New to salt and am a little confused about why my salt level is now way high.

[generalleoff]

Hey everyone, I am just getting setup for a new salt system in my pool.

I have always assumed my pool to be aprox 12,000 gallons after measuring and calculating it out. Been running with that number for the past 3 years useing the TFP method and all seemed to have been working out fine. I decided to go ahead and convert to salt and went for 3200 ppm. That calculated out to 320 pounds of salt for 12,000 gallons. However after testing with a Taylor salt test kit after 24 hours I got aprox 5400 ppm. The salt reagents in the kit did expire about 8 months ago but I have them stored in a cool air conditioned room. Not ruling out that they are bad but I do kinda doubt it. Ordering a fresh set anyway.

I guess mistake one was not checking as I go but I have always trusted the numbers in the past with no issues so I just sent it.

Waited a few more days (today) and tested 5200 ppm. 5400/5200 seems like it would be good for a reasonable margin of error. So I trust those numbers.

Problem is if you run the numbers through the TFP effects of adding calculator I would have had to been at aprox 7,000 gallons of water to have hit 5200 ppm with 320 pounds of salt. I do not believe salt level is an ideal method to calculate volume though.

Before I go draining 40% of my pool does anyone have any ideas what may really be the cause here? Am I missing something?

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!

Do you have the dimensions, shape and depth of your pool?

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum.
Did you check the salinity of the water prior to adding salt?

 

[pjt]

testing with a Taylor salt test kit

Did you use the Taylor kit to measure the salt level of the water before you added the bags of salt? You may have had a significant amount of salt already in the water.

 

[JJ_Tex]

As others are alluding to, a "non-salt" pool still has salt in it as chlorine, acid, etc all add some amount of salt to your pool. In many cases the salt level of a "non-salt" pool is nearly the same as a saltwater pool. You assumed you had 0 salt and I would guess you were probably closer to 2k-3k before you added any salt.

Its a bummer but a fairly easy problem to fix. Good luck.

 

[generalleoff]

I went out and did a crude remeasure of the pool again and I'm at 29 feet long and 11 feet at the narrowest. 6 feet deep on the deep side and 4 feet deep on the shallow side. That is 12375 gallons. The pool is not a uniform shape so when I did the original calculation several years ago I took many more measurement points. Calculated out at 12500.

I really doubt I missed that by 5000 gallons and as I said everything else comes in spot on. My boron levels and hardness are always pretty spot on 40 and 450 ppm so I expected no less with the salt.

Recently had two hurricanes come through and threaten to overflow the pool with rain so I did drain dilute it a lot. Had to re add boric acid , calcium chloride and slammed the heck out of it with chlorine to get the green out.

I guess assuming it was little or no salt was a mistake. I guess tomorrow I drain.

 

[Newdude]

Always make sure you're using a 10ml sample. The instructions of 'fill 25ml vial.......' *brain shuts off*....... 'to 10ml'..... has fooled many of us.

And then it reads 2.5X higher than actual.

However, from your #s, it appears you just already had 2k ppm and added 3k more. It happens about as often as the ml screwup. Folks assume they have no salt as they never added any specifically and then overshoot the target by a mile.

Each gallon of 10% adds 14ppm salt for you and 2k ppm would be about 48 gallons a year for 3 years. That doesn't factor rain dilution from overflow so you probably added alot more than the 48 gallons a year with your long seasons and heavy rainfall.

 

[proavia]

What was the salt level PRIOR to adding any salt?

 

[Newdude]

What was the salt level PRIOR to adding any salt?

Roughly 2200 evidently. A day late and a dollar short for more than speculation.

 

[proavia]

Roughly 2200 evidently. A day late and a dollar short for more than speculation.

And a CYA of '0' as well.

 

[sande005]

Ditto - when I converted to a SWCG, even though I drain a moderate about each year for winter, my salt level, before adding anything, was at 2100 from all the years of various Cl additions.

 

[generalleoff]

Took about two feet off and filled it back up. Checked it at 3400 ppm but this was right after I turned the fill hose off. Let it run for about 12 hours on high speed and checked 3800 ppm. Knocked it down another 6 inches or so and filled it up. Tested at 2800 ppm but again immediately after cutting off he fill hose. I'll let it run for 12-24 hours and I suspect I'll end up at about 3000 ppm give or take. Easy to adjust it to 3200 ppm from that. Who knows. Might even stabilize out at 3200.

Taking the opportunity to run a sequestrant for anything the salt and fill water might have put in. Chlorine is basically zip right now and I brought the PH to 6.8. I'll let that run for a week or so and then balance everything else back out. Seems the only thing I really need to change from before is I'll bring my CYA up to 75 instead of the 45 I used to shoot for.

After the water is all balanced I'll shut it down and install the SWG. Hayward W3AQR9. I want the water to be ready to go before I install it. No need to stress the thing and risk damage while trying to balance the water.

Guess I wont assume something is zero again. haha.

 

[proavia]

This time of year a CYA of 60-70 should be fine. We always round up to the nearest 10 - so a CYA of 75 is actually 80.

Add some liquid chlorine to get some FC in the water now. And use liquid chlorine to get the FC to where you need it based on the FC/CYA Levels chart, based on your CYA -- then turn the SWG on.