WAAAYYYY too much salt

May 15, 2015
119
Chandler
I DO NOT have an SWG. I use a chlorinator & follow this method on this site. I noticed water tasting salty. Tested it and it was 6000. Double checked at sun devil pools. Water is two years old. Do not have a water softener or RO or anything. No idea how salt would get in there. Theories?
 
Salt rises with the addition of most pool chemicals, then water evaporates, but when water evaporates, it doesn't take any chemicals with it, so the salt content rises over time. You might have also noticed a rise in CH over time, which arrives with refill water. A full set of test results would be helpful. You mentioned that you use a chlorinator, so I'm also wondering what sort of chlorinator it is, and your day-to-day chlorine source.

The salt won't hurt anything on its own, but the rest of the numbers would be helpful for knowing all is well.
 
No way that your salt rose that high from normal pool chemical use. Absolutely impossible, especially in only 2 years.

Although, also unlikely that someone snuck in and added 700+ pounds of salt to your pool.

So .... I am stumped :D

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BTW, your CYA is way too high ... and your FC is way too low for that high of a CYA. See the [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA].
 
I don't want to spend much time on the salt for the moment, because there's other things to get sorted out, but which salt test are you using?

What's your source of day-to-day chlorine? Is it the large tablets in an inline chlorinator?

You'll need to use the diluted test for CYA, per point 8 of this instruction: Pool School - CYA

Also what result did you get for CH?
 
CH 550

Tested again for salt level and it’s 5000

You can taste salt in the pool.

Only major thing I do different than my neighbors who don’t have SWG is use liquid chlorine. There has to be something about this & the way it’s pumping in my pool that is causing it to crystallize & raise salt. I see crystals of salt forming under my water fall.
 
Here’s my chlorine setup I did a couple years ago
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The Leslie's employees do not know what they're talking about. Yes there is salt in the bleach, but not nearly enough to raise it that high. And what they fail to tell you is that all the other forms of chlorine also add salt to your pool in addition to calcium or stabilizer. You can look at pool math and it will tell you how much salt your bleach is adding.
 
To summarize:
Test kit(s) unknown
FC 3.0
CC X.X?
pH 7.4
TA XXX?
CH 550
CYA 100?
Salt 5000
Scale occurring at/around waterfall
Wondering why salt would rise that high, water tastes salty.

Did you do the diluted test on the CYA?

Salt residues will wash off easily with just a washcloth. If the scale around the waterfall is hard, try chipping off a piece, and pour a drop or two of muriatic acid on it. See if it fizzes.

People start to taste saltiness at varying levels, anywhere from 2000 ppm and up, but most people start to notice it a bit higher than that, more like 3000 or 3500.

As far as why you have high salt, there's only a few possibilities, and probably a combination of some or all of the reasons:
High evaporation (how long does the waterfall typically run per day?)
Refill with high TDS water, very little or no splashout (What's the CH and TA of your fill water?)
Much higher than normal chlorinating liquid additions (let us know your usual chlorinating liquid and approx how much you consume per week or month)
Cumulative addition of salt from some other source (midnight rambler with bags of salt??)
Testing error on salt test (I mention this because you'd pretty much need 12" of rain or a water exchange to shift salt from 6400 to 5000)
 
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