Table salt 99.8% pure NaCi, is it ok to use?

[Adsonic]

Hello everyone,

I'm excited buying my first pool for the kids , it's an Intex pool (1883 gal size) and I bought along with it both the sand filter and the Saltwater System. My problem is that over here in Kuwait I can't seem to find Pool salt for use with the system. Would it be possible to use supermarket salt that states its 99.8% pure sodium chloride (NaCl)? Also it says it's iodized, will that be a problem?

Thank you for any help and support on this,
Adsonic

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

You do not want to use iodized salt.

Is there access to water softener salt? As long as there are no additives, it is fine to use. Many members use solar salt in the pool as it is the same as and cheaper than "pool" salt.

 

[Adsonic]

Thanks for the welcome and super fast reply.

I'll have to look around and see if it available here, after reading all the comments on what type of salt to use, I really hoped this will do the trick.

 

[jblizzle]

Found this:

Food grade table salt is not recommended to be used with a SWG because it is NOT pure salt but contains anti caking compounds. This could be responsible for the cloudiness. One of the common anti caking compound in table salt is yellow prussiate of soda which is an iron compound and can cause iron staining in the pool. Table salt also often contains sodium aluminosilicate and/or calcium silicate and may contain potassium iodide and glucose if it is iodized salt.

in this thread: http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/6299-Which-Salt-To-Buy-Table-Salt

 

[JasonLion]

You don't want to use any kind of table salt. The anti-caking agent will cause stains.

 

[Adsonic]

I thought cause its 99.9% pure, it might be ok to use. Thanks to you now I know better.

 

[Adsonic]

Hello again, managed to find sea salt from a seawater plant that gave me 50KG free of charge just to being nice enough to ask.

They claim its natural and pure without the addition of any outside element.

What do you think, should I use it?

 

[JasonLion]

That should be fine.

 

[Adsonic]

Excellent, thanks for the good news.

Ok, just did my first water test using Taylor K2006 and the below are the numbers:

Chlorine, the water did not turn pink even after 5 scoops, so I stopped and assumed I have none (not surprising seeing I didn't start the SWG yet).
pH 7.6
Total Alkalinity Test 50PPM
Calcium Hardness Test 70PPM
Cyanuric Acid Test, the sample did not turn to cloudy solution (don't know what that mean).

The kids pool is an Intex rectangular vinyl pool (1883gal/7127L) but only filled to around 1550 as the kids are still small and I want them to be able to walk around. I also have sand filter and SWG, based on this information the recommended levels are:

FC 3-5
pH 7.5-7.8
TA 60-80
CH 0-300 (Don't add)
CYA 70-80


Can I have your thoughts on the scores please.

 

[JasonLion]

The CYA test remaining clear means CYA is zero.

Adding some CYA is the only really important thing that needs doing right at the moment. Don't raise CYA to 70-80 all at once, do it in steps. I would aim for something around 50 to start with, give it a week, retest, and adjust from there (if needed).

All of your other levels look alright. TA is just a little low, but CYA will bring that up.

 

[jblizzle]

And add some chlorine with bleach until your SWG gets dialed in.

 

[Adsonic]

Thank you for your continues help and support, I really appreciate the helping hand until i get the hang of things.

It's the weekend and the pool stores are all closed until Sunday. The only other option is a supermarket that has the following items but none are called CYA (or maybe they don't have it or its under another name). Just a small note, I filled the pool with water for 1 week now with the sand filter working twice a day for 8 hours, I filled it just below the water jet so it will create a fountain which helps cool the pool down and to not allow the water sit calm.

The pool walls are not slippery, so I'm not sure if I need to shock the pool or not.

In any case, here are the items I feel I need (they have 3"cholire tablets not sure I need to look at that).

- - - Updated - - -

sorry the first pic was meant to ask what do those 3 items do.

 

[JasonLion]

Most of that is just a waste of money. We don't recommend using clarifier, or algaecide (except in a few special cases), or filter cleaner. You can get PH increaser less expensively in the grocery store (as Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda).

The HTH Liquid Chlorinator is fine, the only product there we specifically recommend using. Dy-Chlor II is what we call dichlor, which raises CYA so quickly it is almost never useful. Shock-n-Swim is a non-chlorine oxidizer, which costs more than chlorine and has no advantages for an outdoor pool. Super Select Shock Treatment is what we call cal-hypo, which is occasionally useful as long as you keep in mind that it raises the calcium level.

 

[Adsonic]

I see, then for the CYA will have to wait until Sunday for shops to open.

During this time (almost 2 days), would you recommend using this time to add the salt (use around 16KG) along with Liquid Chlorinator (tried using the pool calculate but was lost trying to input the detail of the chlorine and its % to know how much to use).

Or its just better to wait after fixing the CYA levels?

 

[JasonLion]

You can add salt any time.

How much Dy-chlor II do you have? You can add one oz of that each evening until you have time to get something more appropriate, and it will raise FC by 2 and CYA by 2, both of which you want at the moment.

 

[Adsonic]

I've got 1GK of the Dy-Chlor II, so now:

1- add 1oz of Dy-Chlor II today and another 1oz in day 2
2- dump 16KG salt today, brush the floor from time to time.
3- retest the water on day 3

Does this sound good?

P.S: is it ok to keep running the pump twice a day with those items added?

 

[tim5055]

Jason is giving great advice! It is always advisable to run the pump,for,at least 30 minutes to an hour after and addition of chemicals so they mix well. With the salt you may even want a little longer depending on how fast it dissolves. Other than that, you only need to run the pump long enough each day to keep the water clear. Once you have the SWG running you will need to adjust pump time longer to give the SWG sufficient time each day to produce the amount of chlorine you need.

With 0 CYA you really only need less than 1ppm FC to sanitize, but the flip side of that coin is that the sun will burn off the FC quickly.

 

[Adsonic]

Water test update scores:

FC 0.6
CC 0.2
PH between 7.8 and 8.0
TA 50PPM
CH 70PPM
CAY Zero

To be frank, the advice in this area is very weak. And what I learned in this past week from reading through the forum, way surpassed the shop "exports". Most sell items from China that has their brand stamp but without saying anything about what's in it. The only shop that has real products is not a pool shop but rather a Supermarket, that only stack them cus customers are buying them. I really wish I could get my hands on the correct product, but these products are hard to come by and one might have to use whatever he have at hand.

Anyways, I managed to find a product called Trichlor, stabilized chlorinating tablets (3"tablets). and from reading about it on the forum this will help increase CAY, and using the math, I would need 2 and half tablets to increase the CAY to around 50ppm with a pool size of 1550 gal.


What do you think, stop using 1oz of Dy-chlor II and start using the Trichlor tablets?

 

[jblizzle]

The Dichlor is adding CYA too. You could use either.

 

[Adsonic]

I put 2 tablets in the skimmer, how much time do I need to wait to see an increase in CAY?