Unable to balance Salt Water pool

kcherrix123 · Postby **kcherrix123** » Sun 01 Jul, 2012 10:03

Hello, I have an Intex above ground vinyl pool. It's 22' x 52" and holds 10,500 gal. of water. We filled the pool using our garden hose and set up the filter and salt water system. We added 240 lbs. of salt and the salt water pump is supposed to notify us if there isn't enough salt... it hasn't, so I assume the salt level is okay. We run the salt water system for 5 hours a day and the filter for 6 hours a day. The pool is crystal clear, the pump skimmer does a great job of keeping floating bugs and debris out of the pool and I only have to vacuum once a week. The sun beats down on the pool and the water is fairly warm because of the sun, we have to add about a 3 inches of water every 2-3 weeks and that cools it off. I have a decent test kit and the chlorine levels and cyanuric acid levels were reading 0. I added 4 lbs. of HtH Balancer to add cyanuric acid and it looks like it's reading good now, I think the "dot" disappears at 30-40 ppm. Still no evidence of chlorine. PH looks to be about 7.8 ppm, Alkaline is very high at 300 ppm, Hardness looks good at 350 ppm. How do I get my chlorine levels up without actually adding chlorine (salt water pool) and get the Alkaline down?

Postby **chem geek** » Sun 01 Jul, 2012 16:56

Assuming you're not using a DPD chlorine test kit where it can bleach out at high chlorine levels having you think there is no chlorine when it's actually high, I would add chlorinating liquid or bleach to kill off any nascent algae growth. Once you start getting a chlorine reading, you'll want to adjust the CYA higher and your FC target higher since your saltwater chlorine generator (SWCG) may not be large enough to keep up with loss from sunlight during the day and the higher CYA level helps with that. A lower TA will help keep the pH from rising as much and use of 50 ppm Borates helps as well. Read Water Balance for SWGs as well as other Pool School articles to learn more about maintaining your pool.

kcherrix123 · Postby **kcherrix123** » Tue 03 Jul, 2012 20:33

Thank you so much!

The test kit I have I have is one where you add pool water and drops to different tubes. I never trusted the test strips. I was looking for what "stuff" to add to add to get everything balanced. We are very, very rural and only have a Wal-Mart that sells HtH products. Hubs doesn't understand why we need to add chlorine to a salt pool when the point was to get away from chlorine and all the chemicals. I don't really understand any of it :-)

Postby **chem geek** » Tue 03 Jul, 2012 20:47

Once your situation is stable, you won't need to add chlorine manually, but right now you've got something out-of-whack and need to kill it off and the saltwater chlorine generator won't produce chlorine fast enough to do that. Just follow the procedures on how to Shock Your Pool and then adjust the water parameters for your SWCG (the link I gave earlier). While you are at it, you can read other items in the Pool School and see about maybe getting a FAS-DPD chlorine test kit. The test adding drops and comparing pink/red color to a standard can bleach out at higher FC levels and isn't as accurate and obviously not good for measuring shock levels of chlorine.

skrodgers · Postby **skrodgers** » Sat 26 Jul, 2014 15:38

chem geek wrote:Assuming you're not using a DPD chlorine test kit where it can bleach out at high chlorine levels having you think there is no chlorine when it's actually high, I would add chlorinating liquid or bleach to kill off any nascent algae growth. Once you start getting a chlorine reading, you'll want to adjust the CYA higher and your FC target higher since your saltwater chlorine generator (SWCG) may not be large enough to keep up with loss from sunlight during the day and the higher CYA level helps with that. A lower TA will help keep the pH from rising as much and use of 50 ppm Borates helps as well. Read Water Balance for SWGs as well as other Pool School articles to learn more about maintaining your pool.

So it is ok for me to add bleach to above intex saltwater pool? If so how much? Our pool is 16000 gallons. FAC and TAC bot 0. It goes from cloudy to green overnight. I have to work on it everyday and would much rather be in the pool relaxing. Thanks!!