steve99

I keep seeing all these places advertising huge bags of pool salt, Ive had our pool for a couple of years, it has one of those salt cell things (that I think makes salt ) The testing kit I have doesnt mention salt at all, I test the pool every couple of weeks, and usually I dont have to do anything to it, occasionally its a bit of chlorine or acid (depending on the test results).

How do you test for salt levels in the pool?
Ive seen people buying 4 or 5 x 25KG bags of the stuff in Bunnings, what are they doing with it? putting it on their chips

mlbonner

Is your pool salt or chlorine based (am a bit confused from what you've said) this'll make a difference. In the summer months we take a test sample to the local pool shop every weekend pretty much, they do a free test and tell us what we need... much easier

hevs

The salt goes through the cell and turns into chlorine, so why are you adding chlorine if you have a salt water pool On the filter control on the wall it has a red light that comes on that says "more salt" and four green lights that say "chlorine output" (well on ours anyway!! )

I've just spent 45 mins trying to get my creepy crawly to crawl, i was soaked through

*disclamer... i have broken just about every thing you can break on our pools solar and filter, i accept no responsibility if your goes green, black or stops working

Hevs, the pool expert!!!

Gary / Terri

You and me the same I have no idea either I buy 2kg bags of cooking salt at coles for 86cents when i go shopping and put them in now and again. Without doubt you need to find a local pool supply company who will give you a water bottle to fill from your pool and they will do the testing for you and advise the necessary chemicals.They really are good I use one in Bella Vista waters.
Hope this helps
Gary and Terri

HUP

The "salt cell thingy" is to turn the salt into chlorine. You should not be adding chlorine (except for a shock dose) to a salt water chlorintated pool. You should have a unit that tells you when you need to add more salt.

jensteve

If its a pool with a salt cell on it, that makes your chlorine from the salt added to your pool.
In theory you should never need to add chlorine.
If your pool has had no salt added, you are relying on your additional chlorine being put in, the pool guy I have says in summer you can go through a sack of salt every 3 weeks, as it evaporates.
Having a salt pool is supposed to be easier to run, I would suggest though before you start chucking sacks of salt in you as a one off get a pool guy round to make sure your levels don't go haywire.
Jenny

Badge

For chlorine people only: (the first person seems to have a salt pool).

If a chlorine pool, you can add a stabiliser (cyanuric acid IIRC) to help maintain chlorine level in the summer as the sun effects it, once you are "balanced".

"Balancing" is having the right PH, Total Alkanility, Chlorine and a few other factors within bounds. If you have the wrong PH(acid or alkali)then it will try and take minerals from the pool, or the water or add them. This results in corrosion of metal parts, or calcium deposits. It also effects swimmer comfort pH needs to be 7ish.....7.6 or something - can't remember.

You should be adding a scoop or two a day of chlorine anyhow. Need 1ppm of chlorine IIRC, which, really, is bugger all. You need enough for swimmer comfort and to kill the algae; after no use, say in the winter, like HUP says, people "shock" their pools to kill algae.

The PH or Total alkanity level also effects chlorine as it 'has a 'buffer" effect. Bit technical can't remember.

You will need to raise or lower the PH with additions. Someting else maintains Total Alkalinity.

For chlorine people only: People either buy liquid chlorine from Coles or buy powder. apparently you are better off with the powder as the chlorine stuff is mostly water and it ends up more exp - or more hassle.

BM

Quinkana

Chloride (salt) concentration is measure two ways:
. precipitation of silver chloride from silver nitrate (more precise),
. solution electrical conductivity.

Your electrolytic chlorinator (salt cell + controller) may have an in-built electrical conductivity meter. Press the associated button for a reading. The meter will give only an indication (if it works at all) not a precise result.

steve99

Thanks for all the replies guys, some things are a bit clearer now others are a bit more confused!
Its definitely a salt water pool, I think some of the confusion has come from the dosy @O# I rented our original house off when we came to OZ, she told me the cell thing made salt through some sort of electrolysis but that chlorine still needed to be added to counter any bacteria in the pool.
Foolishly I believed her and didnt really find out to much more.
When we bought our house in the end, it seemed a fairly similar set up, so I just carried on as I was.
I then bought a new kreepy crawly thing and with it I got about $100 of free chemicals when they came round to install it, they gave me chlorine, cyanuric acid (stabiliser I now know thx badge ) why would they do this if I have a salt pool this all sounds like stuff I would only need to use in a chrlorine pool....

So back to what I do have, its def salt, it has one of those cartridge filter in a big black cylinder (I have to take it out and hose it clean about every 2 weeks, or kreepy runs out of puff !) the salt cell thingy (which I clean out by putting in acid/water about ever 4-6 weeks(to remove scale build up) is connected to a unit on the wall, I think it doesnt have any lights but has a sort of voltage type dial with a little knob I can turn which seems to adjust what the dial reads when I turn it, the dial itself seems to show different model type no's and graduates into a red area on the right of the dial. Ive just left it where it was when I moved in
So ive got nothing to show me what the salt level is and whether I need to add any more....
Ive been there about 14months and chucked a 25kg bag in about 3 months ago, thats it ( I only did that cos' it was in the way in the shed ) well it didnt taste as salty as the sea so I figured it couldnt do any harm !

When ever Ive used my little tester Kit, the first part is for chlorine level, if I do this test and the colour doesnt match ideal it normally tells me to add chlorine (rather than whatever the opposite is) so I chuck a bit in !
I then test the PH, its nearly alway 7.6-7.8 which I think is fine (ive occasional put some acid in to bring it down a bit)
So should I be putting in Salt instead of Chlorine when I do that part of the test? as in theory the salt cell is turning the salt into chlorine? if so how much ?
Im gonna going and take a sample to a pool shop this weekend, but id rather try and look after it myself (if I can learn how to!)

All your comments appreciated.
Steve
PS: pools are supposed to be green and bubble over here arent they
I filled a glass up with some yesterday and compared it some out of the tap, no difference both totally clear.

kirsty&al

Hello,

You still need the cyanuric acid (stabiliser) in a salt water pool. A salt water pool still has chlorine in it, albeit produced by the cell rather than manually added. The pool shop test should tell you whether you need this or not. Note that your cell may not be producing sufficient chlorine for 3 reasons:
1) you don't have enough salt in your pool
2) you have not cleaned the cell recently. It needs to be cleaned every couple of months in a weak hydrochloric (muriac?) acid solution.
3) it is broken. You can get the pool shop to test it for free.

I've found my local pool shop very helpful and you seem to be able to ask dumb questions without being taken for a ride (e.g. Me: Do I need those fine mesh thingys in my skimmer baskets? He: No. You don't really need them.).

Cheers
Alistair