I have an inground vinyl pool with a heater. I generally use the BBB method these days, but I occasionally use ph+ and calcium hypochlorite. (Poolife Active Cleaning Caplets which are just like the older Durations, mainly to finish off what we had bought in the past.)
Over the winter it has a mesh saftey cover so water and silt get in so it always needs lots of work when opened. We opened our pool in early May and due to "operator error" kept adding shock when it was actually so high it was bleaching the tests. (I had diluted the samples to see if that was happening but I guess I didn't dilute it enough at the time...oh well.) Once I got the chlorine under control I checked the calcium hardness and it was around 350, which was higher than the start of any other season I can remember. It usually starts around 200 and would inch up to 250-300 throughout the season when I was strictly using the calcium hypoclorite for sanitizing. I'm assuming all the calcium hypochlorite shock, and lots of it, may have caused the CH level to start off that high.
The chemistry of the water has been fine since early May, CH aside, and the water has been crystal clear. Because we've had so much rain this month I've had to adjust the pH upwards a bit a couple of times and since the TA was hovering at around 80 I felt it could benefit from the increase the pH+ would give it, as opposed to the Borax. The only glitch is that each time I immediately get the billowing white plumes in the water which eventually disperse but leave a slightly noticeable cloudiness which goes away after a day of filtering.
I'm assuming the instant cloudinesss after adding pH increaser is a result of the higher calcium hardness level. Is 350 high enough to cloud the water after adding pH+? I know I'd need to drain water to lower the level, but what CH level would be the higher limit that would not cause this to happen? (Not excited about major draining and rebalancing of all the levels again.)
Thank you.
Vickie
Inground vinyl 18x36 with Raypak heater
Per K-2006 test kit results:
FC 2.6
CC about 0
pH 7.4
TA 80
CH 330 (went down a little bit due to excessive rain.)
CYA 40
Over the winter it has a mesh saftey cover so water and silt get in so it always needs lots of work when opened. We opened our pool in early May and due to "operator error" kept adding shock when it was actually so high it was bleaching the tests. (I had diluted the samples to see if that was happening but I guess I didn't dilute it enough at the time...oh well.) Once I got the chlorine under control I checked the calcium hardness and it was around 350, which was higher than the start of any other season I can remember. It usually starts around 200 and would inch up to 250-300 throughout the season when I was strictly using the calcium hypoclorite for sanitizing. I'm assuming all the calcium hypochlorite shock, and lots of it, may have caused the CH level to start off that high.
The chemistry of the water has been fine since early May, CH aside, and the water has been crystal clear. Because we've had so much rain this month I've had to adjust the pH upwards a bit a couple of times and since the TA was hovering at around 80 I felt it could benefit from the increase the pH+ would give it, as opposed to the Borax. The only glitch is that each time I immediately get the billowing white plumes in the water which eventually disperse but leave a slightly noticeable cloudiness which goes away after a day of filtering.
I'm assuming the instant cloudinesss after adding pH increaser is a result of the higher calcium hardness level. Is 350 high enough to cloud the water after adding pH+? I know I'd need to drain water to lower the level, but what CH level would be the higher limit that would not cause this to happen? (Not excited about major draining and rebalancing of all the levels again.)
Thank you.
Vickie
Inground vinyl 18x36 with Raypak heater
Per K-2006 test kit results:
FC 2.6
CC about 0
pH 7.4
TA 80
CH 330 (went down a little bit due to excessive rain.)
CYA 40
