Calcium Hardness in Chandler AZ

Jump to latest Follow Reply
P

Plt32173

0
Oct 11, 2015
2
Arizona
First time poster. I started reading TFP before we had our pool built last year. I have been religious so far with following the TFP method. My main concern is the pools CH. I have a few questions.

here are my readings today:

Pool built Oct 2015
17,500 gal
Chlorine
Pebble tec

Pool temp 77F
PH 7.7
TA 100
CYA 50
FC 4.0
CC 0.0
TC 4.0
Aaand CH 550

The city water we used to fill the pool has CH of 350

My pool builder said levels up to 800 are normal here. But it seems like that much calcium would wreak havoc on my pumps and equipment. what are your thoughts on this?

It seems a bit futile to drain and fill with that water at CH of 350.

Would you recommend RO. If so what companies do a good job out her?

We will be going through our first AZ summer soon..gulp..
how fast does the Ch on average raise due to evaporation here in AZ.

Thanks
Justin
 
I can only tell you where I'm at in buckeye. We had a softener installed for the house while the pool was built. the backyard bib where the leveller is hooked is post-softener.

The original fill was all unsoftened, but the since then it's just been getting softened water, which still adds some CH but not as much. So we started at around 400 i think, and from 3/14 to now, I'm at 800.

If you aren't going the permanent softener route: pool math has your current settings at a CSI of 0.4. So you are still OK, but just ok. If you've been using liquid chlorine a la TFP, you probably have some salt in the water, and it might be worth it to get some test strips. After only one winter of bleach it's not a lot, but it will start to accumulate and it will affect that CSI number (in a good way for us) so think about adding that.

If you'd like to have your likelihood of scaling lessened, I would keep dropping your pH to 7.2 until your TA comes down. Around 60 is probably good. I'm at 50, but that was where my pool pH ended up stable. The lower TA will help your CSI. Keeping a lower pH will also help even more, but that flucuates more than TA so I think it makes sense to get a lower TA to start with.

Your current readings, but with TA of 60 and pH of 7.6, gets your CSI to 0.02. Great! But be aware that as the water temp rises, you are more likely to get scaling and you'll probably want the pH a tick lower.
 
Hi Justin, and welcome to TFP. BC gave you some very good info on how by managing CSI, you can counter-balance a relatively high CH level. We have many, many people here at TFP from your area with CH levels much higher at this point and are doing very well. No need to drain, just use some proactive CSI (pH and TA) management and you'll be fine. The Poomath Calculator is your friend. :) Great to have you with us.
 
From personal experience, anything below 800 CH is easy to maintain. The real problems come when you get towards 1000.

Plug all your numbers into the now column of poolmath. See what the CSI is. Raise the water temperature to what it will be later in the Summer. See what the CSI is then. In the target column, put CH at 800. See what happens to CSI then. Then start experimenting with pH and TA in the target column and see what they do to CSI. As long as you keep CSI below roughly .3, you won't have any scale worries. You'll have enough wiggle room that a slight pH rise won't wreck everything. As long as you can keep it greater than -0.3 you'll also not have to worry about plaster erosion and etching. Just remember that you can only lower pH so far and still swim comfortably.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply