Help transitioning to SW

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The white peak looks like 6.6, which is 3,150 ppm, which should be good.

Brush at least 2 more times really well.

Did the builder say that you can turn the system on once the salt is dissolved?

What SWG did you get?
 
Sunbaby said:
They tested it (I wasn’t outside) and said they needed 6 to 7 bags of salt, so they added six, and left the seventh in case I need it.
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6 bags is 1920 ppm salt. For future reference, each 40 lb bag will get you about 320 ppm. With evaporation and rain you'll rarely be at exactly 15k gallons if that was even dead on in the first place. So every bag hits different.

It sounds like your existing salt was 1200 ish.
 
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JamesW said:
The white peak looks like 6.6, which is 3,150 ppm, which should be good.

Brush at least 2 more times really well.

Did the builder say that you can turn the system on once the salt is dissolved?

What SWG did you get?
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Yes, he said to wait 24 hrs to turn it on and then he forbid me to test my water for a week 😂 yeah - I’m not that girl. But I won’t add any salt for a week 🤷🏻‍♀️

It is a Jandy Truclear Pro
 
I know I’m not supposed to adjust the salt for at least a week, but what about Chlorine and the the rest of them? While it’s beginning the process of generating chlorine should I test and add liquid chlorine for the next week?

Is it ok to adjust my others? It looks like my TA/CH/CYA are all out of balance - can I add acid this week Or should I wait?

70 cya? 🥴 I’ve spent my entire life trying to avoid 70. Should I really add stabilizer?
 

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Sunbaby said:
I know I’m not supposed to adjust the salt for at least a week, but what about Chlorine and the the rest of them? While it’s beginning the process of generating chlorine should I test and add liquid chlorine for the next week?

Is it ok to adjust my others? It looks like my TA/CH/CYA are all out of balance - can I add acid this week Or should I wait?

70 cya? 🥴 I’ve spent my entire life trying to avoid 70. Should I really add stabilizer?
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All of those numbers are just fine. In order:
  1. FC. I would raise this a bit higher, I'd target 6-7 until you get to know your pool better. It will not matter and you won't tell the difference. It will allow your pool to handle a higher FC demand day (swimmers, sun etc.).
  2. pH is fine...anything in the 7s works fine. WHEN it drifts into the 8s, use Muriatic acid to lower it. For now, lower it in .4 increment with a target of 7.2-7.4 This will help you learn your pool and how it acts. When you learn that, then you can do full increment.
  3. TA of 90 is ok. Don't raise it. Overtime it may come down a bit, depending on the TA of your fill water. I run mine at 60 and my pH is very stable.
  4. CH of 300 is perfect!
  5. CYA - Run it at 60 for a while. 70 is not a requirement. However, I would not fear 70. That's where I run mine. CYA degrades 5-10/month on its own. If you keep the FC up at 6-7 for 60, or 7-8 or 9 for CYA of 70, you should be fine. Again, 60-70 CYA is just fine. 70 just helps protect and preserve more FC for high demand days, and uses less of your cell life. MINIMUM FC IS LAVA.
  6. Salt is fine...as long as the SWCG is producing Chlorine.

Adding Liquid Chlorine is fine. Remember this--> SWCG is great at maintaining FC, not so much raising. Raise to target with Liquid and Maintain with SWCG.
 
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PoolStored said:
All of those numbers are just fine. In order:
FC. I would raise this a bit higher, I'd target 6-7 until you get to know your pool better. It will not matter and you won't tell the difference. It will allow your pool to handle a higher FC demand day (swimmers, sun etc.)
pH is fine...anything in the 7s works fine. WHEN it drifts into the 8s, use Muriatic acid to lower it. For now, lower it by .4 each time with a target of 7.2-7.4 while you are learning your pool
TA of 90 is ok. Don't raise it. Overtime it may come down a bit, depending on the TA of your fill water. I run mine at 60 and my pH is very stable.
CH of 300 is perfect!
CYA - Run it at 60 for a while. 70 is not a requirement. However, I would not fear 70. That's where I run mine. CYA degrades 5-10/month on its own. If you keep the FC up at 6-7 for 60, or 7-8 or 9 for CYA of 70, you should be fine. Again, 60-70 CYA is just fine. 70 just helps protect and preserve more FC for high demand days, and uses less of your cell life. MINIMUM FC IS LAVA.
Salt is fine...as long as the SWCG is producing Chlorine.

Adding Liquid Chlorine is fine. Remember this--> SWCG is great at maintaining FC, not so much raising. Raise to target with Liquid and Maintain with SWCG.
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Thank you!! This is very helpful!!!
 
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PoolStored said:
CYA - Run it at 60 for a while. 70 is not a requirement. However, I would not fear 70. That's where I run mine. CYA degrades 5-10/month on its own. If you keep the FC up at 6-7 for 60, or 7-8 or 9 for CYA of 70, you should be fine. Again, 60-70 CYA is just fine. 70 just helps protect and preserve more FC for high demand days, and uses less of your cell life. MINIMUM FC IS LAVA.
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This is great advice. I goofed up last spring and didn't account for temperature in my CYA testing early last year (didn't let the sample warm up), and wound up overshooting by a lot. I wound up with a CYA of 90. I kept my FC around 9 with a min of 5-6. I was able to manage with that over the summer and fall and it had finally come down to 70 in October. I will make sure not to make that mistake again!

I say that to confirm that managing a little bit higher CYA is doable, as long as it isn't too terribly high (>90).

--Jeff
 
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Sunbaby said:
70 cya? 🥴 I’ve spent my entire life trying to avoid 70. Should I really add stabilizer?
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Belated welcome to the Swg club 🤩
As @PoolStored mentioned, a cya of 60 is ok in the shoulder seasons but do not fear 70 or even 80 in the long dog days of your hot Texas summer 🥵.
When you notice that it’s not quite keeping up (maintaining at least target fc or a dab above) with your regular testing as the uv increases then that’s your cue to increase cya then dose with liquid chlorine & see how she maintains.
The 60 to 80 cya curve for a swg is No different than the 30 to 50 curve for manual chlorination- your starting point is just different. Lower cya in the shorter low uv days, higher cya in the longer high uv days.
The swg puts out a little fc continuously over a long period of time. You don’t want the sun consuming it as quickly is the cell makes it.
You never want fc to fall below minimum for your cya because of a high uv day & a higher cya (60-80) can help you prevent that.
Also, the more you protect the fc your cell produces, the less you have to run it to maintain proper fc levels thus the longer it will live. All Swg cells have a finite lifespan (usually around 8k -10k hrs @ 100%)
 
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Mdragger88 said:
Belated welcome to the Swg club 🤩
As @PoolStored mentioned, a cya of 60 is ok in the shoulder seasons but do not fear 70 or even 80 in the long dog days of your hot Texas summer 🥵.
When you notice that it’s not quite keeping up (maintaining at least target fc or a dab above) with your regular testing as the uv increases then that’s your cue to increase cya then dose with liquid chlorine & see how she maintains.
The 60 to 80 cya curve for a swg is No different than the 30 to 50 curve for manual chlorination- your starting point is just different. Lower cya in the shorter low uv days, higher cya in the longer high uv days.
The swg puts out a little fc continuously over a long period of time. You don’t want the sun consuming it as quickly is the cell makes it.
You never want fc to fall below minimum for your cya because of a high uv day & a higher cya (60-80) can help you prevent that.
Also, the more you protect the fc your cell produces, the less you have to run it to maintain proper fc levels thus the longer it will live. All Swg cells have a finite lifespan (usually around 8k -10k hrs @ 100%)
Click to expand...
OMGOSH I have so much to learn 😳
 
Sunbaby said:
OMGOSH I have so much to learn 😳
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Trust me, after a month or two, it will be like chewing bubblegum and riding a bike (and even doing them at the SAME TIME!)

Just keep asking questions, and we will help.
 
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I live in Adelaide, South Australia where we have no ozone layer and long, hot, dry summers - I have my CYA at 80 and my FC fluctuates between 6-8ppm. It's currently summer and I've got the cell running full whack for 7 hours a day. It's run from 9am-4pm as we have solar panels
 
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Oh Alex made me think of another question. How do I figure how many hours a day I need to run my pump (and SG) I typically run it 7a to 7p because I like the look of moving water.

I do NOT have a variable speed pump this go round. Should I adjust my run time?
 
Sunbaby said:
Oh Alex made me think of another question. How do I figure how many hours a day I need to run my pump (and SG) I typically run it 7a to 7p because I like the look of moving water.

I do NOT have a variable speed pump this go round. Should I adjust my run time?
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Use pool math. click the three horizontal lines in upper left corner and select "effects of adding" Use SWG as the chemical. You will need to know how much chlorine your cell produces to enter the "output" number. Post your cell make/model and we'll give you that number.

You can then play around with % output and pump times to figure out how much FC it will add. Then you should set up your pool at your target FC...say your target is 7. Add enough liquid chlorine to get to your target (if you are not already there). Why LC? SWG is good at maintaining, not good at raising. Run it for a day. If your FC drops, you can increase pump time or increase %. Play with runtime and % until it maintains FC.

Hope that helps!
 
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It's a moving target. Use PoolMath to start at whatever pump runtime / swg % suits you for the current daily loss. Monitor daily and add bleach anytime it's not maintaining at least target range. You need to figure out the lowest FC point of the day and test then to ensure you are always above what you test.

I dialed mine in at 10 FC so I had plenty of wiggle room. 8 would be great also. Once it's matching the current daily loss, still test daily until you trust it. It could have been a lower loss day today that fooled you.

And once it's dialed in and you trust it, then test to be on the lookout for the daily loss increasing and the cell not keeping up. Once the midpoint of the season hits, it's the opposite and all the adjustments will be down. If you miss an adjustment time then, you'll make too much FC and it's a GREAT problem to have because it's safe up to SLAM and no harm. For the first half half of the season if you miss and adjustment time, you won't make enough FC and may spawn an algae bloom.

The pump/swg combo times are all proportionate. 12 hours at 50% is 6 hours 'on' and the same as 6 hours at 100%
 
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Sunbaby said:
Oh Alex made me think of another question. How do I figure how many hours a day I need to run my pump (and SG) I typically run it 7a to 7p because I like the look of moving water.

I do NOT have a variable speed pump this go round. Should I adjust my run time?
Click to expand...
I was under the impression that all new builds post 2021 required a variable speed pump?
 
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