Nature2 Fusion Soft 1400 - do I need to remove the minerals from the water? + other SWG questions

[blaze]

Greetings everyone! I just moved into a house with a 7 year old in-ground saltwater pool and I have decided to go the DIY route for all the maintenance since most pool pros seem to be booked through July in my area. Thank you all for contributing to this great community, all the great info in these forums has has given me confidence to do my own pool maintenance.

I have read a few posts on here recommending against using Nature2 Fusion Soft 1400's mineral cartridges due to risk of staining the pool and turning hair green. I will be hacksawing off the bottom of the cartridge that's in there now and draining out the pellets.

1. Will I need to drain the pool to get rid of the minerals that already got in there or will they disappear on their own with time?
2. I noticed a slow leak on the SWG unit which appears to be coming from the bottom somewhere... what should be the approach to troubleshooting and fixing the leak?
3. The SWG unit throws Service codes 120 and 121 ("low current - clean cell or check DC cord") - is there any risk to performing the muriatic acid cleaning on a unit this old?
4. The salinity reading comes in at 3.7. Is this too far above the recommended 3.0 - 3.5 range? Can I just wait it out or should I drain and refill to bring it down?
5. The pool surface appears to have areas of different colors. I do not know how to determine whether it's calcium scaling or mineral discoloration or something else. Is there some way to identify the source of the discoloration? What would be the approach to cleaning it up? (sorry I forgot to take a daylight photo earlier today - I will add it tomorrow)

Thanks in advance for all your help!

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! I'll try and answer your questions as best I can.
1. You need to test the water for copper. If the copper content is high, and you have stains then the best practice is to remove the stains and then drain and refill the pool. Copper does not go away or evaporate out of the water.
2. I would like to see a photo of the leak in question on the SWG. The first thing to look for are loose connections in the plumbing, and then are there any cracks in the SWG housing.
3. The risk would be the SWG unit fails, which is really more of a certainty than a risk if the SWG cell is 7 years old. Cleaning it may get you through the season if it is not in bad shape.
4. I would check the salinity with a separate salt test before deciding the SWG is reading correctly and drain the pool. The SWG could have a bad salt sensor. You can purchase salt test strips ( the only test strips we recommend) or a drop based salt test.
5. Does the pool surface feel rough? Can you scrape off some of the stained area and collect it on a rag? If you can gather some scrapings put a drop of muriatic acid on them. If they fizz up it is calcium scale.

A complete set of current test results will help us answer some of your questions with more detail. We recommend pool owners have their own FAS/DPD test kit such as a TF100 or Taylor k2006 so they may have reliable test results to work with when balancing their pool.

 

[blaze]

Thanks @zea3 for the quick response. I was able to snap some photos today

0. I used a jig saw to separate the cap from the rest of the copper/mineral cartridge. The surgery took less than a minute and I was back in business.

1. Copper test - from a quick search it seems like the most accurate test kits run about $100 so I call around my local pool stores to find one that can run this test for me and report back here with the results
2. I attached a photo of the slow leak. I could not spot any water leaking from any of the connections and the casing itself looks solid on the outside. The water appears to pool up from the bottom. My main suspect right now is the drain plug near the bottom of the casing on the "north" side of my photo (drain plug not pictured).
3. I performed the cell cleaning procedure (see attached before, during, and after pics). Unfortunately, it is still throwing the 120 service code. In this process I *did* create a new leak from the top of the cell. I tightened it as far as it will go but it still leaks. Any suggestions on this? Should I lubricate / replace the o-ring here?

4. I ordered some cheap salt test strips with decent reviews (AquaChek 561140A ).

I also just ordered the Taylor K-2006 test kit - ETA is this Friday.

Thus far I have been testing with cheap strips from Amazon (AquaChek 551236 7-Way).

My latest results using those strips are as follows:
Total hardness: 120-250
Chlorine: 1
Free Chlorine: 0.5
pH: 8.4
Alkalinity: 240
CYA: 30-50

 

[blaze]

5. We had a bit of a cloudy/rainy day today so I did not get a chance to get good photos of the staining. I attached a few photos here but I will check back in again later this week after I get some pool scrapings.
The more I look at these stains the more I suspect that they are all calcium stains and that the darker-looking ones in the deep end appear darker simply because of the reflection of the trees above.

 

[PoolGate]

That code means the cell is toast.

 

[PoolGate]

Also you need to get some chlorine in that pool ASAP.

 

[blaze]

Thanks. Recent Amazon reviews on the replacement cells show that the more recently manufactured Jandy cells have dropped in quality and can last as little as 1-2 years. At ~$500 a pop, would it make more sense for me to just bite the bullet and switch to a different manufacturer's SWG or would such an installation be too much hassle due to different layout/size of connectors?

 

[zea3]

I think I would go with another brand of SWG. PVC is fairly easy to work with to plumb in a new system.

 

[blaze]

Would going with a new system require a new control system, messing around with the electronic switch board or electrical hookups? Does the TFP forum have a top recommended SWG manufacturer/model?

 

[zea3]

Some of our members really like certain systems. Do you use any automation systems? Most of our members who use or plan to use automation like to keep in the same product line for SWG, pump, and filter since they are designed to communicate with each other better. You can still mix and match components with some systems. I'm going to see if I can get someone a little more knowlegable to give their opinion.
@JamesW @Jimrahbe @jimmythegreek

 

[blaze]

I am not too familiar with the automation topic yet, but I can tell you that what I have installed on my system in terms of the electrical components:
1. A fuse box with a rotary timer and 3 trippers: a "double wide" for the pump and 2 small trippers for a) the electrical outlet next to the fuse box and b) the nearby storage shed.
2. The other electrical component is the APUREM power pack which controls the Nature2 Fusion Soft SWG.

Ideally, I would want to replace only the SWG cell/housing without having to replace the entire control board. I assume the Zodiac Jandy AquaPure PureLink 3-Port Salt Cell Kit 40k Gallons, PLC1400 model would be the simplest replacement but it would have the same issue of low quality replacement cells. The reviews on these units I see out there are somewhat mixed so I would prefer to go with another brand as you suggested.

 

[zea3]

There are generic replacement cells out there and some of them will be better quality than others. I believe many of our members are happy with Compupool replacement cells.