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Whether you’ve got a brand new salt system or you’re starting up an existing saltwater pool, the process is the same.
Creators & Guests
What is Pool School?
A podcast for pool owners covering pool maintenance and water chemistry.
Everyone, and welcome to Pool School by Swim University, where we help you keep your pool clean and clear all year. My name is Matt, and I'm the founder of swimuniversity.com. And on this episode, we're talking about starting up a saltwater pool. Let's dive in. Real quick, if you want more help taking care of your pool, be sure to grab our free saltwater pool cheat sheet at swimu.com/saltwater.
Matt Giovanisci:First, do you need to drain the water if you've got a new saltwater system installed? If you've just installed a saltwater generator in an existing chlorine pool, the good news is is that the water doesn't need to be drained. And that's because a saltwater generator will be creating chlorine. So any chlorine in the water is fine. You will, however, need to test and balance your water before turning on your salt water generator.
Matt Giovanisci:And if you have a larger issue like algae, you'll wanna take care of that before starting up your system for the first time. But whether you've got a brand new salt system or you're starting up an existing salt water pool, the process is actually the same. Be sure that your services are clean and add your chemicals in the right order to make sure that they're working properly. Okay. So here's how to start up a saltwater pool.
Matt Giovanisci:You'll need to know how many gallons your pool holds. And you'll wanna have the following chemicals on hand. That's alkalinity increaser, or baking soda is fine, pH increaser or soda ash, washing soda if you can find it, borax, pH Decreaser, or you can use muriatic acid, pool shock or liquid chlorine, cyanuric acid or what's called pool stabilizer or chlorine stabilizer, calcium hardness increaser, and then finally, pool grade salt. Usually comes in 40 pound bags. Now, you wanna wait at least 20 minutes between adding chemicals and retest your water between dosing.
Matt Giovanisci:You'll also wanna run your pump and filter to help the chemical circulate. So step 1 is you're gonna test and balance your water. Regardless of whether it's a new or existing system, you'll wanna test and adjust your levels first. That's because once your salt water generator starts running, you want it to be maintaining an already balanced pool. Using test strips or a liquid test kit, if you want, you can check the following levels.
Matt Giovanisci:That's your total alkalinity, your pH, your chlorine, your cyanuric acid or CYA, calcium hardness or total hardness, and your salt levels. Some test strips and test kits measure salt, but most don't. You can buy saltwater testing strips, they're separate, or a salinity meter, a digital one, and you can use that to check your salt levels. Now, you also wanna know if you have metals in your water because it'll be important to test and remove those as well. You'll need a special test kit for testing things like copper and iron, or you can just bring your water sample into your local pool store if they test for metals.
Matt Giovanisci:And then you can use a metal sequestrant or a metal remover chemical before adding any of your other chemicals. Step number 2 is you're gonna adjust your total alkalinity. This helps your pH from fluctuating so it's important to adjust it first. Your alkalinity should be between 80 a 120 parts per million or PPM. It can be helpful to keep it in the lower range to help your pH stay low as well.
Matt Giovanisci:So you wanna use alkalinity increaser or baking soda to raise it or pH decreaser or muriatic acid to lower it. Step 3 is adjust your pH. Stable pH levels will keep your water neutral so that all the other chemicals, especially chlorine that's created from the salt water system, can work properly. Your pH should be between 7.407.6. But saltwater pools tend to have chronically high pH.
Matt Giovanisci:That's because when the saltwater generator runs, it it naturally increases pH. Alright? So to bring your pH down, you can add pH Decreaser or Muriatic acid. To raise it, you can just use pH increaser. Step number 4 is adjust your chlorine.
Matt Giovanisci:Your salt water generator will produce chlorine later, but in the meantime, your chlorine levels should be in the range to kill any contaminants in the water. Your free chlorine should be between 1 and 3 parts per million with 3 parts per million being ideal. You can raise your chlorine by adding shock, liquid chlorine, or dichloro shock if you need a a quick boost. Just avoid using shock that's labeled as calcium hypochlorite. If you look at the active ingredient on your bags of shock, if the active ingredient is calcium hypochlorite, avoid it because that can cause calcium to build up inside your salt cell, which is the salt water generator.
Matt Giovanisci:Alright. Step number 5 is you're gonna add your chlorine stabilizer, which is also known as cyanuric acid, which is also known as pool stabilizer, which is also known as CYA. It's got a bunch of names. The chlorine stabilizer, CYA, helps protect your chlorine from breaking down in direct sunlight. Your CYA level should be between 30 and 50 parts per million, but some saltwater pool owners find it helpful to keep their levels a bit higher around 60 to 80 parts per million.
Matt Giovanisci:That's because higher CYA helps to prevent your saltwater generator from working really hard. Your generator ends up working more to maintain your chlorine levels during periods of high sunlight exposure. And it can also help extend the life of your salt cell since it doesn't need to make up for all that loss of chlorine. Now just be sure to add stabilizers slowly to the water. If the CYA gets too high, the only way to lower it is by draining some water from the pool and refilling it with fresh water.
Matt Giovanisci:And if you've added dichloro shock earlier, that actually already contains CYA or cyanuric acid. Step number 6 is adjust your calcium hardness. The right calcium levels help protect your pool equipment and surfaces over the long run. Your calcium level should be between a 175 and 220 25 parts per million for a vinyl liner pool or a fiberglass pool. And if you have a concrete or plaster pool, it should be between 202 175 parts per million, a little bit higher.
Matt Giovanisci:Add a calcium hardness increaser to bring these levels up into range. But if you have high calcium levels, you'll need to partially refill your pool with fresh filtered water. Because if you have source water that's high in calcium, you're gonna need to add a hose filter to your hose when you're filling your pool. And, again, that's because the high calcium builds up inside your salt cell. Step number 7, we're gonna add salt.
Matt Giovanisci:So once your other levels are balanced, you can start adding salt directly to your pool water. You wanna check your saltwater chlorinator for their suggested salinity levels because they're kinda all different, but it's usually between 2735100 or 3,500 parts per million. Now be sure to only use pool grade salt. Right? These usually come in 40 pound bags, like I said.
Matt Giovanisci:And if you're starting with no salt in the water, and let's say you have a 10,000 gallon pool, then you're gonna need to add about 6 to 7 40 pound bags of salt. Alright? The good news is is that salt tends to stay in the water because it gets recycled by the saltwater generator. So you shouldn't have to add it to your pool all that often, only really at the beginning of the year. You may wanna brush the salt around your pool if it's collected anywhere at the bottom and you're gonna run your pump and filter for several hours or overnight to help the salt completely circulate and dissolve.
Matt Giovanisci:And then finally, step number 8, you're gonna turn on your salt system. Once the levels are balanced and the right amount of salt's been added, you can turn on your salt water generator. It will start producing chlorine normally if there's enough salt in the water. That's pretty much it. That's how you start a saltwater pool.
Matt Giovanisci:And then remember, if you need more help with saltwater pool maintenance, you can grab our saltwater pool care cheat sheet at swimu.com/saltwater, all one word. And if you found this episode helpful, subscribe for more pool maintenance tips on your favorite podcasting app. And when you do, leave us a review because your support will help more pool owners just like you find this show. That's it. Thanks again, and happy swimming.