It's absolutely okay to shock your salt water pool, and is actually pretty important! Running your pool's super-chlorinate feature too often is hard on the motor and will cause it to wear out faster. The super-chlorinate feature will not always kill all the algae or clean up the pool water as effectively as pool shock.
Adding salt, without a SWG, gives the water what many people describe as a silky feel, but it doesn't give you any of the other advantages of a SWG. For example you can't use lower FC levels with salt the way you can with a SWG.
There is no set timeframe of when you need to add salt to your pool. Because salt does not dissipate from your water, the only time you would add salt to your pool is when you add fresh water or after heavy rain that dilutes salinity levels.
But essentially you do just pour salt into the pool, a lot of salt. How much salt to add to the pool? To reach the initial salt level recommended by the salt system manufacturer (usually 2400-3200 ppm), you will need to add about 200 lbs of pure pool grade salt (NaCl), per 10,000 gallons of water.
The Orderly Addition of ChemicalsChemicals that affect the levels of pH and alkalinity need to be added to the swimming pool first. Getting the pH and total alkalinity sorted out will allow for the addition of further chemicals that affect the hardness and cleanliness of the water.
Here are the essential chemicals for keeping your pool clean and beautiful:
- pH.
- Calcium Hardness.
- Total Alkalinity.
- Metals.
- Chlorine.
- Bromine.
- Shock Treatments.
- Algaecide.
Most common swimming pool chemicals are incompatible with each other and should never be mixed. Mixing of organic chlorinating agents (such as trichloroisocyanuric acid) and inorganic chlorinating agents (such as sodium hypochlorite) can lead to fires, explosions and chlorine gas release.
At first you'll add chlorine in what's called “shock” levels – an extra heavy dose to start your pool off. Ensure all equipment like pool cleaners and pool covers are removed during this process. Addressing Alkalinity in Your Pool. Now it's time to keep the water hardness in check, otherwise known as alkalinity.
It may take up to 6 or 7 two day cycles for the water to start looking clear.
Check the chlorine content of your water at regular intervals, preferably weekly. The ideal value is between 1 and 1.5 mg per litre of water (> 1 ppm and < 1.5 ppm).
It's often recommended to shock your pool once a week. If you don't do it every week, you should at least do it every other week. This is necessary to maintain your pool's water chemistry. If you have a lot of people over in your pool or have a party, you may want to shock your pool more frequently.
Although, if you overdo the shock treatment, you risk getting green hair from chlorine due to the excess chlorine oxidizing the copper in the water. You can execute a shock treatment with a few different types of pool shock, just be mindful of how much you're using.
For safe swimming conditions, the ideal salt level is going to be between 2500 ppm and 4000 ppm. An overly salted pool will generally not be a major problem (aside from salty-tasting water), but at levels over 6000 ppm there may be corrosion damage to some of the metallic equipment.
Lbs of Salt Needed to Obtain 3500 ppm in a Pool
| Pool Size in Gallons |
|---|
| Current Salt Level (ppm) | 10,000 | 25,000 |
|---|
| 1000 | 209 | 521 |
| 1250 | 188 | 469 |
| 1500 | 167 | 417 |
Add Salt. The granulated salt used in a saltwater pool can be as simple as regular table salt, but not the iodized version. Somewhere between 2,500 and 4,000 parts per million keeps pools clean and healthy for swimming.
Saltwater pools often use salt chlorinators which can promote a high pH if not carefully monitored. The pH in chlorine pools can increase naturally over time or as a result of too many pool chemicals. High pH can also be caused by regularly using calcium or lithium hypochlorite chlorine products in the water.
The only way to lower the salt concentration of your swimming pool's water is to dilute it. Unfortunately, this means you will need to partially drain your pool and refill it with fresh water. This is true because salt doesn't wear out, break down or evaporate; only your water will evaporate.
Here are some of the pros and cons of converting to a saline pool system. Maintaining your saline pool is easier than maintaining a chlorinated pool. Because your salt system converts the salt to the needed chlorine, you are not having to constantly add more chlorine to your pool. This makes maintenance much easier.
As a general rule, you should be backwashing your pool about once a week or in conjugation with your scheduled maintenance. Another industry standard is to backwash when your filter's pressure gauge reads 8-10 PSI (pounds per square inch) over the starting level or “clean” pressure.
Do you have to drain a saltwater pool every year? It depends on a few factors. If you close your pool yearly, draining and refilling fresh water is necessary. Another factor to consider is the water chemistry when you add more, also add total dissolved solid, requiring you to drain and refill.
7 Steps to Winterize Your Saltwater Pool
- Step 1: Clean.
- Step 2: Test Salt Levels.
- Step 3: Balance Chemicals.
- Step 4: Add Anti-Staining & Winterizing Agents.
- Step 5: Add Enzymes.
- Step 6: Winterizing the SWC, Filter, Skimmer, and Plumbing.
- Step 7: Cover Your Pool for the Winter.
While green algae are endemic in salt water pools, they are the easiest to kill. Green algae tend to grow during summers when the temperatures can get high. They float freely in the pool, making the water green. You might even see them growing on the bottom of the pool, on the walls, or in the crevices.
A salt water pool isn't better than a chlorine pool because it IS a chlorine pool. Saltwater pools electrically convert the pool salt into chlorine. It's the chlorine that keeps the pool water clean just like the chlorine you buy in buckets.
Run your system to run for 8-12 hours a day and set the chlorine output on the generator to 50%. After testing and determining the free chlorine readings over a few days, adjust the output on the generator only.
A salt water pool typically costs $50–$100 per year to maintain. Compare this to traditional chlorine pools, which cost $250–$300 per year. Replacing the cell unit costs $700–$900 every 3–7 years.
