We had a new ~8500 gallon fiberglass salt water pool installed in December. Hayward TCELL-925 generator. The pool installation company has completed the handoff training and their free servicing trips so now it is on us to maintain the pool. I have read up through the Pool School resources and browsed these forums. I have learned a lot in the process but I still have a few questions that I cannot seem to find definitive answers to and I'm hoping someone can help me out. I purchased the TF-100 Salt testing kit and will include the results from all the tests that I ran this afternoon to give you a baseline of where we are at right now. We are located in southeast North Carolina if region matters.
FC: 0
pH: 8.2
TA: 100
CH: 175
CYA: 0
Salt: 2900
Temp: 59F
CSI (from Pool Math app): 0.16
I have been struggling with the free chlorine and pH for 2-3 weeks now. The pool tech who did our training said that this time of the year, running the pump for 4 hours a day with the SWG at 50% should be sufficient for our pool. While the water is and always has been crystal clear, most of the time, the test strips and the drop tests rarely indicate any chlorine present. In attempts to get the levels up, I will set the pump to run continuously for a couple of days and set the SWG to around 70%. That will usually get it registering about 2 on the drop test. When I put the pump back into normal schedule, after a day or so, the test results go back to pretty much zero (no apparent color change). Logically, this tells me that I need to run the pump more, so I changed the daily schedule to 8 hours @ 60% SWG but it still doesn't appear to do any good as the test still doesn't show any chlorine present. For the pH, I have gone through about 4lbs of pH Down in the past 3 weeks. The morning after adding the pH down, it will be in the expected range of around 7.4-7.6 but will go right back to >8.0 within about 48 hours. Since FC has been the biggest headache, I started with the CYA and added about 2lbs of solid stabilizer this afternoon. Since my CYA test had no noticeable change when I added the reagents, I assumed zero, but I didn't want to add the almost 6lbs in one go that the Pool Math app said to do. I figured that I would give it 24-48 hours and test again to make sure it is trending up and to get an accurate measurement of the level before adding any more unless it is still to low to register on the test.
So, with that said, here are my questions:
1. I know temperature affects reactiveness, so given the current water temp being around 55-59F over the past 3 weeks, how reliable are my test results? I don't want to be chasing a moving target if the water temperature is causing less reaction and skewed results.
2. Today, when I logged my test results in the Pool Math app, it flagged FC, pH, TA, CH, and CYA as all being out of normal range. With all the variables to maintain, is there an order of priority when things are this far off? Do you just address them all at the same time by adding multiple chemicals to the pool or do you focus on specific ones to get them dialed in first before attempting to correct other levels?
3. I read that salt water pools tend to trend more basic (pH wise) over time. Say I get all my levels in the correct range, how frequently do you have to add pH down throughout the season to keep it in range? I'm curious if it is more economic to purchase in bulk instead of the 4-5lb bags if it will be added constantly through the summer.
Please let me know if there is any other information you would need from me to better judge what might be needed.
Thank you!
FC: 0
pH: 8.2
TA: 100
CH: 175
CYA: 0
Salt: 2900
Temp: 59F
CSI (from Pool Math app): 0.16
I have been struggling with the free chlorine and pH for 2-3 weeks now. The pool tech who did our training said that this time of the year, running the pump for 4 hours a day with the SWG at 50% should be sufficient for our pool. While the water is and always has been crystal clear, most of the time, the test strips and the drop tests rarely indicate any chlorine present. In attempts to get the levels up, I will set the pump to run continuously for a couple of days and set the SWG to around 70%. That will usually get it registering about 2 on the drop test. When I put the pump back into normal schedule, after a day or so, the test results go back to pretty much zero (no apparent color change). Logically, this tells me that I need to run the pump more, so I changed the daily schedule to 8 hours @ 60% SWG but it still doesn't appear to do any good as the test still doesn't show any chlorine present. For the pH, I have gone through about 4lbs of pH Down in the past 3 weeks. The morning after adding the pH down, it will be in the expected range of around 7.4-7.6 but will go right back to >8.0 within about 48 hours. Since FC has been the biggest headache, I started with the CYA and added about 2lbs of solid stabilizer this afternoon. Since my CYA test had no noticeable change when I added the reagents, I assumed zero, but I didn't want to add the almost 6lbs in one go that the Pool Math app said to do. I figured that I would give it 24-48 hours and test again to make sure it is trending up and to get an accurate measurement of the level before adding any more unless it is still to low to register on the test.
So, with that said, here are my questions:
1. I know temperature affects reactiveness, so given the current water temp being around 55-59F over the past 3 weeks, how reliable are my test results? I don't want to be chasing a moving target if the water temperature is causing less reaction and skewed results.
2. Today, when I logged my test results in the Pool Math app, it flagged FC, pH, TA, CH, and CYA as all being out of normal range. With all the variables to maintain, is there an order of priority when things are this far off? Do you just address them all at the same time by adding multiple chemicals to the pool or do you focus on specific ones to get them dialed in first before attempting to correct other levels?
3. I read that salt water pools tend to trend more basic (pH wise) over time. Say I get all my levels in the correct range, how frequently do you have to add pH down throughout the season to keep it in range? I'm curious if it is more economic to purchase in bulk instead of the 4-5lb bags if it will be added constantly through the summer.
Please let me know if there is any other information you would need from me to better judge what might be needed.
Thank you!
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