Disolving CH

[botanica37]

I have to raise CH from 200 to 300, but...when I broadcast the granules in the deep end, they don't disolve, just settle at the bottom - I brushed and brushed and then brushed some more...they are still not disolving. Eventually they end up in the sand filter and I have to backwash, because the PSI gets to be high quickly. When I backwash with the CH, the water coming from the filter is whitish (vs dirty when I really need to backwash the filter). I also tried disolving the CH in a bucket and the thing won't disolve or very little.

Do I have a bad/old? batch or am I missing something?

here are my numbers this morning, opened pool yesterday, with very decent looking water:

FC 20 (didn't mean to raise it that high, I was shooting for 14)
CC 0
PH 7.0
TA 80
CH 200
CYA 20
t 52F

 

[Bama Rambler]

I've added calcium a few times an always dissloved in in a 5 gal bucket. I've never had a problem getting it to dissolve. Sounds like you have something going on with the calcium you have.

 

[Guest]

Why do you want to raise your CH? Around here folks would love to have their level at 200!

 

[botanica37]

I am going by the poolcalculator, here the CH starts at 250...and with all my values in range, the pool calculator suggests corrosion of plaster likely. The only way I can finetune to balance that is by raising the CH.

Thoughts?

 

[JasonLion]

The recommended CH level is between 250 and 350, so you do want to raise it. simicrintz is from an area with very high CH levels in the tap water, something that is extremely unlikely to be an issue in VA.

Try dissolving the CH in a bucket full of hot tap water. Most of it should dissolve quite quickly, leaving just a few bits of undissolved debris. If it doesn't dissolve quickly, it might not actually be the right chemical.

 

[Guest]

Jason-The recommendation that we see here is that "optimum" CH levels should be maintained between 200-400 ppm. Of course we can't seem to hit those levels here with our CH coming from the tap higher than that Am I wrong in trying to get to the lower end (200 ppm) of the scale, if you are saying that 250-350 is better?

 

[JasonLion]

Recommended Levels, an article in Pool School, lists the ranges recommended by TFP. The CH level recommended for plaster/pebble/tile/gunite pools is 250 to 350. If you want to talk about why we recommend that, you should start a topic in The Deep End.