- Aug 28, 2019
- 215
- Pool Size
- 12000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Turbo Cell (T-CELL-5)
Hello everyone,
New to the forum, new to pool ownership, not new to pool maintenance but not a hardened veteran either. For a couple of years many years ago, I was a manager at a large public pool, so I understand fundamentals and definitely know how to properly test chemistry. We recently bought a house that came with a 15K gallon fiberglass saltwater pool with a <1 year old SWG. When we moved in a week ago, I noticed the water was looking a bit cloudy, so thought I'd put my brand new K-2006 test kit to use and see what I had inherited. Here's my initial results:
FC 5.0
CC 5.0
PH 7.4
TA 30
CH 250
CYA 20
SALT 3500
Water Temp 84F
SWG was set at 70% (pump running 9 hours/day)
With such a high CC, I decided I wanted to get my CYA up a bit and then shock the pool. In hindsight I probably should have shocked first and then worried about the stabilizer, but what's done is done. Anyway, for starters I added 2 pounds of cyanuric acid and ran the pump for a full 24 hours (after which the water became crystal clear). Three days after the stabilizer was added, I decided to do another test and see what had happened, completely understanding that CYA may not fully register until up to a week after. Note that I had still not shocked the pool at this point. Here's my test results:
FC 20
CC 0
PH 7.8
TA 30
CH 250
CYA 50
SALT 3400
Water Temp 84F
SWG still at 70%
My thinking was that with CYA so low, the previous owner had to run the SWG at a higher output. Once CYA was boosted and the chlorine wasn't getting chewed up as much by UV, the 70% output was translating to more FC being retained in the pool. So, I flipped the SWG generator off that morning and let the sun do it's work. By the end of the day, FC had dropped to 15. By the end of the next day, it had dropped to 7. Yesterday at about noon, I took a FC reading of 5. So I turned the SWG back on and turned the dial down to 20% for the final 5 hours of pump run time just to see where that would put me. I ran a full test around 6PM yesterday not long after the pump shut down:
FC 18
CC 5
PH 7.8
TA 30
CH 250
CYA 60
SALT 3300
Water Temp 76F
Not believing it, I tested the FC and CC again and got the same result. Anyone have any idea what's going on? The T-CELL-5 isn't exactly a huge SWG. Considering CYA is only 60, the only possible thing I could think of is that the output control for the SWG isn't working; but it's less than a year old so I'd find that surprising but not impossible. Hoping someone can help me out here because I can't have the pool at one extreme or the other. On top of all this, my wife and kids are asking me when they can jump in, and I'm hoping they can do so before Labor Day. TIA.
New to the forum, new to pool ownership, not new to pool maintenance but not a hardened veteran either. For a couple of years many years ago, I was a manager at a large public pool, so I understand fundamentals and definitely know how to properly test chemistry. We recently bought a house that came with a 15K gallon fiberglass saltwater pool with a <1 year old SWG. When we moved in a week ago, I noticed the water was looking a bit cloudy, so thought I'd put my brand new K-2006 test kit to use and see what I had inherited. Here's my initial results:
FC 5.0
CC 5.0
PH 7.4
TA 30
CH 250
CYA 20
SALT 3500
Water Temp 84F
SWG was set at 70% (pump running 9 hours/day)
With such a high CC, I decided I wanted to get my CYA up a bit and then shock the pool. In hindsight I probably should have shocked first and then worried about the stabilizer, but what's done is done. Anyway, for starters I added 2 pounds of cyanuric acid and ran the pump for a full 24 hours (after which the water became crystal clear). Three days after the stabilizer was added, I decided to do another test and see what had happened, completely understanding that CYA may not fully register until up to a week after. Note that I had still not shocked the pool at this point. Here's my test results:
FC 20
CC 0
PH 7.8
TA 30
CH 250
CYA 50
SALT 3400
Water Temp 84F
SWG still at 70%
My thinking was that with CYA so low, the previous owner had to run the SWG at a higher output. Once CYA was boosted and the chlorine wasn't getting chewed up as much by UV, the 70% output was translating to more FC being retained in the pool. So, I flipped the SWG generator off that morning and let the sun do it's work. By the end of the day, FC had dropped to 15. By the end of the next day, it had dropped to 7. Yesterday at about noon, I took a FC reading of 5. So I turned the SWG back on and turned the dial down to 20% for the final 5 hours of pump run time just to see where that would put me. I ran a full test around 6PM yesterday not long after the pump shut down:
FC 18
CC 5
PH 7.8
TA 30
CH 250
CYA 60
SALT 3300
Water Temp 76F
Not believing it, I tested the FC and CC again and got the same result. Anyone have any idea what's going on? The T-CELL-5 isn't exactly a huge SWG. Considering CYA is only 60, the only possible thing I could think of is that the output control for the SWG isn't working; but it's less than a year old so I'd find that surprising but not impossible. Hoping someone can help me out here because I can't have the pool at one extreme or the other. On top of all this, my wife and kids are asking me when they can jump in, and I'm hoping they can do so before Labor Day. TIA.
