Switching to salt, do I need a new test kit and routine?

[Mdragger88]

That’s it! Just keep the pump running.
If you have some kids to throw in there to help mix/spread it around that helps too
The warmer the water - the faster it dissolves & gets mixed. You’re on your way!

 

[Skenn81]

Okay so tested the salt again, I jumped the gun by 2 hours and tested it at 22 hours later instead of 24. Figure thats close enough. It's up to 3000 so thats within the parameters for the SWG, I flipped the breaker and it is now on. Going to need even more salt. So far we are up to 400 lbs of salt added (10 bags) to take it from close to zero / 300 from what the pool store said to 3000 using the Taylor test kit just now. I know the math says it is but is this normal to have to add this much salt? Oy vey. Guess I am going back to the store this afternoon for another 2 bags.

Right now we have the following lights:

Salt is solid red. Flow is blinking on and off, cell is solid green. According to this below it's doing what its supposed to be doing, I just need to keep adding salt. So many pounds of salt. I found who originally built the pool 20 or 25 years ago, going to send them a picture of it to see if they can figure out how many gallons it is based on their pool building experience. Still cant believe I need even more salt.

 

[PieterS]

The amount of salt needed is a pretty straightforward calculation. I have a small 5000 gallon above ground, and pretty sure I use a solid 4-5 bags to get up to 2700-3000 level. My recommendation though - give it a day to stabilize, it's much harder to remove salt than it is to add salt!

 

[Bperry]

Okay so tested the salt again, I jumped the gun by 2 hours and tested it at 22 hours later instead of 24. Figure thats close enough. It's up to 3000 so thats within the parameters for the SWG, I flipped the breaker and it is now on. Going to need even more salt. So far we are up to 400 lbs of salt added (10 bags) to take it from close to zero / 300 from what the pool store said to 3000 using the Taylor test kit just now. I know the math says it is but is this normal to have to add this much salt? Oy vey. Guess I am going back to the store this afternoon for another 2 bags.

Right now we have the following lights:

Salt is solid red. Flow is blinking on and off, cell is solid green. According to this below it's doing what its supposed to be doing, I just need to keep adding salt. So many pounds of salt. I found who originally built the pool 20 or 25 years ago, going to send them a picture of it to see if they can figure out how many gallons it is based on their pool building experience. Still cant believe I need even more salt.

Give the machine some time, it’s takes a bit for the reading to register. It may keep creeping up slowly over the next day or so. The salt is what makes the chlorine so yep there’s gotta be a decent amount in there. But it’ll stay there unless you exchange water and you won’t need to add so much ever again. Salt is kinda like the “good” version of CYA, neither of them leave the water without draining. But in the case of salt, it’s a good thing.

 

[Skenn81]

The amount of salt needed is a pretty straightforward calculation. I have a small 5000 gallon above ground, and pretty sure I use a solid 4-5 bags to get up to 2700-3000 level. My recommendation though - give it a day to stabilize, it's much harder to remove salt than it is to add salt!

Yup, nice and straightforward calculation if you know how big your pool is. I do not, it's 25 years old and the original documents have been lost to time. So far I have added 400 pounds of salt and it's gone up to 3000. Estimates are between 15 and 18 thousand gallons. So I am guessing at what I am doing when it comes to adding chemicals. According to the app that does actually put me at 18,000 so maybe my pool is 3k larger than I have thought for the past 3 years. Issue is I do not have a good initial reading and only went off what the pool store told me, which I don't trust. Yesterday their salt test said it was 1400 and when I ran my own when I got home with the Taylor test it was 2000.

 

[Mdragger88]

There are a few ways mentioned in this post to get a more accurate volume estimate

Chemical approach to determine pool size

Hello all! Is there a way to determine pool volume by some kind of chemical addition at a known value and gauging the reaction in the pool itself? I should be somewhere between 13.5 and 15k I think, but I would really like to know for sure. Anyone have a proven method they could share?

www.troublefreepool.com

With salt In general u just need to make the swg happy - so add a bag , let it circulate, try again

 

[Skenn81]

So using the chemical measuring methods...

I was at 2000 yesterday, I was at 3000 today.

I added 4 bags of salt yesterday.

The app, messing with pool sizes, says a 19000 gallon pool with a 2000 salt reading needs just about 4 bags of salt to go to 2000 to 3000.

No way its 19,000, thats way over every other esstimate.

Messing around with an 18000 gallon pool, 4 bags would raise it from 2000 to 3065, which is I think within accuracy of the test kit.

If I drop it down to 15,000 gallon pool 4 bags would raise a reading of 2000 to 3277, at 15 drops I was below that reading.

16,000 gallon pool 2000 goes to 3195

17,000 gallon pool 2000 goes to 3125

So maybe indeed we are at 18,000?

I added one more bag of salt this afternoon. If it's 18000 gallons the reading tomorrow should be at 3265. So if we have the change from yellow to red at 16 drops or right over that then I guess we use 18,000 from now on and I have been living a 15,000 gallon lie for the past three and a half years.

 

[Bperry]

So using the chemical measuring methods...

I was at 2000 yesterday, I was at 3000 today.

I added 4 bags of salt yesterday.

The app, messing with pool sizes, says a 19000 gallon pool with a 2000 salt reading needs just about 4 bags of salt to go to 2000 to 3000.

No way its 19,000, thats way over every other esstimate.

Messing around with an 18000 gallon pool, 4 bags would raise it from 2000 to 3065, which is I think within accuracy of the test kit.

If I drop it down to 15,000 gallon pool 4 bags would raise a reading of 2000 to 3277, at 15 drops I was below that reading.

16,000 gallon pool 2000 goes to 3195

17,000 gallon pool 2000 goes to 3125

So maybe indeed we are at 18,000?

I added one more bag of salt this afternoon. If it's 18000 gallons the reading tomorrow should be at 3265. So if we have the change from yellow to red at 16 drops or right over that then I guess we use 18,000 from now on and I have been living a 15,000 gallon lie for the past three and a half years.

Make sure you note that the salt test accuracy is plus +\- 200 ppm

 

[wireform]

Your pool is very close to 15k gallons as 400 lbs equates to about 3200ppm. At 15k your getting 8ppm per pound salt.

 

[Skenn81]

Well looks like I have to go get more salt after all. The SWG is back to showing solid red for salt content. I must be right on the edge. I'll go buy the bags, run a test, and dump another one in this afternoon.

Almost there...

 

[wireform]

One bag will push it approx 320ppm.

 

[Skenn81]

We are getting closer... The manual says the sensor in the unit itself has a test range of +/-300 and I have a optimal range of 3600 up to 4500, which is when it begins to cause issues.

Today's salt reading is at 2800, one drop lower than when I tested yesterday. Seems like we are going the wrong way here. I am going to add 2 more bags this afternoon and get 2 more as spare since this beast continues to demand salt be scarified for it.

 

[Skenn81]

Another 120lbs of salt purchased.

40lbs added and brushed around.

Will report back again tomorrow.

 

[Rattus Suffocatus]

It takes a day or two to fully mix in salt. It looks to be mixed in an hour or two, but really you need at least 48 hours to fully have it equalize to the entire volume of water. It's always better to add too little and add more than to add too much. I'd just keep adding half of what pool math says you need until you can comfortably fudge it with a bag or so.

 

[Skenn81]

Yup, that's what I am hoping, adding less and will check it again.

I will give it two days then to see what happens. First check is tomorrow morning to see if it is still green on the meter. I also will check the CL to see if it's at 5. Also need to do another check of the CYA now that things have been running for a while.

 

[Skenn81]

Still green this morning.

Things are looking good.

 

[kul]

I don’t have a swg but find this thread enthralling. Uhm I might be addicted to pool info.

 

[Bperry]

Still green this morning.

Things are looking good.

Hopefully that’s the LED which is green and not the water. Green is usually bad around here.

 

[Skenn81]

Imagine if the pool went green with all this effort.. but yes, it's the LEDs. It's finally happy about the salt.

I tested the CL over lunch, it was up to 7 after two days of 18 hour running at 100%. I have reduced the pump to now run for 10 hours which is what the app tells me I need for a 3ppm increase on a 16,500 gallon pool. I put it in the middle of 15 and 18 and will adjust from there. CYA was between 40 and 50 so I also have a sock in the skimmer with a bunch of that in it to dissolve over the next few days to get it closer to 70.

So I guess we're finally good? Will check salt tomorrow and CL in a day to see if it's closer to 5 as recommended.

 

[PieterS]

Sounds like you're just about there. Just watch things over the next several weeks. With the SWCG it's a bit more about longer-term stabilization, don't feel like you need to react to every day's CL reading. If CL somehow drifts low when you over-adjust to too short a run time, give it a little boost with bleach back to where you want it and adjust the SWCG runtime from there. Good luck!