New pool owner almost 1 year in and a full summer swimming season in the books, thanks for the all the advice, has been crystal clear all summer. Even got a new VS pump installed myself that has been a game changer.
My alkalinity has consistently been around 70 so over a couple of weeks (got a 60 reading one time) so I added quite a bit of baking soda (based on PoolMath) to get it up, figuring that the recommended 70-90+ range was at slight risk being on the low end. Since then I've never really seen it jump up from the baking soda additions (I diluted/mixed in a container then slowly poured in front of a return jet pushing towards the skimmer intake). Still sitting around 70... why is that, should I bother learning the finer points of alkalinity levels, or just not sweat it if sitting at 70? I can't recall what my tap water/refill water reading is, but guessing that could be impacting since we get a fair amount of evaporation in Northern CA.
Secondly, my calcium has been sitting around 225 since I've owned the pool. I should re-test my refill water, but I'm pretty sure it was relatively hard so I figured with pool refills the calcium level would slowly go up... it never has even with refilling the pool (from evaporation) all summer. The pool is Pebble-Tec and the water slightly touches some stone tile too. I read the concern with calcium is leaching from the walls... should I try and make adjustments or just not worry about it with my current levels?
My alkalinity has consistently been around 70 so over a couple of weeks (got a 60 reading one time) so I added quite a bit of baking soda (based on PoolMath) to get it up, figuring that the recommended 70-90+ range was at slight risk being on the low end. Since then I've never really seen it jump up from the baking soda additions (I diluted/mixed in a container then slowly poured in front of a return jet pushing towards the skimmer intake). Still sitting around 70... why is that, should I bother learning the finer points of alkalinity levels, or just not sweat it if sitting at 70? I can't recall what my tap water/refill water reading is, but guessing that could be impacting since we get a fair amount of evaporation in Northern CA.
Secondly, my calcium has been sitting around 225 since I've owned the pool. I should re-test my refill water, but I'm pretty sure it was relatively hard so I figured with pool refills the calcium level would slowly go up... it never has even with refilling the pool (from evaporation) all summer. The pool is Pebble-Tec and the water slightly touches some stone tile too. I read the concern with calcium is leaching from the walls... should I try and make adjustments or just not worry about it with my current levels?