New salt pool - Pool guy wrong? Or me?

[EDAM72]

Hello all, I have been taking care of my chlorine pool for years with help of TFP and have kept water perfectly balanced with the advice and no issues. I just moved, inheriting a salt pool. It uses the same Clean and clear cartridge filters I had before, same Pentair Intelliflow VSF pump I had. It has an Intellichlor salt cell that calls for 3600 ppm salt as ideal. Has a heat pump heater.

I have yet to take full possession of house (do that tomorrow) but met with owner and did a chem test with my Taylor K2006 chem set.
FC was 0
PH was 8+
CYA was 0
Salt was about 3700
I didn't get down TA or CH

Pool was clear, but I know that doesn't mean anything in the big scheme of things. The owner texted pool guy to ask about it, he said I should use a test strip..... Asked a couple more questions, and response was-No offense, but maybe keep my service until he figures out the chems or it could damage the $6k heat pump.....
The salt cell showed good salt, and output of 80%. I do not know pump or cell run time yet. Pump runs at night. I meet with him tomorrow, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything on a salt pool, which from what I read tests the same way as chlorine pools.

My theory is theory is with the pump running at night, generates it's chlorine at night. That has been seeming to kill and keep water somewhat clear. Because there is 0 conditioner in water, chlorine burns right off in the AZ sun. So by the time I am testing it in afternoon shows no chlorine. Does this sound about right? Owner doesn't really use pool, so probably not noticing any water issues. I am going to ask him to explain to me his strategy and see if he is dumping in extra chlorine, or what. Or, am I missing something here with my DPD-FAS chlorine test and CYA test?

Thanks all!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

The pool also may be laden with copper which helps keep the algae away but..... not much in the way of sanitation.

Hurry up and take control=do a full set of tests.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

<tapping foot> we will be waiting impatiently for the results of a full test...... could be quite an eye opener. Maybe a metals test at the pool store too could be handy to get out of the way.

Maddie

 

[setsailsoon]

You're not missing anything... except (and you probably know this) running anytime below FC minimums is likely to result in algae plus you don't really know what other chemical ingredients you are dealing with like Maddie indicates. First thing I'd do is add 5 ppm FC with liquid chlorine, post a full set of tests, get a K-1766 salt kit and run it., and have metals testing performed. Then get your CYA up to 70 ppm with granular stabilizer. In the next few days you'll most likely find you need to SLAM and hopefully a short slam but before you go through all that lets make sure you're not throwing chemicals down the drain because you need a water exchange to get rid of minerals, metals.

I hope this is helpful.

Chris

 

[Jimrahbe]

72,

An easy one for me.. I agree with everyone so far...

The first thing I would do is run an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test. OCLT.. Just to see where you are, and if you need to do a SLAM or not.

Maybe you will be lucky and all you need to do is get the FC and CYA into shape.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[ajw22]

First thing I would do is add 30 ppm of CYA and 10 ppm of liquid chlorine. Then do the Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

 

[EDAM72]

Thanks All, I went by and grabbed a sample to do a full test. I did order a K-1766 salt test that came in.

FC-0 even tried with 25ml sample, water doesn't turn pink at all, just a cloudy white. (testing water out of faucet I can see chlorine-so it is working)
ph 8+
TA 60
CH 590
CYA 0
Salt 3800
temp 85
CSI .46

I had wanted a full test before he came by to talk about it tomorrow morning. I will let you know how it goes. I'll get a metal test as well. Once I get that, I'll know where everything is and start the remediation.

 

[wireform]

Worry not about the heat pump with PH 8+. Don't go higher then 30 when adding the stabilizer until you're 100% sure a slam isn't needed. When all the dust settles (pun intended) and all is where it ought to be then raise the CYA.

 

[Nikilyn]

I‘m also in Gilbert and had a hard time keeping my FC up. I was trying to go off of what other people on here were doing and realized I needed more chlorine produced than those living in other places did. I finally found that running the pool at a low speed all day and high speed for a few hours with the SWG output being 60% is what keeps my chlorine levels up. I tried it for just 12 hrs a day but it just didn’t cut it. Trust your knowledge. Soon you will love having a SWG and not having to worry about adding it everyday.

 

[Bperry]

Believe it or not, some people with a “salt pool” think there isn’t any chlorine in it so they don’t need to test for it or worry about it.

 

[Newdude]

*FWIW, I trusted you from reading your title alone before reading one word of your post.

I have read all too many posts about what the ‘pros’ preach and do. I know several in real life and we cannot discuss pools in *any* capacity without me loosing my cool. And I’m the most levelheaded easygoing person you’ve ever met.

 

[setsailsoon]

Thanks All, I went by and grabbed a sample to do a full test. I did order a K-1766 salt test that came in.

FC-0 even tried with 25ml sample, water doesn't turn pink at all, just a cloudy white. (testing water out of faucet I can see chlorine-so it is working)
ph 8+
TA 60
CH 590
CYA 0
Salt 3800
temp 85
CSI .46

I had wanted a full test before he came by to talk about it tomorrow morning. I will let you know how it goes. I'll get a metal test as well. Once I get that, I'll know where everything is and start the remediation.

This is a great start. Do get FC up to 5 ppm asap and try to keep it at that level... also get your CYA up to 30 as Allen recommended not to 70 as I initially said. If you need to SLAM 30 is better level to minimize chlorine consumption. What is the cc? What is the pool water quality?

Chris

 

[ajw22]

I have read all too many posts about what the ‘pros’ preach and do. I know several in real life and we cannot discuss pools in *any* capacity without me loosing my cool. And I’m the most levelheaded easygoing person you’ve ever met.

Listening to a pro makes you want to reach for your keyboard and start typing?

 

[Newdude]

Listening to a pro makes you want to reach for your keyboard and start typing?

Hearing what my friends/acquaintances I have in the industry have to say about it makes me want to at times.

So we keep the discussions non pool related.

 

[Newdude]

Listening to a pro makes you want to reach for your keyboard and start typing

Matter of fact, now that you mention it, I can’t talk pools with most of my non industry friends either. I can’t stand to listen to how good they have it that they have it because they only have to shock their pools, like every 10 days, and not weekly like everybody else.

They don’t want to learn. They don’t want to listen. It’s best to talk about the Yankees.

 

[red-beard]

What fun is that? Talk about the Astros....

 

[Newdude]

What fun is that? Talk about the Astros

Actually we also talk about ATT stadium being a tornado evacuation center for the unlikelihood of touchdowns there.

 

[red-beard]

That would be Dallas....

 

[EDAM72]

This is a great start. Do get FC up to 5 ppm asap and try to keep it at that level... also get your CYA up to 30 as Allen recommended not to 70 as I initially said. If you need to SLAM 30 is better level to minimize chlorine consumption. What is the cc? What is the pool water quality?

Chris

Thanks, sorry, the CC was .2, by pool water quality, do you mean testing the source water? I hadn't done that yet.

 

[EDAM72]

Went to meet guy this morning, but then we have to meet tomorrow instead. While there I grabbed a quick sample before it had sat in sun too much. My theory seems correct from above, as the pool had an FC of 2.5. So it's chlorinating at night and quickly burning off in sun with no CYA.

Thanks all, I think I have a start here. I'll go get some Conditioner today and chlorine, heard best way to spread it is let it dissolve in a sock? I had been spreading over stairs and letting dissolve away from vacuum. But this new pool has the insert everywhere that push everything into the main drain for cleaning.

I assume I will want to run the pump during the day instead so I can do the OCLT without pump running with the SWG producing.