When will adding calcium cause cloudiness?

[ETS]

Need to know what water conditions are most likely to result in cloudiness when adding hardness and why.
I would like to be able to predict the occurance so it can be avoided. Any thoughts?

 

[JasonLion]

If you use my Pool Calculator to calculate what the CSI will be after the addition, and it is positive, then there is some chance of calcium clouding. As a rough prediction, the higher the CSI, the more likely clouding is. However, CSI won't specifically predict clouding, it predicts one of the major prerequisites.

 

[ETS]

So is it safe to say then that elevated PH, Alkalinity, and CYA are more likely to result in cloudy water when CH is added than if those numbers are lower?
Are you more likely to see cloudiness when you add chemicals that raise these numbers, on the same day you are adding CH? and less likely to see it if you are adding chemicals that lower these numbers (excluding CYA of course)?
At what level does TDS enter the equation? Or does it?

 

[JasonLion]

TDS is almost irrelevant. It has some secondary effect, but really can be ignored.

The worst thing to do is to add calcium and then add something that raises the PH not very long afterwards. That includes bleach, liquid chlorine, soda ash, borax, cal-hypo, baking soda, lye, etc. High PH is the primary cause of calcium clouding (and also high CSI). While the chemical is being added there will be local areas with much higher PH, until the chemical fully mixes in. Calcium clouding can develop in those high PH areas, and then stick around afterwards.

Many people say to give a full 24 hours between adding calcium and anything that raises PH. I don't think you really need to wait that long, but give it a good while.

Lowering PH is a good way to get rid of calcium clouding, so no harm adding calcium and lowering PH at more or less the same time. If you are lowering PH and adding calcium, it is safer to lower PH first, but it won't usually make any difference.

Calcium clouding will almost always go away reasonably quickly if you can get the CSI to be negative.

 

[Guest]

As Jason said, high pH is a no no, as is high TA....the two together can create conditions for cloudiness. To help avoid it predissolve the calcium, no more than a few lbs to a 5 gal bucket and walk it around the pool. If any cloudiness starts to appear diliute the calcium even further. It's a slow process but if you have very high TA and think that you might precipitate calcium out it's much safer.

BTW, same thing applies when adding cal hypo!

 

[ETS]

Perfect! That's exactly what I was looking for. Now for my next question....