my experience has never, ever measured like this. This is my major concern.
But we're not done! The Leslies test also reported .3 copper. There is no copper in my system, and the city certainly isn't adding metal to the drinking water. Last year I had a very informative chat with the Director of Public Works about phosphate. They don't add that either. He was familiar with the practice of adding it to "condition" metal municipal water pipes. Bottom line, any phosphate in pools is from airborne fertilizer residue. We're bordered by miles of farmland and it blows like heck. The patio gear is always dusty, so there you are.
Any insightful suggestions are welcome. I've been successfully managing our pool for 25 years now and this is very strange.
The biggest deficit was salt. I added almost 200 lbs.. I depend on my chlorine generator to give me actionable results since it measures salinity while generating the chlorine. It's a CircuPool RJ45 with a cell that was replaced last summer along with most of the electronics in the control unit. I acid-washed the cell before installing it, and all seemed well. I was initially reading 3800 to 4000ppm on the salt. My pH 7.7, TA 71 (a tad low) CH268, CYA60, FC5.9. However, the RJ45 is behaving erratically. It's reporting between 4100 and 4400. I can watch the salinity swing while the cell is generating. Even more confusing, Today Leslie's reported only 3250 ppm on salt. Their initial read three weeks ago was 2330ppm and I added just short of 200lbs of salt almost immediately, so it's had plenty of time to dissolve. This makes no sense - salt level in my experience has never, ever measured like this. This is my major concern.
But we're not done! The Leslies test also reported .3 copper. There is no copper in my system, and the city certainly isn't adding metal to the drinking water. Last year I had a very informative chat with the Director of Public Works about phosphate. They don't add that either. He was familiar with the practice of adding it to "condition" metal municipal water pipes. Bottom line, any phosphate in pools is from airborne fertilizer residue. We're bordered by miles of farmland and it blows like heck. The patio gear is always dusty, so there you are.
Any insightful suggestions are welcome. I've been successfully managing our pool for 25 years now and this is very strange.
