Scaling upon opening

[Suley]

Hello everyone!

I pulled off the cover from my pool and started shocking it.

The tiles around the spa on which the cover was resting on has a lot of scale on it. It seems like the water had gone under the cover and stood over the tile wall which separates the spa from the pool.

i tried using pool acid and it did dissolve a little but not all.

what is the best way to remove the scale?

any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[duraleigh]

Virtually all conversations about pool water chemistry have to start with current test results. Can you post them for pH, FC, TA, CH and CYA?

 

[Suley]

Upon uncovering:

FC= 0
CC= 0
CYA = 55
pH = 8.2
CH = 260
TA = 90
Temp = 73F

Thanks!

 

[duraleigh]

Of course, you need some chlorine but your numbers look pretty decent. Nice to see the right amount of CYA already in your pool.

So.......

1. Lower your pH, sooner rather than later. Use muriatic and don't hesitate. The high pH is the main culprit causing the scaling and it can be doing other harm as well.

2. Muriatic (diluted) is also the best way to remove the scale that has already formed. See if you can find an acid brush that you can use with the muriatic.

3. At the same time, get some chlorine (probably about 4ppm) in the pool to keep it clean. How does your water look?

 

[Suley]

Thanks for the reply!

The water looks decent but is not crystal clear. It has cleared up a lot in the past three days the cover has been off and the pump running 24 hours.

I adjusted the pH right away after pulling off the cover and then vacuumed, circulated the water a bit more (pump was running even when the pool was closed and under cover, though for a shorter time than 1.1 turnover per day) and started to shock the pool with the following readings:

FC= 24
CC = 0
pH = 7.5
CH = 260
TA = 90
CYA = 55
temp = 76

- CC ranged from 0 to 0.25 in the past three days it has been under shock.
- the first addition of bleach lead to FC 36 upon my mistake but it quickly came down to 26 in like one day

Right now I am doing the overnight FC test trying to get overnight FC loss to under 1 ppm. Today I got it to be 2 ppm overnight.

I plan to add borates as soon as the shocking is over. I will wait till the FC dies down into normal range (4-9) before i start to add borax. I am not running the pool vac right now fearing damage to it due to high FC levels.

 

[duraleigh]

Nice work, Suley. You have things under control :lol: :lol:

 

[Suley]

Thanks!

But I must say it is all due to this forum that I can maintain the pool. I went from someone who knew nothing about pools to maintaining it not only independently but also better than a pool guy or a pool store!

Now to get that overnight FC loss down to 1ppm or less.... :lol: