salt level is at 2450ppm in the pool (no SWCG), any concern?

[norcalpool1]

I used the Sodium Chloride test strips to measure the amount of salt in my pool as we have been noticing salt taste throughout this season. The salt content seems to be at 2450ppm. We still like the pool and use it, but am wondering if this is a cause for concern. I don't have a SWCG. I use liquid chlorine (sodium hypochlorite 10%) from Home Depot. The pool uses up one gallon once every three days.

I expect that there will be some dilution when I pump out rain water overflow in winter. The pool loses about about 1/4" water every day in summer to evaporation and that is about 60 gallons for this pool.

CYA: 50
CH: 650
TA: 70
Water Temperature: 80 deg F
FC: 5.5
PH: 7.7

Supply water from the city:
CH: 30
TA: 90
PH: 8.7

 

[wireform]

The salt in the water has no bearing on anything. Some op's put in salt just for the feel of it without the SWCG advantage.

 

[Dirk]

With your newish plaster and your high CH, you should probably be watching your CSI, even though your fill water has low CH. If you find you are not within the acceptable CSI range, then a water exchange will be in your future. When you do that to fix the CH, you'll also be purging a lot of that salt.

 

[duraleigh]

Your very low CH in your fill water and your fairly high CH in your pool suggests you are adding CH in some form. It can't really get that high if you are filling the pool with CH 30 water.

I would lower the pool water and retain the rainfall water which is free of CH and salt.....although the salt is harmless.

 

[norcalpool1]

Thanks all. I try to keep the CSI within -0.3 and +0.3, but it tends to remain between 0.1 and 0.3. If I add acid to bring the CSI to 0 or even slightly negative (keeping the pH above 7.3), CSI slowly creeps back up to 0.15 within a week. It isn't very hard to keep the CSI below 0.3 or even below 0.2 as long as acid addition is more regular (in smaller quantities every day or every couple of days).

The calcium hardness has been in the 600's since the time the pool was replastered, neither increasing nor decreasing significantly. At times I noticed that the CH was down to the 400's, but then since I got the speedstir, I have done CH measurement multiple times and the results are more precise at 650ppm with the TF-100 kit.

High CH must have been due to the startup procedure. Don't they add calcium chloride into the pool to bring up the CH higher? I maintained the weekly pool maintenance throughout the 1-year warranty/guarantee period for replastering work. The pool service may have added cal-hypo instead of sodium-hypo during that time I used their service.

I haven't exchanged the pool water considerably ever, except remove the rain water overflow in winter (which is really not that much in this part of the San Francisco bay area, perhaps 1000 gallons per winter). Perhaps this winter, I will exchange some water, in addition to retaining more of the rainfall.

Another thought occurs to me which is that I should just be getting a SWCG. It seems like I am almost there for the recommended salt level!

Thanks all!

 

[mgtfp]

Another thought occurs to me which is that I should just be getting a SWCG

Good plan

I actually used your case as an example of a pool turning into a salt pool over time in another thread. There are pool builders around scaring customers away from SWGs by warning them about the corrosive salt (which is not true in the first place), but they don't tell them that just by adding chlorine, many pools will reach salt water levels anyway.

Just remember that with a SWG you will want your CSI negative to avoid scaling in the cell. For many with high CH fill water this is just impossible, but with your fill water it shouldn't be a problem once the start-up issues have been resolved.

 

[Dirk]

I connected my auto-filler to my water softener to solve for my city’s high CH water... I don’t have significant CH build up anymore.

 

[Dirk]

Thanks all. I try to keep the CSI within -0.3 and +0.3, but it tends to remain between 0.1 and 0.3. If I add acid to bring the CSI to 0 or even slightly negative (keeping the pH above 7.3), CSI slowly creeps back up to 0.15 within a week. It isn't very hard to keep the CSI below 0.3 or even below 0.2 as long as acid addition is more regular (in smaller quantities every day or every couple of days).

The calcium hardness has been in the 600's since the time the pool was replastered, neither increasing nor decreasing significantly. At times I noticed that the CH was down to the 400's, but then since I got the speedstir, I have done CH measurement multiple times and the results are more precise at 650ppm with the TF-100 kit.

High CH must have been due to the startup procedure. Don't they add calcium chloride into the pool to bring up the CH higher? I maintained the weekly pool maintenance throughout the 1-year warranty/guarantee period for replastering work. The pool service may have added cal-hypo instead of sodium-hypo during that time I used their service.

I haven't exchanged the pool water considerably ever, except remove the rain water overflow in winter (which is really not that much in this part of the San Francisco bay area, perhaps 1000 gallons per winter). Perhaps this winter, I will exchange some water, in addition to retaining more of the rainfall.

Another thought occurs to me which is that I should just be getting a SWCG. It seems like I am almost there for the recommended salt level!

Thanks all!

Speedstir, yah!!

I've followed threads where the PB's start up guy just didn't know what the heck he was doing. Not atypical at all. And the guy in charge of my pool was no exception either. Your guy could have dosed the pool with calcium based on, well nothing, and just over-did it. He probably didn't test first, and he probably used the PB's guesstimate of the water volume. And he probably wasn't all that careful. A recipe for an overdose. All easily avoidable stuff, but if they're not diligent they'll just do what it takes to get off the job and leave you to straighten it out. No matter. That's what's so great about TFP. It's science and experience all rolled up together. For just about anything going on in your poot, TFP will have the fix!

I wanted to share something I just experienced. I keep a close eye on my CSI. I try to keep it around -0.2. But when it's hot out and the water is warm, I have to push the pH down to about 7.4 or 7.5 to stay there. Which is fine for pH, but my pool naturally likes to be around 7.8-8.0. So I add acid, and the pool fights back, so I add more acid, and the pool fights back, etc. Well this year, I noticed that I was using more and more acid. And a recent full suite revealed my TA was too low. Point being, the more you fight pH the more it fights back! And then brings his pal TA to the rumble, to boot. And I believe it's logarithmic. Going from 7.5 down to 7.4 takes way more acid and effort than going from 7.6 down to 7.5. 7.3 is much much worse, etc. So I caved. I'm letting pH rise a bit, easing off on acid, which should restore my TA. I'll just keep an eye on my SWG's output from the returns. Its auto-polarity-reversing feature throws flakes of calcium long before it'll collect on my pebble, so that'll be my que for how high I can let the CSI get. An obscure "bonus feature" of my SWG...

Point was... you might consider easing up on your pH battle, too, and let it come up a bit to see if that mellows everything out.