Wife just fired my pool guy - Want to make sure I am on right track cause plan on going it myself

[Jason245]

Sounds just about right to me! As your CYA level stabilizes you are starting to see the subtle effect of tweaking the SWG output on CL production. And you can also adjust your run time too. You may also notice your pH creeping up. It seems to be a natural side effect of the SWG process. Just control as necessary with MA. The next challenge will be to see how you adjust to the next big rain and dilution. Here in CA we don't get much rain in the summer months, not enough to worry about having to drain the pool. This was the first year since putting in the SWG 15 years ago that we got late May rain storms and I had to fire up the siphon to drain some water out of the pool after I had already opened and got everything dialed in. I had to rebalance my salt/CYA/other stuff it was like a mini pool opening..

It rains almost daily here, but the sun it brutal.

I have my SWG running about 12 hours a day right now (7:30AM to 7:30PM) (I figured I am better off having it produce more chlorine than less at this stage).

Once I am confident that my CYA is about 70 (which looks like Ideal per the chart), I will then start tweeking to a FC level of about 5 by reducing my SWG down 5% a day or so. If I hit 50%, I plan on looking into reducing the pool run time.

End Goal being a SWG that runs ~50% and whatever run time is needed to sustain that.

 

[mguzzy]

It rains almost daily here, but the sun it brutal.
...

I remember.. but if I recall its lots of little showers and you can probably accommodate that in your pool water level. How often do you get tropical systems that dump a lot and require you to drain your pool? That's what I was talking about.

 

[kimmielea]

The CYA is protecting the chlorine from being burned up by the sun as quickly.
Also, with a CYA of 70, you should be maintaing Chlorine between 8 and 10 ppm and NEVER let it drop below 5 ppm. Chlorine/CYA Chart

 

[Jason245]

The CYA is protecting the chlorine from being burned up by the sun as quickly.
Also, with a CYA of 70, you should be maintaing Chlorine between 8 and 10 ppm and NEVER let it drop below 5 ppm. Chlorine/CYA Chart

It says target is 5 with minimum being 3 for swg.. I am confused..can someone help clarify which part of chart I should be using or following.. I dont want to go wrong.

 

[Jason245]

I remember.. but if I recall its lots of little showers and you can probably accommodate that in your pool water level. How often do you get tropical systems that dump a lot and require you to drain your pool? That's what I was talking about.

If I knew how many of those I would get I would be a rich weather man.. anywhere from 0 to 8 a year.. lol

 

[JoeSelf]

You are correct. Minimum of 5 for SWG @ CYA 70. I would aim 5 at the end of the day after sun is down and no more run time. But that is the minumum you would want. Just me, but I would stop at 6, I like to have extra buffer.

 

[mguzzy]

If I knew how many of those I would get I would be a rich weather man.. anywhere from 0 to 8 a year.. lol

Well there ya go.. its not an insignificant number.... you'll have to go through that process between 0 and 8 times a year.. I did it for my first time in 15 years..just sayn'
Oh.. and my pool store used to make a big deal about filtration run time.. I basically have realized I can ignore that. I will have plenty of filtration time based on what my SWG needs to generate CL. And I have a single speed pump still.

 

[Jason245]

You are correct. Minimum of 5 for SWG @ CYA 70. I would aim 5 at the end of the day after sun is down and no more run time. But that is the minumum you would want. Just me, but I would stop at 6, I like to have extra buffer.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[kimmielea]

My fault... I completely forgot that there is a seperate chart. I, unfortunately, don't own a swg. Sorry

 

[Jason245]

So as a follow up: I seem to have found myself in a war of attrition with my pools ph. I bring it down to 7.4 and within 2 or 3 days it has worked it's way back up to around 7.8 to higher ( I have some difficuly differentiating between 7.8 and 8.0+ reading, but acid demand test usually brings is down to 7.4 within 1 or 2 drops)

Can someone help confirm that this is normal for a swg pool or if It might be an indicator that something is wrong. (E.g. pool raising by 0.2 ph a day)

 

[kimkats]

Jason, Can you please post a full set of current test results. I am really interested in the TA but having them all will be helpful.

 

[Jason245]

Jason, Can you please post a full set of current test results. I am really interested in the TA but having them all will be helpful.

Yeah.. I plan on doing a full set in a couple of days.

Ta is what I was thinking but I didnt have time to run it tonight. I am going to be out of pocket for next couple of days so Sunday I will do a full set.

I am just trying to baseline my swg experience with others cause at beginning of week my ta was around 90..

I know that the swg naturally raises ph...

 

[Chickinvic]

At some point you'll learn what your pool does daily, taking into account bather load and sun. You won't have to test daily to know that on a day with normal sun but no bathers you have to add xx amount to get back to target. If people swim, maybe you normally have to add an extra ppm or so.

Most of us only test a couple/few times a week and on non-testing days just go add what we normally do. I'm a 4 cup doser. It might be .5 cups too much, or maybe .5 cups too little but when you aim for target you've usually got a little grace and won't fall below minimum if you're keeping track of outliers such as extra swimmers.

With a SWCG I don't really add anything. I run the SWG about 30 - 40%. I added salt and stabilizer at the beginning of the season, and I just added a bit of murat in acid as PH has crept up a bit, but that was the first thing I've had to add in about a month. I test the chlorine and PH a few times a week. Last year I was much more religious about testing everything, but this year I'm a bit more relaxed about it.

 

[Jason245]

As a follow up:

Based on testing done today:

FC: Between 5.0-5.5 (Turned at Drop 11)
CC 0
PH ~7.8 (1 drop brings it down to 7.6)
TA 70PPM
CYA between 50 and 60 it becomes hard to see dot once I hit between 40 and 50 it becomes impossible to read. I have really good vision so wonder if I am being anal ( I was holding at hip level with back to sun (well back to brightest part of cloud cover lol), but either way I added about 1.25LB of CYA which should raise it by between 10 and 20 PPM which for my SWG pool should be fine based on the charts.

CH: Between 160 and 170 (I am pretty sure I need to add some of this.)

I am holding off on adding Acid, until tomorrow testing, but assume I need to increase CH.

What are your thoughts?

 

[mknauss]

No reason to lower pH. If it reaches 8, lower to 7.6.

You should keep CH at 200+

 

[kimkats]

CYA test................do not look for the dot. GLANCE in only. If you see it at a quick GLANCE them pour to the next line. You can also retest that sample by pouring it back and forth until you get good at it!

Kim

 

[mguzzy]

CYA test................do not look for the dot. GLANCE in only. If you see it at a quick GLANCE them pour to the next line. You can also retest that sample by pouring it back and forth until you get good at it!

Kim

Do not look at the man behind the curtain.. only GLANCE at him.

 

[Jason245]

I had lasic.. 20/15 vision. Even at a glance I see the dot.. once this bit of cya dissolves I will see where I stand and go from there. I have been purposely doing less just to be on safe side.

 

[Tena]

I'm on swg also and my ph likes to climb. It's my understanding that high alkalinity does not help. So I have my alkalinity down and my ph is still climbing, slower tho. I'm considering adding borate to tame it a bit.
Still studying that idea...

 

[Fuldo]

Is this pool in a screened enclosure like many pools in Florida? If so, please realize that the screening reduces sun exposure by about 50%. Also, a typical screened pool in Florida is very close to the house so the house often shades the pool for a significant part of the day, further reducing sun exposure. I've found that CYA values as low as 40 or so work fine in that situation and chlorine consumption is still minimal, in my case about 36 ounces of 10% liquid chlorine a day in the worst part of the summer. I've now converted to SWG and with CYA 40 I can run my RJ30 at 40-45% for only 8 hours a day and keep my FC in the 4.5-6.5 range. That seems to be a sweet spot for this pool. My acid consumption is rather low as well, partially as a result of my TA being kept on the low end.