Salt Cell Troubles

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Velicos

Member
May 31, 2020
11
Tampa, FL
Hey community,
Need some advice from someone more experienced than myself. Long time lurker on TFP, spent many hours understanding pool chemistry and balance when I updated and converted my pool to a SWG 2.5 years ago. The recommended methods and balance levels here have worked amazingly well for me... until about three weeks ago.

Started noticing cloudy water for the first time ever. To be fair with usage up tenfold due to COVID (getting used every day) I assumed it was sunscreen from our 3 kids. Bought a flocculant and got that going... got better but not great. Started paying much closer attention to them chemicala (it was very predictable for years so I didnt have to babysit them much at all) and FC was very low. Started really diving in.. stabilized the CYA at 70ppm... didnt help. Ran a SLAM (ish) as there was around .75 CC with only around 1.5 FC. Got FC to about 10, turned SWG back to normal levels.. 3 days later, FC was about 1.5 again. I've been continuing over the last 2 weeks to go through cycles of super chlorinating up to about 6 ppm... then increasing percentage on the SWG. typically the SWG would maintain at 4-6 (with lower bathing load than current) at about 20-25%. I now have it at 50% (35,000 gallon unit on a 8k gal pool..) and it was at 2.5 ppm just now.

Something is clearly wrong but I just don't know what. I did run a muriatic acid soak on the cell a week ago (although I didn't see any visible scaling), and I do know our Calcium is high (about 500ish.. need to do a drain and rebalance when the kids aren't using it every day) but everything else is balanced as recommended here. The SWG seems to still chlorinate well on super chlorinate... but its just not maintaining right.

SWG is a Hayward Blue Essence (fairly sure this is a rebadge on a Aqua Rite) and I believe a t15 cell... a t15 on an aquarite is for 40,000gal and ours is rated 35,000gal... so fairly sure that's the cell. I confirmed the SWG is set for a t15 cell (I accidentally changed that to a t3 without knowing I did when I was messing with it a few days back). If any other info would help identify the culprit it'd be appreciated.
 
CH of 500 is no issue as long as TA and pH are controlled. I manage our water to 800+ppm CH. Never see cloudy water or have SWCG issues.
 
THanks for your replies mknauss. I did an OCLT two nights ago and it dropped from 8.0-5.5, so a true SLAM is in order. The chart shows with the 70ppm CYA I maintain I need an FC of 28ppm for this to work - that seems crazy high to me, just wanted to ensure I'm seeing that correctly.
 
SLAM level FC for a CYA of 70 is 28 ppm. Add sufficient chlorine to get to 28 ppm. Test and add more chlorine several times per day. Brush Brush Brush the pool.
 
V,

Depending on what your water rates are, it might make more sense to drain to get your CYA down to 30 before doing a SLAM..

What is going to cost you more, the chlorine or the water..??

In my case, I can fill my pool for about $50 bucks.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 

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I think this time of year is tough on SWG owners... temps, activity, and daylight hours increasing, and suddenly the SWG isn't "keeping up." I have had to do a "mini SLAM" (bring FC to SLAM levels, and find out that the SWG is magically cured!) a couple of times this spring. When it had gotten "behind" so that something had probably started growing, running at 100% super chlorinate for days didn't do a thing. Having gotten the FC up to SLAM levels for a couple of days and passing OCLT (never had any CCs, so that was odd) I am now working to cut down on my SWG so that the FC drifts slowly down to the high end of the recommended range. I am currently running on low speed for most of the day, high speed for 4 hours, at 30%. FC isn't dropping, so I'm cutting back one hour every day to see if we can find the sweet spot. And.... that sweet spot will change, as the days get longer and usage goes up. I have liquid chlorine on hand to quickly boost the FC levels next time it happens. Good luck!
 
I know the OP's to be pain on needing to reach 28 FC with 70 CYA! I have been slamming my pool since Sunday. If I had asked some questions, I could have saved some pain since my CYA was at 0 and I boosted it not realizing I was going to need SLAM it. Just 28 gallons of Liquid Chlorine later and I'm hopeful that tomorrow morning I can stop the SLAM and let my SWG get back to work. Which I then hope it actually does work! Being a more involved pool owner is a "fun" process! :) Good news after a failed overnight test, I put the pool back up to 28 FC and 6 hours later it was at 27.5 FC with 0 CC!
 
njech said:
I know the OP's to be pain on needing to reach 28 FC with 70 CYA! I have been slamming my pool since Sunday. If I had asked some questions, I could have saved some pain since my CYA was at 0 and I boosted it not realizing I was going to need SLAM it. Just 28 gallons of Liquid Chlorine later and I'm hopeful that tomorrow morning I can stop the SLAM and let my SWG get back to work. Which I then hope it actually does work! Being a more involved pool owner is a "fun" process! :) Good news after a failed overnight test, I put the pool back up to 28 FC and 6 hours later it was at 27.5 FC with 0 CC!
Click to expand...

It's a bit of a catch 22, as I'm in the same boat. My CYA was low at ~40ish or so (I don't test it very often and it's such a subjective test anyway..). So my first thought of course was 'well there's a bunch more direct sun hitting the pool now (it gets no direct sun in the winter as it's a north pool on a 2 story home) - so probably just losing FC due to UV degradation... so I got my CYA levels where they belong and the slight cloudiness continues - I should have thought of running the OCLT before adding that CYA.

The good news for me is that I only have an 8,000 gallon pool, so it took less than a full jug to get it to 28 - now it's just maintaining degradation which I assume will be at a similar rate to normal LC additions as before I got the SWG. Assuming this clears up in 2-3 days (which I expect as it was just slightly cloudy, nothing crazy) I'll have spent a whopping $10 on 2 chlorine jugs, still much cheaper than draining and refilling. My calcium is a bit high so I may still do a partial drain anyway as I haven't since we resurfaced ~2.5 years ago... but that's another project for another day.

In hindsight, I just didn't' realize that going from ~weekly use to daily use was going to create that much additional bio-load, and I didn't catch the required increase on the SWG in time.
 
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Velicos said:
In hindsight, I just didn't' realize that going from ~weekly use to daily use was going to create that much additional bio-load, and I didn't catch the required increase on the SWG in time
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We all go through these learning curves as we figure out how the SWG responds to your environment... everyone's pool is different, so there is no one answer for how the SWG is going to work for your pools setting. (y)
 
Follow up question on this for the hive mind. I ran through the full SLAM process ~2 weeks ago, and maintained chlorine levels at around 28 ppm for ~4 days before leaving for a week for vacation. On returning the water is overall in great shape - however, the chlorine is dropping REALLY slowly (it's down to around 10.5 PPM with the SWG off), even in full Florida summer sun. I double checked the CYA and it's right about perfect.. ~60-70ppm (always so subjective with that test though..), but the chlorine only dropped ~1ppm from yesterday morning to this afternoon as I post this.

Here's the actual question - what PPM levels are safe for the kiddos to return to the water? With not much else to do stuck indoors with 3 young kids, both them and my wife are already back to going nuts... I don't want them going in if it's not safe but I also don't want them to drive my wife crazy.. so just looking for some guidance on this one.
 
njech said:
Good news after a failed overnight test, I put the pool back up to 28 FC and 6 hours later it was at 27.5 FC with 0 CC!
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Congrats! I can't imagine doing the FAS/DPD test at 28 ppm FC - that's 56 drops right? I'd lose count and have to start over again - and again. :cool:
 
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mguzzy said:
GO FOR IT! You can safely swim in the water if the FC levels are at SLAM or lower. Just check your CC.

Are you sure the SWG is off? if you just turned the knob down, I don't think it turns it off.. at least on my Aquarite the lowest setting is 5%
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Really? I thought having higher than recommended FC levels were bad for skin or eyes or something - but not my realm of expertise at all. CC levels are below .5 so all good there. SWG is definitely off - flipped the switch on it.
 
Velicos said:
Really? I thought having higher than recommended FC levels were bad for skin or eyes or something - but not my realm of expertise at all. CC levels are below .5 so all good there. SWG is definitely off - flipped the switch on it.
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The consensus here is that if the FC is over SLAM guidelines then its unsafe.. AND only if you can see he bottom of the pool. Whether you are SLAMing or not, its not safe to swim if you can't see the bottom. Should someone get injured you would never see them in obscured water.
 

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