I was told not to add anything to the pool, just run it

[aztony]

Hi and thanks for providing this site and all the information it provides. I'm a relatively new pool owner, 3rd summer coming up, still learning how to maintain it. I live in AZ and my pool is salt water, 10K gallons.

I had an issue with the SWG, it was reading low salt, so I added salt. When I took some water in for testing the salt level was over 5K. The Hayward tech came out and checked the cell and found the sensor was coated with calcium and needed to be cleaned. SWG is working now. I was told in order to lower the salt level I needed to remove some water out of the pool. I decided to empty it since the water was going on 3 years. I'm in the process of refilling the pool. I was told not to add anything to the pool, just run it for a few days that way, then take a sample in for testing. I was wondering if that's the way it should be done or not.

Any suggestions on how to remove the calcium ring around the pool? I tried using a spray and pumice stone recommended by the Ace Hardware pool guy but it didn't do much good.

TIA

 

[JasonLion]

By far the best possible thing to do is to get your own test kit. In Arizona you need to keep on top of your levels or things can get out of hand, as you have experienced.

Calcium scaling can be removed with a diluted mixture of muriatic acid and water, though the amount of work involved varies fairly dramatically depending on how bad the scaling is.

Leaving the pool for three days without water testing or chemical additions is not a great idea. The SWG won't work because the salt level will be too low, you will lose any chlorine you start with from the fill water to sunlight extremely quickly because CYA is zero. Essentially you are inviting algae to get started.

 

[257WbyMag]

Agree with Jason on the test kit. You're spinning your wheels without a good one.

Some gloves, goggles, a stiff brush, and a 1 part muratic acid to 10 parts water solution will clean that calcium from your tile.

 

[BoDarville]

Any suggestions on how to remove the calcium ring around the pool?

While brushing and elbow grease will speed up removal of the unsightly rings, they will gradually go away on their own with proper water management. When I bought this house, I had a calcium ring at the water line of the pool & spa. After two years of managing the water chemistry using BBB, the ring around the pool is gone and the one in the spa has faded dramatically.

Here's a great thread on how one of our Expert members has managed high CH with proper water chemistry management along with some creative yet inexpensive techniques: http://www.troublefreepool.com/progress-on-scale-t38568.html?hilit=progress on calcium scale