Pool School vs. Salt Water Pool

[Clueless]

Now that I'm vacuuming my way to a clean pool, it's time to start with water treatment. I've been reading the Pool School, but it never mentions salt water pool applications in the tutorials and why is there no section on opening an in ground pool?

Anyway, I'm trying to figure a plan forward for late next week when I get back from a business trip. I tested my water with the kit left by the previous owner. Numbers are:

TH - 200
FC - 0
PH - 8.4
TA - Off the charts... Some number above 240.
CTA - 0

The water is pretty clear - a little cloudy - but the rain last night and today hasn't helped, for sure. But now I'm stumped. I know when I add salt the SWG will take care of the FC part and probably start messing with a bunch of theother chemistry, but that's not even my question.

Put simply, do I add the salt first and let the chlorine sort itself out and THEN work on the other water levels or vice versa? As a complete newb, the Pool School section would be more helpful if it had a "How To Open An Inground Pool" and included that question.

As an aside, I think once I have the answer to that question, I can re-enroll and get a bit further down the road without bothering the forum members.

Many thanks!

 

[257WbyMag]

I guess that the reason that there is no "How To Open Your Pool" sticky is because virtually everyone's needs are a little bit different when opening. No one opens their pool to the exact same chemistry as the next person's, so one blanket group of bullet points will not suffice on their own.

Determining what you need to do is largely based upon what your test results show you. Looks like you are using test strips. Those are notoriously inaccurate. If your pH is truly 8.4, that is far to high and needs to be lowered, but I am skeptical of your results as it stands. You should get yourself a high quality test kit suck as a TF-100 or a Taylor K-2006. We need to know the following test results: FC, CC CYA, pH, TA, CH, salt level, and a temperture is always nice. Running a sample by a pool store in the meantime and having them test it is helpful until you get a good kit. How does your water look?

You can add salt anytime you want to. Until your salt level is where you need it, you can chlorinate with plain ol' bleach to get and keep your FC up.

 

[duraleigh]

Clueless,

BBB is all about acquiring the knowledge to manage your pool. Once you have that knowledge, them managing your pool becomes second nature. As 257 indicted, each pool owners particulars are almost always too varied to be spoon-fed a "one-size-fits-all" formula.

Don't think of your pool as a salt-water pool but rather a normal chlorine pool that uses an SWG as it's source for chlorine.

Cleaning out the muck and gunk (as you have done) is the first step. Next, posting some test results will help us help you determine what your pool needs. You will probably find it simpler to clean up your pool by manually chlorinating. SWG's do better at maintaining a clear pool than actually clearing one up.

I'd suggest starting with the basic articles in Pool School and, after reading those, you will certainly have more questions.

Never be concerned about "bothering" anyone here with questions. We all come on here eager to share the knowledge we have gained over the years.

 

[Bama Rambler]

As mentioned above, the reason there's no "how to open a pool" is that there would simply be too many "if's". If your water is clear, if your water is cloudy, if your water is green, if your water is too low, if your water is too high... you get the point.

The best advice I can give you is to read the Pool School article on balance for a swg and using bleach, etc. get as close to the recommended levels as you can manually, then turn on the swcg.

As Dave said, Always feel free to ask any questions you may have.

If your pool is cloudy you should run a OCLT (overnight chlorine loss test) to make sure there's not something growing in there the you need to shock for.

 

[Clueless]

That makes sense to me!

I've now officially vac'd the bottom of the pool and gotten all the solids out. The water is a bit cloudy... the blue liner makes the water look like a baby blue.

I'm out of town for a few days on business, but I'm ordering the TF-100 tonight so when I get back I'll get started on the chemistry part of all this.

Thanks as always!