Staining from minerals in Himalayan or Dead Sea salts?

[Mexicomike]

This appears to be a great, informative forum with knowledgeable people, so thanks for having it.

I am a fan of both Himalayan and Dead Sea salts. I've used both in my hot tub for a year and believe they feel better than regular pool salt. Both help my psoriasis and my wife's osteoarthritis, which regular pool salt did not.

My experience is that Himalayan salts keep the spa in balance perfectly. I test it twice a week and almost never have to adjust pH or other levels. With Dead Sea, I had to adjust about every 2 weeks. With Bromine, I had to do something ever week and it sometimes got out of whack. With salts never.

So, we am buying a home with an inground pool (gunite) and will covert it to salt water. While I have had zero problems with staining in the hot tub (fiberglass), I wonder if anyone has knowledge or experience with either of those staining a pool? There are 5 minerals in Dead Sea salt and 60 in Himalayan salt, including copper, silver, iron. Of course the concentrations of most are minute. Iron is more significant.

Sorry for the two measuring methods.

Dead Sea - Magnesium Chloride 45,900 mg/l and Potassium 7800 mg/l and zinc (unknown)
Himalayan Titanium - <0.001 ppm, Iron - 38.9 ppm, Copper - 0.56 ppm, Zinc - 2.38 ppm, Silver, 0.031 ppm.

Thank you.

 

[linen]

Welcome to tfp, Mexicomike

I am not an expert on metals in water (though I have to deal with them since I fill with well water), but since no one else has responded, I will do my best.

Generally, we recommend not adding anything to a pool (or hot tub) that is unnecessary. It sounds like you have had some success with these materials in your tub in the past. However, since a pool holds a whole lot more water, and metal stains can be really problematic, I highly recommend just using plain salt in your pool, and not one with extra stuff in it.

Question for you, are those measurements you gave from the salts alone, or from the tub water after the salts are in it?

On a side note, some sufferers of psoriasis have found adding borates to their pool/tub has helped the condition.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

Assuming that is the iron concentration in the salt, by the time it is mixed into the water at typical SWG salt levels (around 3,000 ppm) the iron level will be around 0.1 ppm, which is below the threshold of staining (though not by that big of a margin). None of the others metals should be an issue as they will all be at significantly lower levels.

 

[Mexicomike]

Thank you both for the replies. That helped. As a clarification, the concentrations were for the salts, not in the pool. And the chemicals listed were not additions to or additives to the salts, but a natural part of the salts. It is not like adding iodine to processed salts. It is more like the well water someone mentioned having the other minerals in them.