Where has all the salt gone?

[Pauls234]

At this point I'm not confident in the whole process and I am trying to order more reagents .... seems TFTestkits is down or something. I plan on trying what JoyfulNoise suggested with getting water from the bottom to see if that's any different. Some of the readings seemed consistent with salt addition but I don't have a clue what to think.

There are plausible explanations for some of the unexpected test results, if they are accurate, who knows?

Report results from these other tests you are doing and we'll go from there.

 

[Pauls234]

One other thought if you are up for it. Early results surprised with how low they were, more recent results are higher than expected. If you took the beginning and end point only, factored in salt additions and ignored the volatile test results in between how close are you to expectations?

 

[Newdude]

I have never used the speed stir but the thought of taking that pill out of the vial and cleaning it at every test is crazy to me! I just fling the test water onto the grass, file the vial up a few times with pool water while flinging it onto the grass as well ...

I do the same, but in the sink. I hold 2 fingers over the top of the vial so water can get in/out but not the pill. Once the water is clean in the vial, the pill gets a half second rinse and I'm onto the next test.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

I do the same, but in the sink. I hold 2 fingers over the top of the vial so water can get in/out but not the pill. Once the water is clean in the vial, the pill gets a half second rinse and I'm onto the next test.

You have a sink at your pool? WOW!

 

[VinnyinNJ]

One other thought if you are up for it. Early results surprised with how low they were, more recent results are higher than expected. If you took the beginning and end point only, factored in salt additions and ignored the volatile test results in between how close are you to expectations?

The beginning of the season, I believe it was accurate with the 3 bags of salt I put in. I don't know if it was accurate after adding 4 1/2 bags because we had rain again between adding and testing so dilution and water leaking out happened.

After startup I attribute my first assessment of salt after a long pause of testing to all the rain and I really had no clue in just how much fell, how diluted the pool water was and how much water actually left the pool. Stupidly I did not lower the water before adding the 4 1/2 bags of salt - I won't ever do that again - and it rained a lot again. 4 1/2 bags should have given me close to 3000 PPM but it was only 2200 - 2400. I lowered the water and added the 1 1/2 bags of salt. The testing was all done after having the filter running for close to 2 full days at the least.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Having to rinse off the magnetic stir bar … really?? That’s your excuse … .

Come on man!!!

I do all my testing indoors (except for CYA) because it’s no fun sitting outside when it’s 115F in the shade. You don’t even have to take the stir bar out … you can simply tilt the vial at a 30’ish degree angle and let a strong stream of running sink water wash all the reagents down the drain. If you do it right, you can even make the water swirl inside the tube and the stir bar will spin along with the water flow. A good 3-5 sec rinse and then tip it over into your hands to collect the magnetic bar. Alternatively you can buy a cheap plastic handheld strainer from the Dollar Store and use that to capture the magnetic bar. Literally not even an issue.

You’re grasping at straws and this former Long Island boy is calling out your Jersey behind on it

 

[randytsuch]

Last year I bought a 12 ounce kitchen squeeze bottle.
My routine is rinse out the bottle and vials and mag bar in pool water, then fill rinse bottle.
Use bottle to fill vial to line, run test, dump liquid, rinse vial and bar with bottle a few times.
For a few bucks, makes the process easier. Filling to the line is much easier with the bottle, as is rinsing.
Then I squirt the remaining water back into the pool and I'm done.

I test outside because its normally not too hot in the evenings when I test

 

[VinnyinNJ]

Having to rinse off the magnetic stir bar … really?? That’s your excuse … .

Come on man!!!

I do all my testing indoors (except for CYA) because it’s no fun sitting outside when it’s 115F in the shade. You don’t even have to take the stir bar out … you can simply tilt the vial at a 30’ish degree angle and let a strong stream of running sink water wash all the reagents down the drain. If you do it right, you can even make the water swirl inside the tube and the stir bar will spin along with the water flow. A good 3-5 sec rinse and then tip it over into your hands to collect the magnetic bar. Alternatively you can buy a cheap plastic handheld strainer from the Dollar Store and use that to capture the magnetic bar. Literally not even an issue.

You’re grasping at straws and this former Long Island boy is calling out your Jersey behind on it

@JoyfulNoise When you posted this I was trying to think of a witty comeback without it sounding nasty - I got nothing! I went to go order the kit and see the stirrer cost ... it's on B.O. So no stirrer! But maybe next year when I order replacement reagents. I still don't see the need so I'll have to think about it some more.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

Last year I bought a 12 ounce kitchen squeeze bottle.
My routine is rinse out the bottle and vials and mag bar in pool water, then fill rinse bottle.
Use bottle to fill vial to line, run test, dump liquid, rinse vial and bar with bottle a few times.
For a few bucks, makes the process easier. Filling to the line is much easier with the bottle, as is rinsing.
Then I squirt the remaining water back into the pool and I'm done.

I test outside because its normally not too hot in the evenings when I test

Great idea! Since I don't test indoors, if and when I buy the stirrer I will get a squeeze bottle and give it a try.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

I think at this point with only 5/6 weeks left in our season I'm giving up on using the SWG for the year unless we get a lot of rain and it gets diluted enough to turn it on. I will test the salt with the new reagents along with trying to get water from the bottom of the pool and see if anything is up with either test. I'll use the LC I have and bleach for the rest of the year and work on getting this salt thing perfected as best I can next year.

Saying "5/6 weeks left" is strange to think about ... heck it's even getting darker earlier!

 

[Newdude]

I still don't see the need so I'll have to think about it some more.

Ask @Mdragger88 or @kul. They didn't need one either until they got one. Both would replace it on the spot if it broke, as would the rest of us. Not tomorrow, or even later today. We'd all whip out the phone and order a replacement mid test. Just sayin.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Ask @Mdragger88 or @kul. They didn't need one either until they got one. Both would replace it on the spot if it broke, as would the rest of us. Not tomorrow, or even later today. We'd all whip out the phone and order a replacement mid test. Just sayin.

I actually have two of them … backup just in case …

 

[AUSpool]

I had to use my backup the other day when my batteries ran flat.

 

[kul]

Oh my precious!!!!! That baby would need to be overnighted to me stat!

 

[HermanTX]

I actually have two of them … backup just in case …

I have one speed stirrer device but I have 4 pill type stirrers - one for each test - FC/CC, CH, TA and Salt. Plus backups. You can buy a 5 pack on Amazon cheap.

 

[AUSpool]

Once you use a stirrer you’ll never be without. I only use one pill but have a couple of spares. Having just changed the batteries it’s a good idea to use good quality batteries, my batteries lasted for ages, battery corrosion would be a disaster.

 

[tcross04]

Okay, I’ve skimmed (no pun intended) all the replies and I have not seen it stated clearly.

No salt is leaving the pool except for splash out or draining/backwashing. Only pure H2O is evaporating. If you test salt directly after a rain or a significant amount of refill the salt should be relatively constant.

I live in the desert southwest and would not expect to add more than a bag a year and we keep our pools open (to evaporation) all year.

It seems like you have one of two things going on.

1) reagents are bad as previously stated.
2) you have a significant leak.

My eyeballs are two times too big with all of this talk about “skimmer seep.” Again, I’m in a completely different part of the country with different types of pools, but I don’t think it changes water chemistry the fact that no plumbing should leak and certainly not to the degree that it sounds like it could be.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

Okay, I’ve skimmed (no pun intended) all the replies and I have not seen it stated clearly.

No salt is leaving the pool except for splash out or draining/backwashing. Only pure H2O is evaporating. If you test salt directly after a rain or a significant amount of refill the salt should be relatively constant.

I live in the desert southwest and would not expect to add more than a bag a year and we keep our pools open (to evaporation) all year.

It seems like you have one of two things going on.

1) reagents are bad as previously stated.
2) you have a significant leak.

My eyeballs are two times too big with all of this talk about “skimmer seep.” Again, I’m in a completely different part of the country with different types of pools, but I don’t think it changes water chemistry the fact that no plumbing should leak and certainly not to the degree that it sounds like it could be.

Thanks for the reply!

It's an AG pool, no leak and no auto fill. Here in the NE we had a ton of rain. I know there's no leak because I do watch my water level closely. My pool is covered by a solar cover most of the time so not much evaporation if any. I actually was watching water oozing off the skimmer thinking it was no big deal, once I lowered the water to the "correct" height on the skimmer, it stayed there. I didn't put the salt in and test right away, I let it mix for about 26 pump hours. I haven't backwashed in quite a while and I haven't added water.

I don't know if salt water stratifies in a pool once mixed well, I would think not but I don't know. I'm usually testing the water with the filter on around the end of it being on for 13 hours so it should be mixed well. I have a great flow since I see debris floating around past the ladder which is on the opposite side of the filter. I suspect that maybe when we did have a lot of rain, the water was at the top of the skimmer and it wasn't mixing the water enough (didn't touch the water that was above the weir) so there could have been a layer of water without salt even though I went about elbow deep into the water.

Other than NOT using a speed stir I'm pretty well versed in water testing except for this salt issue. Everything I've done should have resulted in good tests, I've used Pool Math to calculate how much salt I should have added based on testing and was shooting for about 3000 PPM. I was thinking that using salt was going to be easy!

 

[VinnyinNJ]

OK, I'll keep an eye on TFTestkits and when a stirrer comes back into stock I'll purchase one!

 

[Spamhurts]

I snagged a strainer from my kitchen - wife didn't even notice that it was missing!