Tabs or SWG

[Culler]

New pool & setting on a 25lb bucket of "In the swim" 3" tabs. That said I have been asked when I'm adding salt as I have a Jandy true clear hooked up & on standby. I'm having a little fluctuation with FC for whatever reason but dont see the need to jump into the salt. It's gonna run about 8-9 hundred dollars for the salt so should I continue using up the 3" tabs? Or go ahead n drop the salt? - Opinions appreciated

 

[BDY]

Post a full set of test results … a decent test kit and your own testing is the TFP cornerstone to making decisions
Test Kits Compared

What kind of tabs? Tabs either have calcium or CYA in them so one of those levels could be out of range or even detrimental. Continuing to use tabs will raise CH or CYA….

Make sure you know the chemistry baseline of your water before you make a decision

My 2 cents - go straight to salt if you have it installed. The tabs are a sunk cost

 

[BDY]

Ps - make sure you measure the salt already in the pool before you add salt. If it’s been any sort of time the water has been there it likely has salt already.

You can use the Taylor salt test and the the pool math app to calculate how much additional salt

I’m also curious how much salt is needed for 800-900$ of salt? Seems high to me but not sure if your pool size

 

[mgtfp]

Let's say you'll need 17 40lbs bags of salt to get a bit more than 3000ppm of salt into the pool. I don't think a bag should cost more than 10$, so 170$ in total should be a conservative guess.

The 800-900$ are probably more realistic for a 25lbs bucket of chlorine tabs. Sell them, buy salt for the proceeds and take your family on a nice weekend away with what's left.

I'm sure sure a friendly neighbourhood hero from your area will soon chime in where you get the best deal on salt, which brand to buy and which not.

Welcome to TFP!

 

[wireform]

At 18 bags would cost about $180. Not sure where you get your costs.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

There are a number of places to buy Diamond Crystal Naturals solar salt (blue bag). Lowes, Home Depot, Ace Hardware and Tractor Supply all may (not all stores carry it in all locations). I paid $9.87 per bag and if I purchased 6+ bags it went down by 10%. I just saw HD had it for $8.10 per bag for 6+ bags but not at a location close enough for the effort of me going there. I've seen Ace and TS as low as $8 a bag.

After dumping quite a few bags in I can say it dissolves fairly quickly and its clean. Go with either liquid chlorine or salt, skip the tabs!

 

[Mdragger88]

Something is amiss. Who said you need $800 -$900 worth of salt?
The Jandy truclear recommends a salinity of 3000 ppm .
That’s about 650# (17 40# bags) assuming you have none currently.
Most pool salt is $7-$8 for a 40# bag.
So about $130+ tax.

Not sure what you mean by having a fluctuation with fc but make sure you’re always following appropriate
FC/CYA Levels

 

[Bperry]

New pool & setting on a 25lb bucket of "In the swim" 3" tabs. That said I have been asked when I'm adding salt as I have a Jandy true clear hooked up & on standby. I'm having a little fluctuation with FC for whatever reason but dont see the need to jump into the salt. It's gonna run about 8-9 hundred dollars for the salt so should I continue using up the 3" tabs? Or go ahead n drop the salt? - Opinions appreciated

Salt doesn’t cost $900. There’s something wrong there.

 

[jgofnj]

No brainer. Add the not $900 worth of salt. There is nothing to even think about. Use the SWG.

 

[kellyfair]

I say this with love, but I’m smacking those tabs right out of your hands. SWCG all the way.
What test kit are you using, and can you post your numbers?

 

[Culler]

Appreciate the comments & setting me on the right path. My #'s are as follows based on Taylor's K-2006C.
FC - 3.5
TC - 0
PH - 7.8
TA - 110
CH - 200
CYA - 80
*I am trying to understand how to lower CYA & raise CH.
*As far as the salt expense I was I needed around 25 bags for 25,750 gallons. The responses are great sounds like I'm way off & I dont mind constructive criticism (That's why I'm here). Sounds like I need to order salt & add the salt test. I figure Taylor on the kit but all ears on the salt brand & quantity. TY

 

[Bperry]

Appreciate the comments & setting me on the right path. My #'s are as follows based on Taylor's K-2006C.
FC - 3.5
TC - 0
PH - 7.8
TA - 110
CH - 200
CYA - 80
*I am trying to understand how to lower CYA & raise CH.
*As far as the salt expense I was I needed around 25 bags for 25,750 gallons. The responses are great sounds like I'm way off & I dont mind constructive criticism (That's why I'm here). Sounds like I need to order salt & add the salt test. I figure Taylor on the kit but all ears on the salt brand & quantity. TY

Need closer to 20 bags at 40lbs each. Don’t overshoot the salt or you’ll have to drain to reduce it. Same thing with CYA, but if you have a salt system going you can let it top out at 80ppm.

Can pick up salt from Home Depot, Lowe’s, pool store, etc.

 

[BDY]

For salt - stay away from chlorox and people have had issue with Morten’s this year. The blue bag of solar salt from Diamond Crystal seems to be popular these days. Check the recommended chemicals in pool school for other salt suggestions.

Re CYa - nothing brings it down but time and splash out. You just have to be sure your FC level is always above minimum and preferably at high end of target for the SWG side of the chart

FC/CYA Levels

For CH - to raise you would add calcium which is available in the pool section of any big box store . Check pool math for your CSI though. With a salt cell you want to maintain -.3 to 0 negative to inhibit scaling. Too high of a CH and it makes that difficult. You can play around in pool math to see what changing your CH levels does to your CSI.

 

[BDY]

PoolMath

This app will be your friend for managing the CSI and scaling risk of your cell

 

[Culler]

Yeah....didnt consider the freight cost factor as I'm geographically challenged & just used to online pricing for about everything.
Locally is half the cost.

 

[Bperry]

Yeah....didnt consider the freight cost factor as I'm geographically challenged & just used to online pricing for about everything.
Locally is half the cost.

If you pick it up from Home Depot, it shouldn’t cost you any more than $160 total + tax.

 

[Mdragger88]

Home Depot, lowes, walmart & ace also deliver if that’s a need. All those places also have liquid chlorine which you need to be using for daily chlorination until your swcg is up & running.

Before you add salt How old is your pool? Are you past the 30 day curing period for your plaster? If so -
The way the salt add goes is :
1st- test salt level with k1766 kit
2nd - put in 3/4 of the amount of salt
PoolMath calls for- brush it around & let it circulate for 24 hours.
3rd- test salt level again & add whatever is needed to reach your target- brush & let that circulate 24 more hours.
4th- test salt again
5th - if salinity is in range for your cell turn on the cell and set it to produce 3-4ppm/day.
Which looks like around 17 to 22 hrs of run time a day @100% in your pool volume with that cell. You may need to run it around the clock in the peak of summer & possibly supplement with liquid chlorine as the max that cell can produce in your pool volume is 4.3ppm/day.

 

[Culler]

Home Depot, lowes, walmart & ace also deliver if that’s a need. All those places also have liquid chlorine which you need to be using for daily chlorination until your swcg is up & running.

Before you add salt How old is your pool? Are you past the 30 day curing period for your plaster? If so -
The way the salt add goes is :
1st- test salt level with k1766 kit
2nd - put in 3/4 of the amount of salt
PoolMath calls for- brush it around & let it circulate for 24 hours.
3rd- test salt level again & add whatever is needed to reach your target- brush & let that circulate 24 more hours.
4th- test salt again
5th - if salinity is in range for your cell turn on the cell and set it to produce 3-4ppm/day.
Which looks like around 17 to 22 hrs of run time a day @100% in your pool volume with that cell. You may need to run it around the clock in the peak of summer & possibly supplement with liquid chlorine as the max that cell can produce in your pool volume is 4.3ppm/day.
View attachment 518511

Very good information!
At startup we did 24hrs run time for 30 days then 12hrs for the past 50 days. 24hrs seems like alot of run time considering I have been running pump for 12hrs. I'm not sure how that effects my energy bill but I assume a slight reduction. Is there a under sizing problem or is that normal that I would need to go back to 24hrs?

 

[BDY]

@Mdragger88 @Culler
I see a FC production of 3.1 for an RJ60+
Can you confirm the SWG you have? Where did the .92 in the screenshot above come from?

If it is an RJ60 you should have plenty capacity

Play around with the Wffects of Adding feature in pool math - choose “SWG” and you can generate scenarios for pump time and SWG % to get the daily Fc you want

 

[Culler]

I been playing around with the app. It's very helpful indeed! MDragger88 Is right on as the SWG is a Jandy Truclear & its listed as .92 getting 4.3ppm at 24hrs.
Appreciate it & maybe this is not the place or thread to say it but I cant say enough about finding this forum. So much knowledge & willingness to help!