New Numbers and finding Calcium in Florida

[StuartPool]

Latest numbers

PH 7.6
FC 2
TC 2
CYA 70
CC 0
Ch 190
TA 110
Phosphates 350

The water looks great. Since I came here. This place is the bomb for pool owners. BBB is the way to go.

I know I have to add bleach. Ill add 1 gallon and retest in a few hours. Thats from the calculator
But its time to add some Calcium. The Calcium is low because I had to drain the pool and refill.

I am looking at 10 lbs. I am not going to add that much to the water at one time for sure, after all I have been through to get the cya down.

But Im thinking I need to start by adding 5 lbs then test every few days and add as needed.

I cannot find de icer in florida. I saw the post to have it shipped from ACE but thats a 1 wk deal down here and its been low for a few weeks.

Calcium in the pool store is going to cost about 80 bucks for 10 lbs. "Scammers" Anything else at the old walmart for adding Ca to the h20?

 

[JohnT]

What kind of pool do you have?

If you need calcium, the easiest way would be to use cal-hypo for your chlorination until the CH gets to where you need it.

 

[duraleigh]

You could chlorinate with calcium hypochlorite until you get the calcium where you want it to be.

I assume you have a masonry pool.

EDIT: Reinforcing the above post!

 

[StuartPool]

Its concrete with diamond bright coat

Im using only liquid chlorine. No pucks, no powders. Never again. Been there done that.

I am not going back to Ca Hypo for clorination.

Guess I have to bite the bullet and buy the Calcium from the pool store?

 

[StuartPool]

I have to hit at least 260
Its an older pool. 20 years old. The diamond brite is 3 yrs old, It has real tiles with compound between so its important to keep the Ca balanced.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

There is nothing wrong with using Cal-Hypo for chlorination until you reach your CH target, then switch back to bleach.

 

[StuartPool]

only problem is that my cya is running high still and I dont want to bump it up any.
I know it a petty thing but .....

I called ACE here in FL and the dude I talked to sounded like I was nuts. De Icer in florida lol I suppose He thought I was trying to make a b om b or was a member of some group.
He didnt sound convinced when the conversation was over and he really didnt want to order it for me.

Thankfully I can order 50 lbs for $51 including shipping online though so I might do that next season. I dont expect that I will have to add any more after this.

Soooo Im going to go in and give my hard earned money once again to the pool guy, for the Ca there.
I bet Ill be told I need some phos remover, another 4 jugs of chlorine. some surfactant for metals, and new feet for my auto vaccuum.

 

[PaulR]

We understand about wanting to raise the CH to protect your pool. However, we also agree it's not exactly an emergency, because taken as a whole your numbers are fine and you have about as little risk of damage to the pool as you can get. That said, wanting to raise CH to 260 would be fine.

Using cal-hypo, for each 10ppm FC you would also get about 7ppm CH, so after about a cumulative total of 100ppm FC you would be at your target of 260ppm CH. This would take some weeks, of course.

But what matters more here is your peace of mind. To raise the CH quickly, it does sound like you would need to use the pool-store calcium. The time/expense tradeoff is up to you.
--paulr

 

[257WbyMag]

Cal-hypo doesn't have any CYA in it.

 

[PaulR]

Cal-hypo doesn't have any CYA in it.

Ah I missed that concern. Yes, different kinds of powdered chlorine do different things. Sodium dichloro-whatzit will add CYA; but calcium hypochlorite will add calcium, no CYA.
--paulr

 

[StuartPool]

Cal-hypo doesn't have any CYA in it.

Ah I missed that concern. Yes, different kinds of powdered chlorine do different things. Sodium dichloro-whatzit will add CYA; but calcium hypochlorite will add calcium, no CYA.
--paulr

"Power Powder Plus" is what they sell for Ca Hypoclhorite. I wouldnt feel too bad about using this after doing the reading. The gradual increase should be easy to watch I suppose.

I was using Power Powder 2 yrs ago and it maintained the system well at 250 to 260 then something happened. In one week the Ca went up to 500 and not doing anything different. I was testing a couple of times a week too. Hindsight says that I just didnt recognize the exponential increase trend.

Here is the issue as I am thinking though.

We are now into days with sunlight hours from 7am to 7pm
Its soon to be "storm season" so I am expecting frequent 3 in rainfalls
We are going to use it more now so I will have to fill more.

Sun and splash out are going to decrease my cya WOOO HOOO. which is going to decrease my FC needs. I hope. Combine that with the Refills and sun and its going to prolong the time to increase the Ca. (I may be wrong on this but I am learning)

I am thinking that if I can get it to 260 now, and maintain it then I can prevent a greater error in the future.

Am I way off base on this?

On a side note I have found that many Aquarium supply stores sell Calcium in bulk. Its a bit more expensive than Ace, but much cheaper than the pool stores. Im thinking that the quality might be better too if its used for fish tanks and not just de-iceing.

 

[JasonLion]

Sun and splash out are going to decrease my cya WOOO HOOO. which is going to decrease my FC needs. I hope.

It is actually the other way around. Assuming you don't get algae, lower CYA levels mean more total chlorine used (even thought the FC level is lower).

The calcium at aquarium stores is normally fine. It isn't better or worse. What maters is the pricing.

Calcium levels tend to drift down through the season (unless you have high calcium fill water), so raising CH a bit early in the season makes sense.

 

[StuartPool]

Thanks everyone
I did go to the pool store. Got the calcium.
It was almost like a miracle.

Talking with the pool guy, he told me that Leslies carries a 50 lb bag of Calcium for 28 bucks.
They dont usually keep it on the shelves and its usually somewhere in the back sections. If you ask they will direct you to it.

So the trip with a jug of Chlorine, 50 lbs of Calcium, and a refill on some reagents was less than 40 bucks.

They did advise that I add 20 lbs seems a bit high so I added 5

Do you think they are reading the forums here

 

[Grape Ape]

Sun and splash out are going to decrease my cya WOOO HOOO. which is going to decrease my FC needs. I hope. Combine that with the Refills and sun and its going to prolong the time to increase the Ca. (I may be wrong on this but I am learning)

Unless you’re talking about a lot of crazy cannonballs, I wouldn’t expect much effect from this. The sun will only steal your water and cholrine, the CYA and CH will not evaporate.