We had installed in May this year an 18,000 gallon 16x32 gunite pool with saltwater generator and gas heater. It is 18" above the ground and totally screened in with a metal roof. It gets almost no direct sunlight, very little debris, and no rainwater. The pH has never been balanced and seems to stay in the mid 8 range. We add muriatic acid every week. We had to turn off the SWG because the chlorine levels were always above 4 ppm, sometimes 6ppm. The free chlorine is now 3.03ppm, but the pH is 8.5. The ONLY time we got the pH down (7.6), the alkalinity went to 0. Brought the alkalinity back up with sodium bicarbonate (94pppm) but the pH is back up to 8.5. The hardness is now 395ppm which is high. We get conflicting advice depending on the rep you talk to. One said use pH minus, one said never use that in a saltwater pool because of the sulfur. One said don’t add Cyanuric acid because there is no UV exposure, one said keep that level at 30ppm. Help!
Our current chemistry is:
Free Cl 3.03ppm Hardness 395ppm
total Cl 3.21ppm Alkalinity 94ppm
Combined Cl 0.18ppm Cyanuric Acid 10ppm
pH 8.5 Salt 3400ppm