water line issue - white ring

[premio]

I am having a heck of a time getting my water line to be clear and was hoping someone could point me into the right direction. The only real chemistry issue I've had is trying to keep the Chlorine up - the rainbow auto chlorniator just isn't cutting it and struggles to maintain .5/1 ppm so I have to regular throw in a concentrated bag or two to get the reading back to 4. a pumice stone seemed to help, but only lasted a few tiles.

View attachment 39884

Today's readings (right before I added granulated tri-chlor)
FC - 1
TAC - 1
CH - 250
CYA - 60
TA - 80
PH - 7.6
temp - 84

Thanks

~ 20,000 gallons, quartscape, built 3/15, no SWG.

 

[morzh]

What's the hardness? Oh, see, 250.

 

[tim5055]

The white line is minerals from the water being left behind as the water evaporates. Yo should be able to get it off with a diluted muratic acid solution in a spray bottle.

But, you are about to have a bigger problem. Your chlorine is WAY too low for your current CYA level. Your chlorine should never go below 5 (I'm going to assume no SWG as you are using powdered products) and you should really target 7 or 8 to keep it from going too low. Every puck you use and probably bag of shock you throw in is just raising the CYA higher which in turn requires a higher & higher amount of chlorine to keep the pool clear.

I'm going to guess that if you "struggles to maintain .5/1 ppm" something is already growing. You should switch to liquid chlorine products only at this point and perform an Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT) to prove if anything is in fact growing.

 

[kimkats]

What test kit are you using?

Here on TFP we like to only use bleach/chlorine. We have found there are way too many problems with puck holders as you are finding.

We will work on getting you on the right track when we know how you are testing.

Kim

 

[premio]

I'm using the TF-100 test kit. But numbers I posted were from Pool store. Previously my test kit and the pool store agreed, but yesterday I measured 500 (did the test twice) for CH; the pool store did the test twice as well and measured 250 - so I must have let the reagent's get too hot in the garage. Also, my test for CYA is 40 and 0 CC.

I need some form of automation due to impracticable schedule, so I'm working with PB on bleach injection and/or SWG as an alternative. I should just switch to augmenting with liquid. Fortunately the kids splash enough water that I haven't chased CYA.

Do you think chlorine balance is related to my scale, or separate issues? Muriatic acid, had no affect on the scale.

 

[sbcpool]

Muriatic acid, had no affect on the scale.

Have you been using a powdered form of pH down? I ask because that might be some sort of sulfate which muriatic acid would be unlikely to affect. Maybe also from the recent plastering.

It's for sure something being deposited by the water as it evaporates as you can see it higher up on the mortar where the water has risen through capillary action and then evaporated.

 

[premio]

No powdered pH down from me but they did a hot start with the quartscape, perhaps something there? I have only put chlorine, acid, and baking soda in primarily, and some phosphree enzymes.

I tried Bio-Dex Tile Cleaner 300 and it does make a difference, but I'd rather correct the issue and treat it gentler.

The OCLT test showed no Cl loss, but some converted to CC. started at 7 FC, ended at 6.5 FC + .5 CC. I think that's good?

Thanks for the insights.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Just a suggestion -

One method to remove white scale that doesn't react to Muriatic acid - find a service company that does soda-blasting, specifically ask if they use kieserite (magnesium sulfate). I did it on a very bad calcium scale on my tile and rick waterfall and it cleaned it off beautifully.


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