I have a standard Chlorine pool. My buddy has a Salt Water. He is always getting black mold/algae.
This year I considered changing to salt. But...my pool heater is not rated for salt. My coping is "flag stone" which is really sand stone. It is porous. Concrete is also porous unless coated. The salt will coat all of these things.
So I have kept my pool standard Chlorine. BUT, the biggest problem is that almost all of the Chlorine products have a stabilizer included. Over time, the CYA will build up. I drained more than 1/2 my pool this week to reduce the CYA level. Wish I had drained all of it.
If you look for Calcium Hypochlorite on Amazon, you can find tablet and shock power that do not have stabilizer. Also, the "Pool Frog" system does not put stabilizer into the pool.
AFTER 1/2 draining and refilling, my CYA is around 100. That is the top of the acceptable level. I will do a full drain later in the season.
Maintaining the pool isn't hard and it doesn't take much time. I spend more time each week watering potted plants. The only PITA job is cleaning the filter cartridges twice a year. I want to get one of these:
