I have a 17,000 gallon, plaster lined, salt water pool with chlorine generator in San Diego. Recent Taylor test results:
pH 7.5 (target 7.5)
FC 6 (target 6)
CC 0
TA 50 (target 60)
CH 700 and continually climbing
CYA 50 (target 60)
Salt 3500 (target 3300)
I fired my pool guy two years ago and have since been doing my own maintenance. I have found the following quasi-stable routine:
I add muriatic acid to maintain pH of 7.5. I installed an automatic acid feeder and have it dialed in so my pH hardly varies.
I add baking soda every couple weeks to maintain TA of 40-60. The muriatic acid is always causing it to drop.
I keep my chlorine generator output set to 100%, and adjust the total daily pool runtime to maintain FC around 6. In June this requires ~8 hours of runtime per day. In December it requires ~2 hours per day.
I need to change the water out every 2-3 years to keep CH down. Our tap water is pretty hard, and CH is always rising due to evaporation and refill.
I ocassionally get algae in the darker corners of the pool. I'm considering raising my FC target to 8 to prevent this.
Does this all seem reasonable? Before getting the automatic acid feeder,my pH was chronically high, and I would get calcium deposits on the plaster walls. Having the near-constant acid additions has solved this, though it requires the frequent baking soda additions.
Thanks for all your help getting to this point!
pH 7.5 (target 7.5)
FC 6 (target 6)
CC 0
TA 50 (target 60)
CH 700 and continually climbing
CYA 50 (target 60)
Salt 3500 (target 3300)
I fired my pool guy two years ago and have since been doing my own maintenance. I have found the following quasi-stable routine:
I add muriatic acid to maintain pH of 7.5. I installed an automatic acid feeder and have it dialed in so my pH hardly varies.
I add baking soda every couple weeks to maintain TA of 40-60. The muriatic acid is always causing it to drop.
I keep my chlorine generator output set to 100%, and adjust the total daily pool runtime to maintain FC around 6. In June this requires ~8 hours of runtime per day. In December it requires ~2 hours per day.
I need to change the water out every 2-3 years to keep CH down. Our tap water is pretty hard, and CH is always rising due to evaporation and refill.
I ocassionally get algae in the darker corners of the pool. I'm considering raising my FC target to 8 to prevent this.
Does this all seem reasonable? Before getting the automatic acid feeder,my pH was chronically high, and I would get calcium deposits on the plaster walls. Having the near-constant acid additions has solved this, though it requires the frequent baking soda additions.
Thanks for all your help getting to this point!