Too much salt?

[chris_r11]

Hello,

the pool builder put in salt a week or so ago. I took a water sample to the local leslie's and was told that my salt level is 5100 and that it is way too high and that I need to drain part of our pool and refill to get the level down.

The person put in about 9 bags of salt at 50# each. The AquaPure says that the salt level is 3200 (but I have heard that they are not accurate).

Also, the Leslis's guy let the test sit for about 10 minutes while he was on the phone and I don't know if that can throw the test strip he used off.

What do you think? The pool is about 20K gallons (from what I was told) and the only salt in there before was from chemicals used to start up the pool and the city of San Jose water.

Thanks,

Chris

[JohnT]

400# salt in 20,000 gallons of water comes out to about 2400ppm.

I'd go to a different store or get your own kit.

[Phillbo]

I agree.. get another sample .. I added about 9 bags to my pool and am at 3200ppm...

[GraceByDesign]

Let's not forget that if a test strip was used, the results are probably quite inaccurate.

[Poolsean]

Chris,

Is this a new pool or newly refilled pool? IF your pool is 20,000 gallons, every 50 lbs of salt you add should increase the salt level 30 ppm. This will help determine if you truely have 20,000 gallons.
Regarding the test strip being in the water sample for 10 minutes. If this is a Quantab strip, where the center strip turns to a lighter color while the top horizontal strip turns dark, this is acceptable if it sits in the water sample anywhere from 4 to 10 minutes. Once the top strip turns dark, the test is good to compare. And as long as this is tested indoors, the strip will not fluctuate much, even after leaving it in the solution for more than 10 minutes.
While I agree with Grace that strips are probably quite inaccurate, I would also qualify that with, as long as the strips are maintain dry, they should be fine. If the strips are not handled properly, then you can have inaccuracies.

[Socal_biker]

I put 9 ½ bags of 40# (~375 lbs) salt for my 15,000 gallon pool to get to 3100 ppm.

10 bags of 50# for 20K pool doesn't sound like it should be that high.

[chem geek]

IF your pool is 20,000 gallons, every 50 lbs of salt you add should increase the salt level 30 ppm.
I believe this is a typo and should be "300 ppm" since 50 pounds of salt in 20,000 gallons raises the salt level by 300 ppm. So 9 bags each with 50# of salt would result in adding 2700 ppm of salt. Chris' initial salt level from the initial calcium hardness and pH adjustment is probably around 350 ppm so the total salt would be expected to be close to 3050 ppm (the salt test actually measures just the chloride ion level, but reports this as ppm sodium chloride "salt" equivalent).

Richard

[Poolsean]

Sorry, my bad. I have one of those DARN sticky keyboards!!! = P

Richard has corrected me...it is 300 ppm per 50lb bag in a 20,000 gallon pool.

You can calculate the approximate pool volume just by the increase in salt level for any pool.

Take your before and after salt levels, but remember to allow enough time for the salt to circulate throughout the pool before taking the "after" salt reading.

Plug in the results:
(3000/salt increase x amount of salt added) / 0.025 = pool volume in gallons

[chris_r11]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I guess I will get a Taylor salt test kit and see how the results come out.

It was a strip he used. he put the water and the test strip in some "device" and then took off for awhile. I was not really paying attention until he said the salt was at 5100 and I should drain half the pool.

Is the taylor k1766 (or something like that) the salt test kit to get?

Thanks!
Chris

[chem geek]

Is the taylor k1766 (or something like that) the salt test kit to get?
Yes, the Taylor K-1766 is the one to get.

[chris_r11]

Well, I received my Taylor kit yesterday and took a salt reading.

It came out to 4400. I remember the person that came out called in to the shop before adding the salt and I overheard him saying that there already was "salt" in the pool (he did a test) and how much should he add. They told him to add all 10, but he told me he stopped at 9 and I could add that one if necessary later.

So, I suppose my pool is somewhat smaller than 20K gallons but I don't know how much salt was in there from the city water and it being balanced.

with a salt level of 4400, should I just let it go through the winter and see if some gets washed out or should I try to correct it now? Who knows, maybe I will have to drain the pool during the downpore or 2 we usually get in January (I was promised an overflow, but they did not install one, but that is another story :mad: ).

Chris

[Socal_biker]

Well for 18 yrs I thought my pool was ~18K gallons.

Only this year did I measured the volume of water going in when I filled it last. It was actually ~15K.

[tphaggerty]

Not sure where you live. Here in the northeast, we will probably get between 15 and 20" of precip between now and opening in the spring, so if it was me, I would leave it!

[dawndenise]

My own pool of about 17K gallons is running with 3800-3900 PPM salt right now. It had been up to 4100 after I had a run-in with mustard/yellow algae and had to do mega-chlorinations with bleach, which added to my salt level.

Time, splashouts from my waterfall and a "rain drain" have all combined to reduce my salt level. As long as my system is not flashing "high salt" at me, I'm just leaving it alone.

For my own pool, my initial level of salt in the pool came from the bleach I had been using to manually chlorinate the pool prior to the SWCG becoming operational. I tested my city water and it did not register any salt on my test (PS 234S).