salt water pool in AZ

[PoolDoc]

If you are feeling experimental, you could try lime-softening, which involves pushing the pH up over 10 with soda ash, precipitating the calcium as calcium carbonate, cleaning the System-3 beasts to remove the calcium, and then using muriatic to strip the excess alkalinity. Now that A&H washing soda is available at Walmart, it shouldn't be too expensive.

The Kem-Tek chemical developer says they've been doing this with Intex pool owners, and is willing to help me walk folks through the process. But it's not for beginners, till we've got it down. You'd need to turn off your SWCG and heater (if any) before starting. But, you should be able to take your calcium down to an arbitrarily low value, and remove most any stray metals in the water at the same time.

[steveinaz]

Ben,
When you say "calcium carbonate" is that the snowflake looking stuff?

[PoolDoc]

Calcium carbonate is just limestone or marble dust (used in plaster) -- it's not something you add to your pool. Rather it forms when you have excess carbonate ions (from sodium carbonate or bicarbonate), calcium ions (from calcium chloride flake or beads, calcium hypochlorite . . . or your pool's walls), all at a high-ish pH level.

Probably, you are thinking of calcium chloride. The dihydrate (77% calcium chloride) is a flake; the anhydrous (90+%) is usually beads. The dihydrate (chemically bound water) is far more commonly sold than the anhydrous (no water) material).

[Nomak2]

Was AFK for a couple of weeks. Neat to see the additional info. It's rubber meets the road time, as we are submitting for permits. I have to make a decision on what mfg of equipment we're going to specify. With the info I've seen in the forum, I feel more confident. Thank you.

[aylad]

Good luck with your project--let us know how it's going!!

[Nomak2]

Quick question - was just looking at Doc's review of SWCG on another post...what is the salt range and how important is it? I notice two manufacturers have a very wide range, while the majority have a much tighter range.

[aylad]

I'm not 100% sure of the answer, but I would say that the range is dependent on the unit. Each unit will specify the salt range necessary for it to work correctly. If the salt level is too low, then it won't produce the chlorine you need.
There are SWCG'ers around here that I'm sure will chime in and give you a more definitive answer, though....