raised stains, stained bumps

[Johnny B]

There is no harm to the pool to leave calcium scale in place aside from the visual appearance.

As long as your chemistry remains balanced the scaling will not get better or worse.

High PH is by far the most likely cause. Your theory about high PH over the winter is very likely, but difficult to prove.

FWIW, The stains & bumps were absent upon closing last fall & the plaster was super white. Upon opening in the spring, all the described conditions were present at day 1.


Jason's post is fantastic news. An OK from Jason to procrastinate on 2 projects in 2 separate threads ( a rust issue thread too). If I have complications from procrastinating it's my fault, not Jason's.

Based on last winter, even though closing was best as the TFP minds & me can devise, I still end up with a Calcium scaling issue from letting the pH rise too high for too long. So I need to test & treat pH over the future winter.

Here is my plan for future winters (please improve it keeping laziness in mind- just what I need pool management all winter long- bummer. If all this is unnecessary then let me know, but my guess is that my existing Ca scaling will worsen if I neglect the pH over the winters. If the current scaling does’t worsen, I may never do the re-plaster if the current esthetics stays the same- yes I’ll have to re-plaster eventually):

Run a sump pump & just feed the hose (without the metal ending) into the water to get circulation for testing- 6 hours (or more hrs or less hours ?)
Run a pH test.
If acid is needed, I’ll put it in & be sure its placed in front of the hose current, over 3-4 increments about 1 hour apart (circulation isn’t ideal). Or can I dump it all in or should I do a shorter or longer time between increments?
My water level is lowered for winter, so about how many gallons is 1 inch in my pool? I’ll need to know for the pool calculator.

In the winter, do I need to maintain a pH of 7.5? When it gets to 7.8 I drop it to 7.5 like I do all summer? I won’t have to do this every 4 days like in the summer? (of course I’ll see just how often but do you anticipate acid treatments in winter being less frequent than in summer?)

If I’m testing pH, should I test & treat other things like TA, CH, etc? If so, I’ll slowly add the chemicals.

Thanks

 

[JasonLion]

If you are adding acid without the main pump running, you should dilute it substantially before adding, and also have a small pump running.