Calcium question

[Chrissykr]

I bought my house last August I have been TFP since day one. Last year I did great and over the winter I really studied and now understand chemistry, know my pool, confident in my testing etc.

Over the winter I had all of my equipment rebuilt, cleaned, new sand in the filter everything looked at and everything is working flawlessly. I ordered a new light ring because mine had a crust of something on it. Well the pool guy just hasn't got here to put it on. Sunday my daughter and I scrubbed on it and we got so much off. It was quite impressive but my problem is, I have been fighting a cloudy pool for a couple of weeks. It looks terrific but at night it is "off" I always run DE in my filter but lately I have been having to backwash every day or other day. Pressure is rising so I know it's working fine. Last year I went 6-8 weeks between backwashes. Before this started I was going around 3 weeks between backwashes.

I know my chemistry is fine and I have passed the OCLT four times in the past two weeks. Chlorine loss is normal. So I wondering if having proper chemistry is breaking down this calcium buildup in the equipment. I am finding a lot of grit in the robot filters and have started noticing grit on my steps. Last year I tried scrubbing this ring and nothing would budge on it. I defiantly am seeing less of the calcium on the ring since Sunday. We wore our brushes out and nothing else was coming off for us so we stopped. Last night I touched the ring and a bunch just rubbed off. As soon as I started noticing the cloudiness at night I started scrubbing every single thing in my pool with a toothbrush multiple times so I know algae is not causing the cloudiness.

So my thinking is that this calcium coming off in the equipment and this is causing the cloudiness at night. Is this a reasonable explanation?

My test results from Monday

CL 7
CC 0
PH 7.4
TA 60
CH 100
CYA 30 I am being generous here. It doesn't hit the 30 mark. I am trying to get this up but with all the back washing I am struggling.

All I have used in my pool this year is bleach and CYA. Everything else has been stable since opening on March 23.

 

[Richard320]

I suspect you're loosening some scale that formed on things. If the water temp is 82F, your CSI is -.68. If you had a plaster pool, that would be dangerous. With your pool, it's just annoying. I think you're just going to have to scrub it off and filter it out. See if your CH doesn't start rising some as the stuff starts dissolving into solution.

 

[JVTrain]

If you input all your values into Pool Math, you'll see that your CSI is -0.66. Less than -0.6 is indicative of a corrosive condition with your pool water chemistry. Normally this is not a concern at all for vinyl pools, except in your case where you have visible scaling on metal components, that you believe to be calcium. Is there scaling on more metal components than just the light ring such as ladders or even a scale ring on the liner? If so, it could be that yes, now that you have balanced water, but a slightly corrosive CSI, your pool water is loosening/removing the legacy scale on pool parts and you may have cloudiness for a while as a result.

 

[Chrissykr]

The light ring is plastic. The ladder doesn't have any kind of buildup on it. The liner was new last August. There is no buildup on that either. I am assuming the previous owner was not good about chemistry and the buildup occurred previously. The equipment had not been properly maintained in years according to my PG from what he could tell.

Should I adjust anything? Or just ride it out.

I did drop to one cup of DE just so I can buy some time in between backwashes.

 

[JVTrain]

I would ride it out and like Richard said, test for CH after several days and see it that climbs up a little. Then you'll know if your water is dissolving some latent calcium.