I couldn't find an exact match for the chem targets in pool school and/or reference posts for our situation:
- salt water pool
- ORP managed w/ muriatic acid pump
- Covered 90% of the time
- Outdoor
- Pebble Sheen Plaster
- Area with likely high CH and possible need for occasional R/O service
- Pool season Mid-Feb to Mid-Nov, but not closed in Dec/Jan (we use solar heat, so cost should be minimal to keep running, winter air temp only drops to high 30's for a few hours/night during peak winter weeks, no real worry about pipes freezing ). Day air temps 50-100 all year long, and we'll use heat pump to ensure temp doesn't fall to far during the winter.
Based on what I've read here, the general recommendations for salt and BBB pools, and using the LSI tool at pentair to ensure water is neither too corrosive or scaling, the most reasonable chem numbers to maintain seem to be:
CYA 30-40
FC 3.0-4.0
PH 7.5-7.6
CH 270-370
TA 90-100
SALT 3000 - 3800
BORATES 30-40
TEMP 65-90
Does this look correct?
My justification: I wanted some CYA for the occasional times pool is exposed to the sun, including rare all day pool parties. 30-40 seemed to be the minimum amount that would be effective. FC 3-4 seems like it would be a reasonable level and easy to maintain(should it be lower, e.g. 2-3?), especially as we won't lose much chlorine to sunlight. PH 7.5-7.6...assuming the ORP is set to maintain a ph of 7.5 and it might lag some and let ph rise temporarily to 7.6. CH of 270-370 seems to be the right numbers for pebble sheen while also not impacting LSI too much. Salt 3400 is the ideal number for the intellichlor and 400 seemed to be a reasonable +/- range. Borates 30-40 is also within the levels recommended here, but not as high because I do have a dog that might try to sneak drinks from the pool. Temp 65-90 is roughly what I expect to maintain all year long. TA was the hardest to determine....I tried to use low numbers (60-80) but this always threw the LSI calculation into warning territory when temp was low. Similarly, a TA of 110 threw the LSI into warning when the temp approached 90...so, 90-100 seems to be the desired numbers, but I'm not sure if that is too narrow and be a pain to maintain. I'm guessing I'll have to come up with a way to aerate the water. We don't have any water features (unless you count the tiny bubbles the intellichlor might produce).
- salt water pool
- ORP managed w/ muriatic acid pump
- Covered 90% of the time
- Outdoor
- Pebble Sheen Plaster
- Area with likely high CH and possible need for occasional R/O service
- Pool season Mid-Feb to Mid-Nov, but not closed in Dec/Jan (we use solar heat, so cost should be minimal to keep running, winter air temp only drops to high 30's for a few hours/night during peak winter weeks, no real worry about pipes freezing ). Day air temps 50-100 all year long, and we'll use heat pump to ensure temp doesn't fall to far during the winter.
Based on what I've read here, the general recommendations for salt and BBB pools, and using the LSI tool at pentair to ensure water is neither too corrosive or scaling, the most reasonable chem numbers to maintain seem to be:
CYA 30-40
FC 3.0-4.0
PH 7.5-7.6
CH 270-370
TA 90-100
SALT 3000 - 3800
BORATES 30-40
TEMP 65-90
Does this look correct?
My justification: I wanted some CYA for the occasional times pool is exposed to the sun, including rare all day pool parties. 30-40 seemed to be the minimum amount that would be effective. FC 3-4 seems like it would be a reasonable level and easy to maintain(should it be lower, e.g. 2-3?), especially as we won't lose much chlorine to sunlight. PH 7.5-7.6...assuming the ORP is set to maintain a ph of 7.5 and it might lag some and let ph rise temporarily to 7.6. CH of 270-370 seems to be the right numbers for pebble sheen while also not impacting LSI too much. Salt 3400 is the ideal number for the intellichlor and 400 seemed to be a reasonable +/- range. Borates 30-40 is also within the levels recommended here, but not as high because I do have a dog that might try to sneak drinks from the pool. Temp 65-90 is roughly what I expect to maintain all year long. TA was the hardest to determine....I tried to use low numbers (60-80) but this always threw the LSI calculation into warning territory when temp was low. Similarly, a TA of 110 threw the LSI into warning when the temp approached 90...so, 90-100 seems to be the desired numbers, but I'm not sure if that is too narrow and be a pain to maintain. I'm guessing I'll have to come up with a way to aerate the water. We don't have any water features (unless you count the tiny bubbles the intellichlor might produce).