New RJ30 in 15k gal - high salt (7000ppm) reading [false?]

[Guest]

Just installed a new Circupool RJ30 today. This is a brand new saltwater system. Before, the pool had zero salt in it. I dumped in 440 pounds of Mortons pool salt on Weds. Now is Friday, so it has had around 48 hours to dissolve. Pump hasn't run too much in between [maybe 4 hrs/day]. Water temperature is 69 F. Should I be concerned, or will the high salt reading of 7000ppm fall over the next week by itself as the salt better dissolves? I assume the results are being skewed perhaps as my pool vacuum is my suction side, so higher salt must be flowing to the cell if it has not yet dissolved. Visually, it looks dissolved.

 

[Strannik]

did you check before adding salt that the pool actually had 0 salt?

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

How big is the pool? What equipment do you have?

Did you brush the salt when you were adding it and with the pump on?

Complete water test is helpful too.

Scott

 

[Guest]

How big is the pool? What equipment do you have?

Did you brush the salt when you were adding it and with the pump on?

Complete water test is helpful too.

Scott

15k gallons, about 38x18 5ft deep kidney shaped pool. Pool had zero salt before (as I refilled it with new water last year and I am the sole maintainer). Before I added salt, TDS was 1500. 500 of that calcium (yes high calcium area). Forget the other #s. When I added the salt, I was not pumping, although I did brush it a bit. I pumped normal schedule.

Note: a few months ago when we had flash rains here in southern california, I had quite a bit of sand/organic matter fall into the pool (as we redid our landscape and unsettled it the summer before). I vacuumed it up, but had to clean the cartridge filter (hayward c2025) 3 times just to get the water and pool floor generally a passing clear. I imagine this one time event had an impact of raising TDS considerably. Right now, the pool is very clean, no algae, etc.

Just installed a new pump the same day, an Intelliflo VS3050. Now on an aggressive pumping schedule to get the salt dissolved. (12 hrs a day speed 2 out of box)

 

[Guest]

Update: Problem fixed. Woke up this morning and the reading is now 4200ppm (down from 7000ppm). This must have to do with salt distribution/dissolve rates more than anything. So the lesson to be learned: Give it 3+ days or more for salt to dissolve (maybe a week) before you jump to any conclusions about salt readings.

Update 2: 12 hours later, 3200 is the salt level.

 

[Guest]

Let me update: I get conflicting readings on this thing. When polarity is at 1, the readings are always higher (4500-5500, 5100 this morning) whereas in polarity 2 the readings are in the 3200-3800 range. Must be a design flaw? The last update I gave was when polarity was at 2. By now (6 days since the salt has been in the pool), I believe the salt should be dissolved.

Again, the system is producing and is happy, but I am concerned having possibly erroneous salt readings right off the bat. Ideas?

 

[Strannik]

get a measurement of voltage/current on the cell at different polarities.
they should be pretty much identical, if not - it's quite possible that either the unit or the cell is stuffed (or a design flaw).

 

[Guest]

Talked to Don at Discount Salt Pools / Circupool, and he instructed me that the two different polarities are calibrated independently to the salt water. There's a button on the inside of the unit that allows me to manually calibrate to salt test strip results, and adjusting that made the difference. Very helpful guy!