socalKC,

Please don't be scared away by the sarcasm. The "TDS is bad" line is just common. You wanted information and the answer is that you do not need to worry about the TDS level, but you do need to make sure that your salt level (which really measures chlorides and reports it as ppm sodium chloride) is in the range that your SWG requires (varies by mfg. but usually around 3000-3500 ppm or so).

In a plaster/gunite pool with 100 ppm TA, 300 ppm CH and 30 ppm CYA, then the TDS will be at least 185 ppm above the salt level. Usually, it won't be much higher than that because the main component of TDS is salt.

Richard