CH is dropping

[Maestro]

As of five days ago I had finally gotten my CH up to 225 by adding about 40 lbs. of calcium chloride (the level started at 20). I thought I wouldn't have to worry about that any more, but yesterday it was down to 175.

I know with a fiberglass pool it's not to crucial the keep the CH over 220, but I'm curious as to where that extra calcium went. Is there something even in a FB pool that will suck calcium out of the water? Maybe the sand in the filter?

BTW, I just discovered that the hose bibs I used to fill the pool initially are online AFTER my water softener, darn it! I apparently sent 22,000 gallons of water through the softener and then had to add pounds of calcium to it in the pool. Luckily the new water line they ran to my pool shed is before the softener, so that water will be straight from the well for any future fills. I plan to test it soon to see what the levels are from that faucet.

 

[Swampwoman]

Hi there. I'm not sure where your ch went, but I'm pretty sure folks fighting high ch would LOVE to know

One (unlikely) theory might be if you've been using a metal sequestrant like Metal Magic, which will supposedly carry out metals that combine with ch....but its only supposed to remove excess...so not sure that makes any sense even if you did use it.

But the purpose of my post was more to comment that if the pool is relatively new to you and an outdoor faucet was previously plumbed into the softener, that is usually a DELIBERATE act that means the well water was causing pool problems, eg iron etc.

The 99% build is to bypass exterior spigots. So maybe a former owner knew something you don't yet know about your well water in the pool...or the pool builder was planning ahead

Either way, consider carefully before using well water over softened water...metals and staining are a total Pita. I've been resolving my problems by switching TO a specially plumbed softened water line and upgrading to a dual tank system to handle top ups without regeneration causing raw well water to get in

 

[Maestro]

Hi Swampwoman,
The only chemicals I added during that period were 21 oz. of MA and 48 oz. of chlorine. No sequestrants or anything else to control metals. I haven't even added more water to top off the pool and we haven't had any significant rain for quite a while. Maybe one of the chemists on the site will chime in with an idea.

Thanks for the perspective on using softened water to fill the pool. I guess we lucked out again! I can certainly see that it's a lot easier to add calcium if necessary than to subtract other metals.