Salt Cell Level Reporting

[eqbob]

and one more from a seemingly never ending list of questions....

Once I have some fresh water in there and the salt levels presumably down, obviously all my other parameters will have to be re-adjusted as well.

How long after the fresh water is in, do I wait to start testing everything?
My guess would be to address chlorine first with bleach the pH/TA with muriatic, then CYA, then Calcium?
Feedback?

 

[eqbob]

Sure hope I don't have to worry about hydrostatic uplift during this process? Have three hoses plus autofill going in for the refill process.

 

[timerguy]

I think you should wait until your water temp gets back up to above 60° and then, if it gives you a high salt warning replace the water you need to get it back to a level that it will generate. If it generates without the replacement, don't worry about it. Mine is supposed to stop at 5500 ppm but it was still generating when the control panel said it was over 6000. The seller finally replaced the cell, since then it's reading the same as my Taylor test. Which never read above 4000.

 

[eqbob]

Well, the water temp isn't going to get back above 60 until about March now, most likely. Especially if the winter holds true to be colder than normal So I'm more comfortable with doing it now.

Academic discussion, since I already did it. PoolMath said my conditions were corrosive and I didn't think it was a good idea to leave them that way for the next 4-5 months.

Came home early, dumped about 20" out, and the refilled. Just removed hoses, turned skimmers back on, added DE and the autofill should shut itself off soon.

Will start to rebalance in the morning.

 

[JamesW]

Draining 20" is usually safe unless the ground water was way high. Even then, the risk would be small because the concrete is heavier than water.

 

[eqbob]

Thanks. It all worked out ok.
So initial testing after refill shows salt at 2800, FC at 5 and CC at 1.
I wasn't really surprised at the Chlorine numbers given all the fresh tap water.
Also not intending to do anything until tomorrow when there's more mixing going on.
I have to get all the rest of the numbers too.

Edit:8pm
Just did pH. Wowsa...can we say off the chart high? Purple and took 6 drops to come down to 7.4, so I backed off and did the amount for 5 drops by the Taylor book. Can't use PoolMath because I have no idea how high it really is. Figure I can treat that in stages, but didn't want it sitting there overnight at high 8 something and just killing the plaster.

 

[JasonLion]

how do you keep it happy to keep generating Chlorine in say...the 60 to 50 degree range

You don't. Most SWGs really don't work at all well when the water is that cold. It is best not to use them at all under those conditions.

 

[eqbob]

So what's the bottom line temperature that people use to transition to bleach?
I've been thinking 50 because that's what the manufacturer (Pentair) says. Little did I know of the caveats, which certainly aren't in their manual.

 

[eqbob]

TA this morning was 220, so starting the process of bringing that down.

 

[eqbob]

Have brought TA done by 80 parts so far. 1 gallon of muriatic does 40 parts. Have been turning on the swim jets and spa jets and leaving them run all day and that's enough aeration to zip the pH back up to 8 where I can start the process all over again. FC hanging out ok and will bring the other params into desired ranges once TA under control.