It's recommended to wait at least 20 minutes to swim after adding salt to your pool. If you're adding calcium chloride to your pool water, it's recommended to wait two to four hours before swimming again.
When you add salt, DO NOT pour it directly into the skimmer. For best results empty the required salt into the shallow end of the pool and let it dissolve and circulate through the main drain. The salt may take about 24 hours to dissolve completely.
After 24 hours you should then test the salinity and if you still need to add swimming pool salt you can repeat the process again making sure to not turn on the chlorine generator until you are completely satisfied your salinity is within the manufacturers recommended range.
Use a brush to help the salt dissolve and to prevent the salt from piling up on the bottom of your pool. Run your pump for 24 hours to help distribute the salt evenly throughout your pool.
Brush the salt towards the main drain. The salt should be dissolved within 24 hours. After the salt has dissolved, the salt chlorine generator can be started.
A low salt level will reduce the efficiency of your salt chlorinator and result in low chlorine production. A high salt level can cause your chlorinator to shutdown and may begin to give your water a salty taste.
But essentially you do just pour salt into the pool, a lot of salt. How much salt to add to the pool? To reach the initial salt level recommended by the salt system manufacturer (usually 2400-3200 ppm), you will need to add about 200 lbs of pure pool grade salt (NaCl), per 10,000 gallons of water.
Instead of adding chlorine to sanitize a saltwater pool, you add salt, and then a chlorine generator converts it to chlorine. When the free chlorine level is low, that usually means it's time to add more salt, but it may mean a couple of other things as well.
For safe swimming conditions, the ideal salt level is going to be between 2500 ppm and 4000 ppm. An overly salted pool will generally not be a major problem (aside from salty-tasting water), but at levels over 6000 ppm there may be corrosion damage to some of the metallic equipment.
So, not only is shocking a saltwater pool okay, but it's actually important to your pool's health. Shocking is the process in which you overload your pool with chlorine (3-5 times the normal amount) to improve your pool's cleanliness and kill off organic matter.
The green is probably iron. Don't add more chlorine. Add a quart or two of good sequestrant. Brush the pool really well multiple times and then add the sequestrant.
Just like a chlorine-based pool, saltwater pools turn cloudy when chemicals are not balanced. You need to ensure that all chemicals are balanced all the time to avoid cloudy water and growth of algae. The major causes of cloudiness are chlorine, pH, Salinity, total alkalinity, cyanuric acid, and calcium hardness.
Stabilizer is a chemical added to offset the harshness of chlorine. Because saltwater pools don't have the chemical chlorine, a stabilizer isn't required.
Generally it's better to have the level on the high side than low, so 3800 should be fine.
For complete disinfection, salt should be added to water to achieve a salinity rate of 0.4%. To obtain the ideal salt level for the pool, if the pool is devoid of salt, 16 kg (approx. 35 lbs) of salt should be applied for every 4000 liters (approx. 1000 gallons).
As shocking has a tendency to push metals out of solution and salt (even when labeled as pure) can contain trace amounts of metals, it is recommended that you add salt at a different time from shocking.
If you own a salt water pool, you probably know how big of a problem algae growth can be. Once these organisms contaminate the pool, they can grow and spread quickly. Both chlorinated and salt water pools need proper water chemistry levels in order to prevent algae growth.
The overall cost of salt for a saltwater pool will vary by the type of salt that you use and the size of your pool, but you can expect to pay on average between $10 and $25 per every 40 pounds of salt (or 25¢ to 63¢ per pound of salt). Some brands may even sell a 40-pound bag of pool salt for as much as $40.
The salt level in your swimming pool should be 3,000 ppm (parts per million). Over-salting will not damage your pool system, but will create salty-tasting water. Highly excessive Salinity levels (over 6,000 ppm) will cause corrosion damage to metallic equipment, such as ladders and handrails.
The salt cell generators are made to work when pool water temperatures are above 60 degrees. In pool water temperatures that are 60 degrees or below, the salt generators simply shut down and by design do not allow the salt cell to ionize (breakdown) the salt and convert it to chlorine.