Newbie With Salt Water Question

[beachrover]

We just had our pool installed about a month ago. It is approximately 29,000 gallons, vinyl liner, with a salt water system (Pentair). Our pool contractor told me not to worry about the water, that he would maintain it for the first year as part of his package (he's also one of my neighbors).

Anyway, last week we had about 3 days in a row that the temperature hit 100. Monday evening the kids jumped in the pool and they said it felt "slimey". I jumped in and they were right, you could hardly stand up and the walls felt the same way. I called the contractor, he came over and switched the pool to "super chlorinate". He said he had it programmed to run for a few hours like that and the water would be fine the next day.

Last night, the kids jump in and again they said it still felt slimey. I felt the walls and they were right.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

[dymondgeezer]

We just had our pool installed about a month ago. It is approximately 29,000 gallons, vinyl liner, with a salt water system (Pentair). Our pool contractor told me not to worry about the water, that he would maintain it for the first year as part of his package (he's also one of my neighbors).

Anyway, last week we had about 3 days in a row that the temperature hit 100. Monday evening the kids jumped in the pool and they said it felt "slimey". I jumped in and they were right, you could hardly stand up and the walls felt the same way. I called the contractor, he came over and switched the pool to "super chlorinate". He said he had it programmed to run for a few hours like that and the water would be fine the next day.

Last night, the kids jump in and again they said it still felt slimey. I felt the walls and they were right.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Welcome to pool ownership! Let the fun begin.....

While it's nice of your neighbour to offer to maintain your pool for the first year, I suggest you learn all you can about pool maintenance.

Visit this site

Slimy bottom & sides? Sounds like algae starting up. Explains the Super chlorinate setting on the SWG.

Again, the more you learn about the pool, the better equiped you will be to deal with it.

There are plenty of posts on this forum dealing with algae so I'll spare a repeat.

Good luck!

[gutsrus]

Monday evening the kids jumped in the pool and they said it felt "slimey". I jumped in and they were right, you could hardly stand up and the walls felt the same way. I called the contractor, he came over and switched the pool to "super chlorinate". He said he had it programmed to run for a few hours like that and the water would be fine the next day.

Last night, the kids jump in and again they said it still felt slimey. I felt the walls and they were right.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Did he supply you with a test kit?

Did he add any stabilizer (Cyanuric Acid) to the pool? As I understand it, the CYA level in a Salt system pool needs to be about 80 ppm in order to absorb and hold the chlorine put out by the generator. Regular chlorine tablets are "stabilized", meaning they have CYA mixed in. Your system will not generate any CYA, so it must be added manually.

Take a sample (about a cup) of water to the local pool supply store and ask them to test your stabilizer level. I'd bet it's close to nothing, or the chlorine generator isn't working. If it is and you have stabilizer, the chlorine level should hold fairly well, even in the heat. If you need stabilizer, the pool store can sell you some, but don't get too much in there, as you'll have to drain and replace to bring the level down. It doesn't go away on a regular basis.

Sometimes, builders aren't the best maintainers, at least in my limited experience.

It sounds like you need a good pool guy, or a good education, which is usually easier to get than the former. IMHO, nobody's gonna care for your pool like it's their own, except you....

[chem geek]

In an SWG pool, you need to have a minimum Free Chlorine (FC) level of at least 5% of the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level. So at the recommended CYA level of 80 ppm, you need at least 4 ppm FC. The 1-3 ppm FC recommendation from SWG manufacturers is NOT sufficient to prevent algae growth.

The other possibility is that your CYA level is too low and your SWG is undersized and cannot keep up with the FC loss due to sunlight. Raising the CYA level to the 60-80 ppm recommended range for an SWG pool would help lower the FC loss, even at the higher absolute FC level of 3-4 ppm (for 60-80 ppm CYA).

[gutsrus]

In an SWG pool, you need to have a minimum Free Chlorine (FC) level of at least 5% of the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level. So at the recommended CYA level of 80 ppm, you need at least 4 ppm FC. The 1-3 ppm FC recommendation from SWG manufacturers is NOT sufficient to prevent algae growth.

But my test kit only goes to 3.0 ppm. How do I maintain and test for 4?

So, if 4.0 with 80ppm CYA WILL prevent algae growth, does that mean I won't need to shock with supplemental chlorine?

[wrabon]

I have an SWG and up until this year (my pool is 3 yrs. old) never had to shock with chlorine. However, this year in SC it got really hot really quick. Although my FC level was around 4ppm, I still developed an algae outbreak, and my pool turned very green. My CYA had gotten down to around 60, which is a little low for an SWG pool and probably contributed to my chlroine to lowering some and the algae catching quick. I had to learn a lot really quick about shocking with plain old bleach and was able to solve my problem with the help of this forum (especially chem geek).

Get a Taylor test kit so that you can test higher levels of FC and get better results on all other tests, too. The green hasn't shown up yet. So if you get your CYA up and keep your SWG running on superchlorinate for a few days, you may be able to get rid fo the sliminess. I wasn't that lucky this year and had to shock. But considering my pool is 3 year old, I think I've had a great results and have not regretted my SWG at all.

Get that Taylor test kit, get that CYA up to 80, and keep the SWG running on superchlorinate. But if you don't get the CYA up, the SWG won't be able to keep the chlorine levels up enough to get rid of the slime or to keep an algae outbreak from happening.

Good luck!

[jkusmier]

Get that Taylor test kit, get that CYA up to 80, and keep the SWG running on superchlorinate. But if you don't get the CYA up, the SWG won't be able to keep the chlorine levels up enough to get rid of the slime or to keep an algae outbreak from happening.

Good luck!

Respectfully disagree. Don't set your IntellChlor to superchlorinate. You want keep your SWG's output as low as possible - the more it runs, the shorter it will last (they aren't cheap to replace). Stock up on 4-5 x 2 gallon jugs of 6% generic, unscented bleach. SWGs are great, but don't depend on them to superchlorinate/"shock" your pool.

Definitely agree that you should buy a good-quality test kit (I use a Taylor K-2006). No substitute for knowing exactly what's going on w/ your pool.

[wrabon]

No, I'm certainly not saying keep it on superchlorinate forever and my post actually said to do that for only a few days. Mine has a 24-hour boost option which will only superchorinate for a 24-hour period, which I have used in the past to deal with a minor slime issue and it worked without me having to shock it with bleach.

However, if it is a full algae breakout, you will need to use regular unscented chlorox bleach to shock it. However, if you don't get your CYA up to 80 ppm, your SWG is not going to be as effective as it's supposed to be.

Like I said, this was the first year I had to supplement/shock with bleach, but it's also the first year my CYA got down below 80 due to some heavy rain and having to backwash.