Re-Learning Pool Care after using an SWCG

[Pleasantsurprise]

New to the Forum. I have owned a pool for about 9 years, and until recently it was salt water. In early May, I drained the pool and decided not to bring it back up as salt water. I disconnected the SWG and have been using straight chlorine. So far, so good. My blond girl's hair has not turned green and I have not heard any complaints. Balancing the PH has been much easier and I think that is allowing me to keep the chlorine levels good/low.

I am not sure yet on the long term cost differential on SWG vs Chlorine. As much as the family has enjoyed the salt water buying the cells every few years has been expensive.

My Pool:

14,000 gallon Pebbletech
Depth is 3-5-3
1 HP Pentair Whisperflo Pump
Pop up heads

I live in the Arizona desert, and the pool is surrounded by desert trees that drop debris year round (Mesquite, palo verde, acacia, sissoo)


Any advice or opinions are welcome.

[Watermom]

Most people, like you, think it is chlorine that turns blonde hair green but in fact, it is copper that does so, not chlorine.

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

[Pleasantsurprise]

Most people, like you, think it is chlorine that turns blonde hair green but in fact, it is copper that does so, not chlorine.

And, I also learned from a quick Google search that copper is commonly found in algaecides. That makes sense. Thank you for clearing that up :).

[Watermom]

You are welcome. And, you're right about the algaecides often having copper. The only algaecide we recommend is 60% Polyquat.

[PoolDoc]

. . . membership updated.

Bits and pieces:

+ "salt" is just a METHOD of delivering chlorine to your pool. If you had a salt system, you WERE chlorinating your pool. By chance, did you have an ionizer system that was adding copper?

+ Chlorine levels need to be matched to stabilizer levels. The cl-cya page explains more, but "low chlorine" is only a good thing if your stabilizer level is also low. See http://pool9.net/cl-cya/

+ The cornerstone of our approach to pools is the idea that YOU need to accurately measure your pool's chemistry. What people forget is that poolstore's BENEFIT from bad testing, because it leads to dosing errors, which leads to more problems, which leads to more dosing and chemical sales! It's true that a few pool stores do provide accurate AND free testing, but what's also true is that EVERY pool store has a huge financial incentive to provide free testing to seems accurate, but is not!

You need your own kit -- we call test strips 'guess-strips' for a reason: http://pool9.net/tk/

+ You don't need a kit if you are very, very lucky. Extremely luck works better than testing, but we're here to help the pool owners who aren't extremely lucky.