My Saltwater Pool Has No Chlorine
free available chlorine - 0 waterph- 8.7 total alkalinity 90 cyanuric acid - 0 calcium hardness - 150 salt - 4100 What's the best way to fix the numbers? This is a new system about 5 months old. Thanks, Velvet Thanks for the question Velvet First item of business is to add acid to get the pH down to an acceptable range. 7.2 - 7.4ppm is what you'll want to do. When the pool is balanced out, you can allow the pH to go to 7.6 - 7.8ppm. Not having the pool size I can't say how much you need, but you can go to these pH pages. They have the charts you need for your size pool. Swimming Pool pH Levels Pool pH About 2 hours after adding the pool acid, you'll want to turn OFF the salt water generator (SWG) and shock with Dichlor. This is a stabilized form of chlorine and will raise both the CYA and chlorine. Swimming Pool Chlorine Pool Shock Pool Chlorine Be careful when using Dichlor as it can get out of hand quickly. For every 10ppm of chlorine added with Dichlor, you'll raise the CYA by 9ppm. For every 10ppm of chlorine added with Trichlor tabs you'll raise the CYA by 6ppm. I'd encourage you to get a Taylor FAS-DPD K-2006 pool test kit. Pool Water Testing Water Testing Kit Be sure you're manually testing your salt against any reading from the SWG and cleaning it correctly. Salt Water Swimming Pools Chlorine Generator Be sure that your salt level is in line with the manufacturer's recommendations. Too low and the salt cell won't produce chlorine. Too high and you might burn up the cell. Once you've reached 30 - 50ppm for the CYA, stop using Dichlor and start using the SWG again. You'll want to make adjustments in the evening then retest in the morning to see how the chlorine is holding. Allow for one full turnover of the water which is normally about 8 - 10 hours before tests. Keep filtering 24/7. If you haven't dialed in the SWG yet, after the water is balanced would be a good time to do so. Start at about 30% and work from there. It may take a few days to get it right but you'll know when you have a consistent 1.5 - 3.5ppm of chlorine in the pool. If the chlorine dips down a bit, you can manually dose the pool with a little chlorine to get it back to the right level, them work on the SWG again. The alkalinity and hardness are fine so don't touch those. 80 - 100ppm for the alkalinity and 150 - 250ppm for the hardness. If you want, you can use a PolyQuat 60 algaecide during this process just as a little backup against any possible algae blooms. Once the pool is balanced out, there's really no reason to continue using an algaecide. The chlorine's job is to kill off any algae and bacteria. To post a reply, or if you have a similar question, you can see your post on the Q&A page in the "Salt Water Pools" category. Swimming Pool Questions and Answers Check back to this post for answers. Hope this helps and have a great Summer. Robert |
