Went from being saltwater curious to a bit confused about my chlorination identity

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Philo said:
If your pool is cloudy, aren't you supposed "maintain" the SLAM process?

I can see the heads or tails of a dime in the bottom of my deep end.
Click to expand...

Pool isn’t cloudy. The sky was cloudy!

Basically, you are doing what we all do with a SWG. Initially boosting FC to target with liquid chlorine, then turning on SWG and tweaking it until it maintains target for you. However, because your FC is so high, we’re waiting until it gets down to normal target before turning it back on.

Example - my target FC is 6 or 7. I got it up to 6 with liquid chlorine, and then turned on SWG. If I let it run three hours per day, it keeps me at 6 or 7, even with daily loss due to sunlight, etc. I run mine in the afternoon when sun is strongest.

As we get later into summer, I’ll probably need to bump it to 4 hours a day.
 
kellyfair said:
He bumped it to SLAM levels, just in case.
Click to expand...
a
Exactly :) Thanks Kelly. I went to SLAM levels to test the hypothesis that I had occult algae. I don't think that was the case b/c the pool has remained very clear and the OCLTs have been negative (no loss). After the first negative OCLT (despite a SLAM-level FC), I turned on the SWG to 80% to prove to myself that the SWG could produce more FC than would be consumed since I didn't have an algae problem. It did not. Strange.

In any case, I'm waiting until the FC decays to 10 and then I will restart the SWG and see what happens.
 
OK. After 2 sunny days, FC is now 9.5 (CC=0). NaCl reads 4200 on the RJ60 (range 3500-4500 ppm). Actual NaCl testing shows 4800 (but the RJ60 seems happy). Water temp=72°F. CYA (hate that test) now reads 50. Flow at 2000 RPM is ~30 GPM. I restarted the SWG cell at ~5 pm to run overnight at 80%. No flow faults (checked multiple times over the evening). Bubbles being produced. I have passed 2 successive OCLT tests. My FC/CYA ratio is nearly 20%, so I don't think any algae has had a chance to creep into the pool. So if all goes according to plan, when I check tomorrow at 7 am (14 hr runtime), the RJ60 should have added:

~4 ppm FC if output is truly 3.1 lb/24 hr as Circupool claims: total FC ~13.5
~3 ppm FC if output is more in line with the (verified) Pentair output (2.1 lb/24 hr): total FC ~12.5

I'll update results tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
 
Thanks for posting your questions and results. Please keep posting your results.

I am also going thru this same thing. We just converted to SJ55 and fired it up on Monday evening. Ran it at 75% for 9 hours and it only brought the FC up 1ppm overnight. I bumped it to 100% last night and it ran for 9 hours. It brought the FC up 2ppm. This morning, I bumped the FC with liquid to 7 and I turned the pump on to run all day while I'm at work and set it to run at 50% to see what happens during the daylight/sun. Tonight I will do the OCLT to see if I have anything going on and need to slam. Pool has been open and balanced with no problems for a month, so I don't think I will be seeing FC loss overnight. We did have guests who applied sunscreen several times while swimming Monday afternoon, so I was thinking maybe my FC loss was possibly fighting that. My CYA was at 50 and I added stabilizer last night that should bring it up to 60. Once it levels off, I will add more to ultimately bring the CYA up to 70. After dosing with liquid chlorine for 6 years and keeping my CYA at 40, it is hard for me to raise that CYA to 70!!!!

I'm hoping it's just a matter of playing with this thing to figure it out. I normally run my pump at night, just because I think it's easier on the equipment to run when it's cooler, but does it make more sense to run it during the day to keep the steady flow of chlorine generating since the CYA level is higher?
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
lmnconn said:
Thanks for posting your questions and results. Please keep posting your results.

I am also going thru this same thing. We just converted to SJ55 and fired it up on Monday evening. Ran it at 75% for 9 hours and it only brought the FC up 1ppm overnight. I bumped it to 100% last night and it ran for 9 hours. It brought the FC up 2ppm. This morning, I bumped the FC with liquid to 7 and I turned the pump on to run all day while I'm at work and set it to run at 50% to see what happens during the daylight/sun. Tonight I will do the OCLT to see if I have anything going on and need to slam. Pool has been open and balanced with no problems for a month, so I don't think I will be seeing FC loss overnight. We did have guests who applied sunscreen several times while swimming Monday afternoon, so I was thinking maybe my FC loss was possibly fighting that. My CYA was at 50 and I added stabilizer last night that should bring it up to 60. Once it levels off, I will add more to ultimately bring the CYA up to 70. After dosing with liquid chlorine for 6 years and keeping my CYA at 40, it is hard for me to raise that CYA to 70!!!!

I'm hoping it's just a matter of playing with this thing to figure it out. I normally run my pump at night, just because I think it's easier on the equipment to run when it's cooler, but does it make more sense to run it during the day to keep the steady flow of chlorine generating since the CYA level is higher?
Click to expand...
I think things are on the right track in our pool. I've been running the RJ60 at 25% (VSP runs at low speed 24/7) and have been maintaining an FC of 5. Not sure what was going on earlier. Never had evidence of algae or a bad OCLT, but now it seems to be working. I'll admit I panicked and ordered some lanthanum chloride for phosphates (in case I needed to trouble shoot with the manufacturer), but now I'm going to see if I can return it. It seems you are on the right track to do the OCLT, but I bet you it's fine. Has anyone ever heard of a "break-in" period for SWGs? In any case, all is well now, but it is unsatisfying because I still feel like I didn't figure anything out. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
To my knowledge there is no 'break in' period for a SWCG. Mine worked straight away.

I suggest using this SWG Run Time Calculator. If you know your FC loss per day, use that. If you don't, start at 3ppm FC loss. Use your pump run time and how much chlorine your SWCG can generate in 24 hours at 100% and input into the calculator.

Take care.
 
My normal FC loss is 3ppm when my CYA was at 40. Plugging in the numbers into the SWG Run Time Calculator shows higher FC production than what I am getting from my SJ55. That is part of my reason for concern.
Yesterday morning, I bumped the FC up to 7 with LC and ran the pump all day at 50%. 10 hours later, around 5 pm, I checked and had 5.5 FC. So, my loss was minimal, but it was cloudy most of the day, and my CYA is now at 60.

By 9PM, my FC was at 6.5. That is when I shut off the pump to do the OCLT. This morning at 6AM, my FC is at 5.5. So, I lost 1ppm overnight.
While that is within range and water is clear, I’m still thinking about slamming? I haven’t started though. I would need to stock up on more chlorine. What are thoughts on this?

Currently, I have turned the pump on to run at 75% and will check numbers again this evening. It is supposed to be cloudy and possible rain on and off today.
I might be overthinking all of this and not ready to trust the SWG after maintaing pool for 5 years myself with LC and no problems with algae, ever.
 
This is interesting to me. Early this season I was going through the same thing. It seemed like my RJ60+ wasn't generating nearly the chlorine I would expect. I slammed, did OCLT, all fine, still didn't seem to be generating much.

But now that my FC is down around 4 or 5 and my CYA back up to 70, and now I'm only running 15% for 6 hours a day and it's just fine. I'm not sure what changed other than lower FC and higher water temperature.

FWIW based on my math and estimations and experience, the 3.1 lbs seems about right to me.
 
FWIW, I've been maintaining 5-5.5 FC with a CYA of 70 for a week or so with the RJ60+ running at 25% (24/7). Previously, I was metering about 96 oz of 13% bleach per day which was about spot on for a 2 ppm/day loss. The SWG runtime calculator says I would need 4.5 hrs of runtime to replace 2 ppm of FC/day (assuming 3.1 lb/day). That means 19% runtime per 24hr. So I'm not that far out of range. I might try 20% and see if FC levels remain acceptable for a CYA of 70. I'll report back.
 
Jay, great thread about a changeover from liquid dosing to SWG. I will be doing the same on Thursday by having the Astral E35 SWG installed. Is there anything that you could recommend or do differently when changing from liquid to salt?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply