Is this TDS high? Leslie's kind of scared me...

[totalnoob]

Hello Experts:

Thanks to this awesome forum, I have been managing my pool for over a year now, following BBB method. Pool is nice and clean (even though couple of times, I have been negligent and allowed FC to go to zero). Hopefully, I will not let that happen again.

Anyhow, I had to go to Leslie's to buy a small part for my sweep, so I thought that I will let them test my water too..just to see how they compare

Their results were different than my results (as expected ) ), but one thing that I dont test and Leslie's guy threw me off-guard was TDS.

He looked at TDS result and asked me if I have been using liquid chlorine. When I said yes, he told me that my TDS level is 2000 (they say it should be below 2500), and that liquid chlorine has so much salt that it raises the TDS, and only way to bring it down is to drain and refill. Do I need to worry about TDS? If yes, what can I do to stop it from increasing further?

Also, lately, pH has been steadily going up..there is another thread where someone posted same issue, so I will keep an eye on that thread.

Test results from latest testing are:

pH: 7.8
FC: 3.5 ppm,
CC: 0
CH: 330
TA: 80
Nitrates: Absent (per Leslies)
CYA: Didn't test this last time.

Thanks in advance for your help guys!!

 

[Bama Rambler]

The majority of the TDS is from salt which is benign. Don't worry about it at all.

If they say it has to be below 2000 ppm what do they tell swg users who's salt content has to be 3000+?

 

[totalnoob]

Well, to be fair to Leslie, he did mention about getting salt system which generates chlorine from the salt in water. He said that this system costs about $600..and it will cost me ~$500 to drain and refill the pool (his numbers), I havent checked it yet.

Also, they say it has to be below 2500..may be I was not clear in my original post..sorry!!

The majority of the TDS is from salt which is benign. Don't worry about it at all.

If they say it has to be below 2000 ppm what do they tell swg users who's salt content has to be 3000+?

 

[duraleigh]

Simply, TDS is not relevant to your pool water management....period

Leslie's either doesn't know that or doesn't want you to know it.....either way, stay out of the pool store.....you are only inviting the misinformation and confusion you are currently experienceing.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Sorry about the 2,000 vs. the 2,500 but the statement is still valid.

Don't fall for their hype. If you do decide to go with a swg pool just have your water tested for salt and add whatever you need from there.

My salt level runs between 1500 and 2000 ppm and I'm using bleach. Never has been a problem and never will. They'd go absolutely nuts of they saw my numbers, I have absolutely zero CH and my TA runs right at 70 ppm.

 

[chem geek]

If you have no water dilution at all, the salt level will rise each year so what I do is use winter rains to dilute the pool water. For me, that keeps my salt level in the 1000-1500 range. Salt isn't a problem until it gets to much higher levels. Even then, it is more of a problem in some areas and situations than others, such as where splash-out and evaporation in soft stone can cause it to deteriorate or in pools with inferior stainless steel or other metal components.

 

[linen]

As the others said, ignore tds it really tells you nothing. However, one component of tds that is important that you did not post which is cya. What and when was your (not leslies) last reading?

As for your rising ph, do you have any water features that areate the water? How fast is your ph rising?

For that matter, if those are not your test results above, post yours.

 

[Smykowski]

The easiest solution is to never let the pool store test your water ever again.

 

[totalnoob]

Thanks guys..I am not worried about TDS anymore

Linen: Those are my test results, except Nitrates which is Leslies.

Linen: I dont test my water daily (just look at it to see how the water appears), but it seems that pH goes up by 0.4 -0.6 units every 5-10 days. We do have a water fall, but dont use it that much.

Chem geek: that's what my plan is, to use winter rain to dilute the pool water, which will automatically bring TDS down.

I will post CYA results soon...

 

[Isaac-1]

Like others have said TDS is a meaningless number these days used by pool stores to scare you, TDS is total dissolved solids, which includes salt, CYA and others, but does not tell you the ratios, at one point in time before there were separate tests for salt and CYA, TDS was used as an possible indicator of over stabilization, but since it measures multiple things you can see how this was unreliable. So like many pool store scare tactics this one too is filled with half truths, yes bleach adds chlorine plus salt to the water, but no it is not a problem at least not at levels you are likely to ever reach, just look at their possible solutions to your "high salt" issue, replace water or buy a SWG and add yet more salt.

Ike

 

[thehowheels]

Leslie's sales tactics 101: Fear, uncertainty, and doubt.