Combine SWCG and Tri-Chlor Floatie?

[Jimmy C]

Thanks Waterbear,

Well I do have a leak that I cannot find, and I seem to be losing about 300 ppm salt per month which also suggests about 10% of my water over the same time. My sprinkler system fills up the pool 2X per week for now. This is more than evaporation since the salt PPM does not go up as the water level drops. It does drop as expected after topping up the water though.

As to rising PH with a SWCG pool, I thought it had to do with this:

NACL + 2H2O -> HOCL + NaOH + 2H2

(result is: hypochlorous acid + sodium hydroxide + hydrogen gas)

http://poolnerd.com/2007/03/29/salt-...ne-generators/

So the SWCG literally pours a strong base, sodium hydroxide into the pool. The pool folks selling a SWG will even argue that their SWG cells do not produce hydrogen gas, and that any gas bubbles in the return jets are the result of a plumbing leak.

Nice H2 bombs:
http://www.youtube.com/user/griffcre.../1/GJLiXCKts-o

So for now I have resorted to Tri-chlor pucks in my floaty to help keep the CYA more stable, and to take some of the burden off my SWCG.

I will get serious concerning the pool once the summer is over..

Jim

[waterbear]

the chemistry is incomplete in the reaction you posted. Chem geek gave an excellent explanation of the full chemistry in this post.
In a nutshell what is not taken into account is that when chlorine is broken down or used up the reaction is acidic so the net effect is pH neutral. Hydrogen gas is produced at the cathode of the SWCG and this causes aeration of the water that causes CO2 to outgas. It is this outgassing of CO2 that is responsible for the pH rise and can be controlled by lowering the TA to lower the amount of carbonation in the water. This post might help explain why.

Your leak is not normal pool operation with a SWCG so while trichlor migh be of some use in your case it would not be for the majority of salt pools.