Started Up Today--What Salt to Use

[reinnov8r]

Hi everyone. I got my new pump installed today and started the pool up. My intellichlor 40 fired up but I haven't added any salt yet. There is no pool salt available at my local home depot. Can I use standard water softener salt? If so, how much for 30k gallon pool to start? Or does it depend on initial numbers?

Thanks!

Rob

 

[Richard320]

Straight outta pool school:

Salt

The best thing to use to raise the salt level is water softener salt. Look for salt that is 99.4% pure or better and doesn't have any rust inhibitor or other additives. The best choices include Diamond Crystal® Solar Salt Extra Coarse Crystals in blue bags, Morton® White Crystal® Water Softener Salt in blue bags, or Diamond Crystal® Sun Gems® Crystals Water Softener Salt in yellow bags.

Water softener salt pellets will also work. Pellets dissolve more slowly, but still dissolve quickly enough to be fine. Pool salt is also fine to use, though it tends to be much more expensive. Potassium chloride will also work, but you need 28% more of it and it is more expensive. Avoid table salt, rock salt, and deicing salt.

Salt can simply be dumped into the pool. Spread it around a bit with a brush so there aren't any large piles, and leave the pump running for 24 hours after adding salt. If you have a SWG, it should be turned off while you are adding salt and for the next 24 hours.

 

[reinnov8r]

Thank you! I don't know how I missed that paragraph in the Pool School. First time pool owner so I am trying to absorb as much information as possible in short amount of time. Greatly appreciate it! Have a great weekend.

 

[Richard320]

Thank you! I don't know how I missed that paragraph in the Pool School. First time pool owner so I am trying to absorb as much information as possible in short amount of time. Greatly appreciate it! Have a great weekend.

Many new people here feel like they're trying to get a drink of water from a firehose.

Hopefully you have a tester so you know if your tap water has any salt in it. Then just use poolmath (or the pool manual) to tell you how much to add.

 

[Esloser]

I have a 36,000 gallon pool and it took 25 bags of salt to get up to 3200 ppm. Pool math has the calculation. I did get it from the pool store but it was priced competitively at about 7.50 a bag.

 

[LapPoolMike]

I use Morton Pool Salt from Walmart, works fine with my IC40, reasonably priced @ $6.44 / 40lb bag, product of Bahamas

The bag says each bag raises salt level by about 480ppm for 10,000 gallons. So for your 30K gallon pool, 3 bags would raise your salt by approx. 480ppm. You need to determine how much salt your pool initially has and then go from there.

 

[kplaster]

I use Champion Mix-n-Fine Salt for Animal's from Southern State's or Tractor Supply.50 pound bag for $6.99.Stopped tonight and picked up a couple bag's.It's a little dirty.But,not a big problem for me.It work's.