Finally some rainwater dilution!

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Richard320

Richard320

TFP Expert
LifeTime Supporter
Jan 6, 2010
23,923
San Dimas, CA (LA County)
The pool has been cold and crystal clear. Acid and Chlorine use is waaaaay down. The Calcium scaling looks to be dissolving a little - the white areas appear to be growing; maybe just higher contrast against the scale. Essentially, the pool has been very troublefree for over a month. And finally some rain. Not enough to make pumpout necessary, just makeup water, but at least it's not adding more CH!!

I vacuumed yesterday, but after the storm I have more debris and worms in the pool. Tomorrow I'm off work, so I think I'll vacuum again and scrub the walls some more. This year I'm going to get that CH down one way or another!
 
To BK's point a whole house water softner can only handle a few hundred gallons a day. R/O is an option but does also waste some water, however a reasobale solution as Simicritz mentions.

I believe Richard has been trying to waste no water and just manage the high levels of CH and CYA in his water and waiting for mother nature to take it's course...good news Richard :goodjob: ...looks like your time has come :lol:
 
susa said:
have you figured out what contributes to the higher CH ? new pool ?
Click to expand...
Hard water. Plus I only moved in a year ago. The previous owner and his lousy pool service liked to use a floater, so who knows how much CH they added that way. The pool was redone two years ago, and I don't think they monitored things too closely. When I bought a test kit, my first pH readings were off the scale.

My intention is to keep CSI in the negatives and dissolve as much scale as possible, while diluting with rainwater whenever possible. It's never gotten to the sandpaper effect, mostly just stained looking. At some point before everyone else starts thinking about their pools, I'll try to convince a certain R/O service to make the long drive and really get rid of the CH for keeps. But I want to get my money's worth, so we really saturate the water first.

It's been a long slow process, but I have managed to lower CYA from 220+ to 75. CH has gone as high as 1175. As of Sunday, it was 900. As we aren't using it, I have a little wider range for pH than I did during the summer.

Despite the battle, I have managed to keep the pool crystal clear all year long.
 
Richard320 said:
I'll try to convince a certain R/O service to make the long drive and really get rid of the CH for keeps. But I want to get my money's worth, so we really saturate the water first.

It's been a long slow process, but I have managed to lower CYA from 220+ to 75. CH has gone as high as 1175. As of Sunday, it was 900.
Click to expand...

I've seen CH as high as 1,350, and I've "guessed" at CYA of 300 or more, so I know it can be done! I do know that the higher values also increase run time for the process, which conversely affects the quantity of beer the homeowner needs to have on hand for the rig operators who will be spending the night :cool: :cheers:
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
And now even more!

We're getting some real rain - measurable in inches, even!

Too bad I was at work and didn't have a chance to drain it down beforehand. By the time I got home last night, the filter was already on. Got the downspout aimed at the pool, so I get about 3X as much in the pool as the rainfall total.
 
Too much rainwater now!

It hasn't stopped raining now for a couple days. Yesterday I grabbed a sample from deep using a PVC pipe pipette and checked it, lost 100ppm Calcium already. And the rain keeps on. Last night the pool and spa were at the same level, and over the spillway - about 2" from overflowing. So back on with the submersible pump. It was droppping about 1"/hr, so I left it on overnight, to make room for today's forecasted rain.

I killed my pump. It emptied about 2" net. It hums, but no flow, and it's warm despite being submerged. Maybe it will come back to life when it cools. Anyway, there I am in the predawn darkness and rain, messing around by flashlight. There is a hose bib on one outlet line, not easily accessible, and something I've been afraid to disturb, as it didn't leak. But desperate times call for desperate measures. My patio is only about an inch below the house floor, and I'd prefer to keep my carpet dry. So now the filter pump is lowering the level, slowly..

I can't wait until Friday when it's supposed to be dry to test my water and see what I ended up with. Who knows? I may actually have to add CYA this year!!
 
I too am using winter rains for water dilution -- on average it's roughly a 50% dilution over an entire rainy season. I don't have CH or CYA issues, but like to keep the water fresh to keep the salt levels in check and to clear out unoxidized organics. I'll need to increase CH and CYA in the spring -- too bad there's no easy way to take your CH away to give to me. :-D
 
Since the water in your pools is getting diluted with rain water, do you do a complete test every week? I have only been testing the PH and FC weekly. Somehow PH has stayed at 7.5 since the rain season started when I had a hard time getting it to stay below 7.8 in the summer.
 
kal2002 said:
Since the water in your pools is getting diluted with rain water, do you do a complete test every week? I have only been testing the PH and FC weekly. Somehow PH has stayed at 7.5 since the rain season started when I had a hard time getting it to stay below 7.8 in the summer.
Click to expand...
No. I only check CYA about once a month now. pH and FC get tested once or twice a week - they're very stable with the cold water temperature. Plus I leave when it's dark and usually get home when it's dark, and I don't really trust the color matching with artificial light.

You can be sure that once things settle down and I get the water mixed up good with brushing and vacuuming, I'll be running a full set of tests, and probably posting and boasting about the results.
 
Preliminary results are in

FC 5
CC 0
TC 5
pH 7.5
TA 50
CH 675
CYA 60
°F 56
CSI -.35

Not too shabby! If only I knew in advance how much rain we'd get, I could have drained enough out beforehand, and not had to empty in stages. Still, as recently as November 3, CH was at 1150. Before the storms I had it down to 900. And CYA is almost down to where I can use the OTO test kit and match colors rather than count drops every time! :party:
 
Wow, your CH went down big time. We will be getting a lot more rain this weekend, Richard, so your pool water will be more diluted. I wonder how much dilution you would have gotten by the end of winter if you did not drain the water manually. Could it be less than 50%?
 
Merry Holidays, Happy Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanuhhah, & Santa Season!

We live just over the hill from you and got the benefit of the rainfall as well. Glad to have waited as we would have had to have replaced 30% of our water due to the high calcium levels. Not sure if I can justify R/O for a 29K pool with all the other remodel (make liveable) expenses we still need. Patience paid off.

All our levels are pretty close and in check now. The FC was off the charts for a while (7.0+) this month, but I have gotten it down to just over 5 and will continue to monitor and adjust the SWG to bring it down.

Quick question for any California residents. Exactly what are we supposed to do to "winterize" our pools when it doesn't get below freezing? Do we just have a full year of checking and keeping the pool chem levels in check?

Thanks!
 
ontherocs said:
Quick question for any California residents. Exactly what are we supposed to do to "winterize" our pools when it doesn't get below freezing? Do we just have a full year of checking and keeping the pool chem levels in check?
Click to expand...
Yes, you just continue to maintain the pool, but this becomes even easier since the colder water temperature and the relative lack of sunlight significantly lowers chlorine demand. You may only need to add chlorine every few weeks, though check more frequently at first to get a feel for the actual chlorine demand in your pool. Be sure to remember to check the pH as it may change, though it naturally rises somewhat at colder temps and that's OK. Just don't let it get above 8.0 in order to prevent possible metal staining (if you have metal ions in the water). Usually a pH of 7.8 is reasonable with the colder water.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply