Re: Spring startup advice
Actually, Dawn, I think you are on the right track, just maybe worrying too much.
Personally, I'd be adding the chlorine ASAP--the sooner you kill the algae the better.
However, if your water is below 60 deg you shouldn't have any real NEW growth--just kill the old stuff. I find if you try to calculate how much CYA you need, you should use 1/3 of what you figure, wait about a week, and measure again. It's not hard to raise CYA, but it's a pain in the patoot to lower it.
I think for now any TA between 50 and 90 is fine, and the "acid" test is if your pH stays stable--that's what TA's main function is--keeping pH stable.
Remember KISS--you want to get your pH and chlorine levels correct and stable and then worry about the other stuff. The SWG can really help so chlorine doesn't drop but I think you want to get the pool stable using chlorine and Muriatic acid and borax to do the "heavy lifting", then let the SWG take over.
BTW, the girl at the pool store is a rare flower--she saw you have salt and immediately said "TDS doesn't matter". That's heresy for a pool store clerk, but exactly correct. With salt TDS doesn't matter. Actually, 99.9% of the time it STILL doesn't matter, but TDS and Phosphates are the things pool stores push to scare you to sell other chems--and both are almost never relevant UNLESS all the conventional stuff doesn't work--which is maybe once in al the years I've been a part of PoolForum.
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