How to Start Up a SALT WATER POOL

Swim University makes pool and hot tub care easy for millions of homeowners. Each year, we continue to help more people with water chemistry, cleaning, and troubleshooting. We know taking care of a swimming pool or spa can be difficult. And it’s hard to find a trusted source of information. This is the reason we created Swim University.

So, it’s time to start up your saltwater pool. But before you add anything to the water, you’ll need to adjust and add the right chemicals in the correct order. If you don’t, your saltwater generator won’t work correctly. Here’s a quick guide on starting up a saltwater pool.

⏰ Timestamps:
00:00 - Salt Water Pool Startup
00:35 - Do You Need to Drain the Pool First?
01:16 - How to Start Up a Salt Water Pool
01:49 - #1. Test Your Water
02:33 - #2. Adjust Alkalinity
02:56 - #3. Adjust pH
03:30 - #4. Adjust Chlorine
04:00 - #5. Adjust CYA
04:55 - #6. Adjust Calcium Hardness
05:30 - #7. Add Salt
06:26 - #8. Turn on Salt System
06:38 - Salt Water Pool Maintenance

[jeremyrink]

Take off cover, brush, test levels, baking soda, shock, flocc, vac, clarifier, algaecide, salt, cya…done. Worked for mine here in SC. Stayed clear all summer long.

[scottejohnson]

Have a brand new above ground salt water pool. Went to a local store with water and asked for only what we need to get up and running. We walked out with salt, alk increased and CYA. Do we need more!?

[timpieper]

Question...have you ever gotten white mold? Looks like clear jellyfish in my saltwater pool. Wondering where it comes from and if you have ever experienced it. not sure how to get rid of it.

[davenc]

Test strips are horrible. Use a Taylor test kit. Do it right and get accurate results.

[major_west]

I've heard you should maintain a minimum ratio of 7.5% of free chlorine to cyanuric acid. So, if you have 60 ppm CYA, then your chlorine level should be at least 4.5 ppm. This is much higher than the 1 to 3 ppm you recommend. From my experience, less than 4 ppm chlorine results in certain algae growth.

[siaraalisha]

So alkalinity increaser and PH increaser are the same?

[danielskinner]

So my CYA in my salt water pool is only 2, have do I raise it?

[glennmiller]

The cheat sheet link is not working, I'll check back. Thank you for all the excellent info!!

[klondt]

I thought people switched to saltwater pools because they require less maintenance and fewer chemicals, but it seems like just as much work as a regular pool! So what’s the point of converting?