UV light with SWG?

[gtojohn]

Howdy folks I've been enjoying the 10k gallon chlorine for the last several years. This year it seemed like I had a harder time keeping the water up and I swear I used a lot more chlorine. Probably just me and my slammed summer schedule. I've decided I want to go Saltwater this winter. I'm a cheapskate and ordered a Megachlor swg from the internet, claims its rated for up to 17k gallons. I'm considering adding a 72watt uv light as additional measure. I know outdoor pools probably get enough uv from sunlight but it seems to me 24hrs of uv would be even better. I searched TFP and didn't see any threads with both uv and swg. Is there any reason UV and Saltwater don't go together?

 

[Jimrahbe]

g,

If it makes you feel better, go ahead and buy it, but the sunshine you get in Texas is more than enough UV. If you are a cheapskate, why buy "magic", that won't help your pool..??

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Donldson]

UV will do nothing to decrease the chlorine consumption of an outdoor residential pool, it will actually increase it to some extent. It has nothing to do with how chlorine is introduced to the pool, whether salt or liquid chlorine, or even tablets, adding more UV to an outdoor pool is a waste.

I'm actually concerned that the search function may be defective if you searched the site for information on UV and didn't come across hundreds of posts saying the same. I might have to say something to the Admin regarding that.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Keep in mind- that UV light is only treating the water in direct contact with the light at *that time* yet as soon as the water enters the pool it is exposed to any and all cooties that may already be in or may enter the pool. Person to person transmission of disease is a very real possibility here.

So without chlorine to provide residual cootie-killing power, what good is having that UV light in the first place?? UV lights are best used in indoor pools that don't have the benefit of the sun to help burn off contaminates, but even they still need chlorine or other approved sanitizer.

Stick with that hot Tejas sun and chlorine (either liquid or via SWG) and save your bucks.

Maddie

 

[ping]

Whenever I notice an increase in FC demand that I can't explain I run an OCLT to rule out organics as the cause of the FC demand rise.

 

[gtojohn]

Thank you for the replies. For the search function I wasn't able to find many results with both SWG and UV. What I now know is the main concern is UV breaking down the chlorine and making the swg work more. My thought would be install uv upstream before the swg. While not indoors my pool in a well shaded area, still probably getting enough uv from indirect sunlight. I had a bout with mustard algae this year and really don't want to go through that again, which got me thinking about uv. I know its 'magic' and isn't a stand alone solution for pool sanitation but I have seen it work wonders with algae in koi ponds.

 

[AftonJeeper]

I've got a Delta UV system I removed from my plumbing this month sitting in my shed you can have for free. 1.5 years old and it has been unplugged for the last 4 months or so.

It doesn't matter if it is upstream or down stream on the SWG, it will still be eating you FC causing your SWG to work harder. IMO, UV has no place in outdoor pools.

Edit to add:
My pool has an auto cover and only gets sunlight when the pool is in use or about to be used.