Hello from TX

[rotenka]

Hello all. I recently purchased a house in Mansfield, TX with a 20000 gallon plaster pool that is about 10 years old. We currently own two houses and our living in our old one while I paint the entire inside of the new one and get new floors installed. The previous owner took about as much care, or less, of his house than he did his pool. I have had the house for about a month now and hope to move in and focus more on the pool in a couple of weeks.

The pool has really high CH, about 600 and has some obvious calcium deposits in the pool as well as the rock around the waterfall feature. It also has some heavy wear on the spa bench and pool steps. Once we get all moved in we are going to think about resurfacing.

Looking forward to learning how to care for my pool the right way and not dumping a ton of money on pool chemicals.

 

[RobbieH]

Welcome from Garland! Read up in Pool School, and let us know if you have any specific questions.

The PO was probably using Cal Hypo for one thing or another.

 

[Smykowski]

Welcome to the forum! For inexpensive simple help with chemicals, you've come to the right place. We also have plenty of members with high CH experience, so we can help with that too.

 

[Patrick_B]

Man, the Texans are taking over TFP!

Welcome to the forum from West Texas, and another high CH owner. You are in good company with that.

 

[BoDarville]

Welcome to TFP fellow Texan!

The PO was probably using Cal Hypo for one thing or another.

This is a very likely possibility.

One thing you can check is the CH of your fill water. This will give you a baseline to compare with your pool water. Test the fill water using the same process as you would for testing pool water. If there is a big difference between the CH of your fill water and the CH level in the pool, it may yield some answers including the likeliness that Cal-Hypo may have been used in the past.

Another factor that contributes to increasing CH, even when not using a calcium-based product, is the evaporation & refill cycle. Pool water evaporates, but calcium does not. So when you top off the water level, any CH in the fill water is added to the pool. The evaporation & refill cycle then repeats itself.

If you don't already have one, you will need a good test kit to properly manage your pool. Here is a comparison of the Recommended Test Kits. This is your primary defense from spending $ on unnecessary chemicals. Would suggest ordering one of these kits in the next few days so you will have it available when you are ready to focus on the pool.

The pool has really high CH, about 600 and has some obvious calcium deposits in the pool as well as the rock around the waterfall feature.

The "calcium" deposits you are seeing around the waterfall feature may be efflorescence. A pic would help us determine if this is what's on the rock around the waterfall. In general, if these deposits on/near the rocks are noticeably thicker than other calcium rings, it would suggest efflorescence. The good news is efflorescence is merely unsightly and is rarely indicative of a structural problem.

 

[rotenka]

I have a good test kit. I measured my fill water already and it was 80 ppm so I will need to replace 63% of my water to get CH within reason. I will try to get some pictures of the deposits on the rocks soon.

 

[rotenka]

Here is a picture of my pool.



Here is a picture of what I think is calcium on the bottom of the pool.



Picture of deposits on rocks. Wire brush did nothing but I haven't had the chance to use some water/acid yet.