New to Salt Water Pools

[Venka]

I guess I never got around to registering on the forums. I have used this site off and on for the past 4 or 5 years. I use to have a summer escapes pool (about 15ft and 3.5ft tall or there abouts). It was the standard out of the box set up and I feel I have become an old hand at running a cartridge and chlorine based pool. I moved across the country and back to my home state of Louisiana. I was one of the ones that got flood last summer so I decided to ditch the old pool and start new. This time I have a 15x48 Intex pool with the combo sand filter and salt water pump. I was surprised at how many bags of salt it took to get started and how many bags of sand actually fit in the filter.

I have finally figured out how to program the pump and turn the salt water converter on, yes I ran it for almost a full 24 hours before turning on the salt water converter because I thought it turned on when the pump turned on... So I have been testing the pool daily until the numbers get where I want them. Being in the south the water here is extremely soft. I read somewhere that for the vinyl liner pools that it shouldn't matter. Is this true or should I raise the hardness up to around 200? Also my CYA is lowering and I thought once added, it stayed in the pool. I added half a gallon of liquid stabilizer to the pool yesterday (the bottle said to add the whole bottem to a 10,000 gallon pool and my pool is approximately 5,000 gallons). When I tested the water yesterday, the CYA was perfect. Today it was back to 0. I have never had CYA drop before with the old pool.

Thanks for any help

 

[pabeader]

Welcome!
1st question, how are testing your water?

 

[Venka]

I'm using salt essence salt water balance test strips by clorox

 

[pabeader]

I was afraid you were going to say that. You now know, first hand, why strips are not recommended. The best thing you can do is to pick up one of the two recommended test kits. Once you have that in hand, you will be well equipped to handle any testing you need to do. Since you have a SWG, you will need to add a salt testing kit to complete the set.
The recommended kits are either the TF-100 or the K-2006C. Check out Tftestkits.net and while you are there you might want to pick up a speed stir. I have a TF-100 myself and I use it for all my testing.

 

[Venka]

That looks more like the test kit I had for the old pool. Guess I should know by now not to go with the easy way I know I can take my water to Leslie's and they'll run test on it but usually they tell me what I already know.

Thanks

 

[pabeader]

Actually, we have found that very few 'professional' pool people, actually know what they're doing. In the end, they always find something for you to buy. That's the reason for the 'free' testing. You could take the same sample to three different places and get three different answers. Really truly, nobody is going to care more about your pool, than you.