Another day, another issue: today its CH

[blue pool]

Just moved into house with pool and pool company. No longer have pool company and converting pool to BBB. Almost there, still some issues.

FC 6
pH 7.8
TA 90
CYA 50
CH 550

I tested CH and I could not getting water to turn red to even start. My drops are old because my last pool was a vinyl pool and I didn't check CH that often.

I went to pool store to buy new CH drops and had store test water, which resulted in 550. The store tested it twice because it was so high. I was told best thing to do is add new water/refill. I was also told city water had high levels of minerals. I asked if calcium was high in city water how would refilling help?

I came home tested city tap water it was 130. Pool has a automatic water fill.

Not sure how the level raised up so high to begin with?

Should I invest in water softner?
Should I try to refill some of the water?
Should I just wait and keep checking CH to see what happens?
Pool is clear, but some scaling is occurring, guest are noting hair feeling different.
Thank you everybody who has been helping me convert my pool to BBB, and answering all of my questions.

 

[duraleigh]

Should I invest in water softner?
Should I try to refill some of the water?
Should I just wait and keep checking CH to see what happens?

You should invest in your own good test kit and stay out of the pool store.

 

[Texas Splash]

First thing I would say is relax. Your CH may be elevated (we don't trust pool store tests), but not really high. Trust me, we have others here who maintain their pool with a CH over 1000. It can be done, so don't drain just yet. First question ..... what test kit do you have? If it's not a TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C, then that should be your first priority. The CH test in those kits uses a blue reagent mixture. Also important is to obtain the "Speed Stir" from TFTestkits.com which is extremely valuable for the CH test. That test requires a fair amount of drops, so automatic stirring is not only helpful to you, but can result in a different CH reading. Now for your questions:
1 - Water softener? Up to you, but I would get the proper test kit first. Then if you chose to use softened water for refills, you can do that slowly.
2 - Refill water - no. By lowering pH and TA you can off-set the effects on an elevated CH on your plaster. Refer to the "CSI" row on the Poolmath calculator.
3 - Yes - with the right test kit.
4 - With the proper test kit, we'll show you how to lower the "CSI" in an attempt to slowly reduce built-up scale

Also, please update your location under your username. It helps a lot when we review posts like this based on water hardness across the country.

 

[blue pool]

I updated my signature. I am in Texas, I use taylor test, the pool place actually used the taylor test kit with a spinner, and repeated the test 2 times so I figure it was likely accurate. I went to the pool store to buy new Taylor reagents, because the ones I had were old. Thought, why not have them check CH also to see if I may be doing something wrong.

 

[Texas Splash]

Thanks for updating your location. With the notes and recommendations above, let us know if you have anymore questions. Have a nice weekend.

 

[duraleigh]

Thought, why not have them check CH also to see if I may be doing something wrong.

It sounds good but what if their test is wrong and yours is right,,,,how would you know? It only casts doubt on your tests and the chances are that your tests are correct in the first place.

A prime tenant of what we teach is to trust your own testing. Of course you need a good kit but nobody cares for your pool like you do and time and time again, we see pool stores testing very poorly.