High Calcium and Water Restrictions

[txhomebrew]

Hello gang, old member of Ben;s old forum 12,000 gallon Gunite with Watermaid SWC built in 2001. Rural North Texas

Closed pool in fall at >600 ppm Calcium. Other than scaling on SWG cell what is danger of going higher Cal? About to be restricted on refilling pools (stage 3 drought) so if I want to lower it I need to prime pump, drain 1/3 and refill with soft water as I have done in the past. Anybody operate at high Cal levels?

Also to reduce average evaporation of 300 gallons/day this summer thinking about using my solar blanket. But of course we will have bath water once the daily highs hit 100+ Thinking we could remove cover at night to allow some cooling, but that would be by evaporation, DUH?

Ken T.

aka The Beerman!

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Welcome to TFP!
If you keep on top of the pH and TA levels, never letting them get too high, then you can run it successfully with the CH up there. If you're careful enough, and use borates, then you probably won't get much scaling in the cell either. I let mine go past 1000 and it worked OK...changed it all out this year though. It was high-maintenance and I wouldn't recommend it unless there's absolutely no choice.

 

[jblizzle]

Being that you are in a drought, this may not be helpful (but could plan for it) ...

Some members have diverted the rain water from their roof to the pool to lower the CH levels. If they knew a storm was coming, they would drain a little of the pool and let the rain run-off fill it back up and thus lower the CH. Of course they add some type of "filtration" so most of the dirt/roof gunk did not end up in the pool.

Just a thought that you could rig something up now and be ready when the rain comes.

 

[duraleigh]

Yeah, as Melt says, keep a close eye on pH and TA. You certainly don't want calcium scaling to start on the pool walls which is the really big drawback to CH being too high.

I think I would make every reasonable effort to keep CH below 500 if possible and, even then, control your pH down around 7.4 and TA no higher than 80 or so. That should have you in good shape.

 

[txhomebrew]

Thanks for all the replies. I had some plaster issues last year and had to make some repairs. When I refilled I added magnesium flakes to hold down the scaling on the cell per Watemaids recomendations. As it's cold and I really don't want to startup pump this weekend I may just holdoff. As to collecting runoff. If there was a convenient way I'd try, but the payback isn't there for the work I'd have to go thru. I could scab in 2 out of 5 downspouts but rain has a way of splitting and going around Whiskey-Taw Falls Tx.! A 1" rain on 3000 sq.ft yields 1870 gallons, but I would have to go out and shut off the Auto-Fill, pump it down several inches and then sit back and pray Our restrictions say we can't drain and refill when they go in effect next week, nothing about keeping full. Not that anyone would know, but I'm the pres of our rural water co-op and get ugly looks from motorists as we keep out lawn green with well water (over 1500 ppm TDS!)

Prost!