I think I have Calcium Crystals not scale after opening new pool

Interesting thanks

So just an update, I tried the solution to help resolve it and it didn’t help. Only thing that worked was scrapping it with a plastic ice scrapper. Took forever and still not done but it is very effective.
So I’m down to thinking it’s either added calcium in gunite mix or my not understanding the importance of csi readings especially on a gunite pool.

It being my first season I fought constant ph rise. I thought I was doing the right thing by testing and lowering to the lowest ph suggested to allow some time for it to naturally rise back up to need more acid to lower it back down to the lower ph buying me time. This was a weekly thing. I ignored the csi as it is ever changing with one number changing it considerably. So possibly this was the cause.
What are some of the easiest ways to keep your csi good? Any tricks or advise would be helpful.
This forum has taught me so much and I thought I was doing the right thing staying in range of each item but how they relate together to reflect csi is very complex. I’m trying to avoid further issues and understand it better without having to test everything every day.

Has anyone made charts with ideal ranges for good csi based on certain constants? Ie water temp and alkalinity seem to dictate what I need to adjust ph to. From my recent testing it seems I need to keep a ph high on the good range scale to keep my csi very close to 0. What’s an acceptable csi range?

onBalance said:

In addition to the plaster mix containing too much calcium chloride and bleeding out, the crystals form during the winter because of the lack of water circulation and brushing, even by the robot cleaner (assuming you didn't run it during the winter). Cold water actually makes calcium more soluble, not less. Just the opposite of other compounds.

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onBalance said:

What happens with gunite application problems does not necessarily transform to (affect) the plaster applications. You need to separate the two issues. For the most part, plaster covers up many problems with the gunite.
I don't know what problem you are having with the tile grout. Providing some photos of the tile grout problems may help to diagnose.

The good news is that this wintertime crystal problem probably won't occur again next year because the plaster has more fully hydrated. The only exception to this is if the plaster quality is really poor and defective. Then it might occur a time or two in the future. Therefore, remove the crystals as best you can this Spring and that should be the end of it. It would help to ensure that it doesn't happen next year by brushing the pool and circulating the water as late as possible in the winter and as soon as you can in the spring. The stagnate water is a contributor, but not the reason or cause of this problem.

I believe Orenda is wrong about the cause of these wintertime crystals to develop. It is not caused by aggressive water, but is most likely caused by poor quality pool plaster and workmanship. Orenda is a good company and I believe they will eventually amend and correct their blog on this topic.

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so I was extremely careful with my csi after I realized it could be the culprit for the calcium Chrystal’s I had last year and hoped they wouldn’t reappear…. I opened early May and unfortunately they were back. I’ve been brush to see if they will come off naturally and they are coming off easier than last year but I will have to get in and scrap them with an ice scrapper again this year.

My question this year is do I try lowing my csi to .6 to melt” them off like one had suggested or do I just rid it out another year? My numbers have been very stable with no ph rise like I had faced the last 2 years, it seems my pool likes the low 50 alkalinity and a high 8.0 ph since it hasn’t changed in 2 weeks. My csi is perfect right now, if I lower my ph to 7.5 I’ll have the low csi but not that it hasn’t risen at all I’d hate to touch it. Thanks