Lowering Calcium Hardness

[nocaster]

The Numbers:

CH 520
pH 7.6
TA 190 (down from 290 after two weeks of aerating and two gallons of Muriatic Acid to lower the pH)

My fill water comes from my well and the CH out of the well is 430. I'm assuming that my CH would only get higher after water evaporates and concentrates over time.

My water is very clear but feels extremely hard to my skin. The water in this part of the state is extremely hard...hot water tanks fill up with minerals quickly around here.

Is there any way to lower the CH with chemicals? I've had the extreme idea of unhooking my water softener tank (after a regen) and hauling it out to the pool and running water through it via a sump pump. I'm sure my Culligan dealer would Crud a brick if he saw me do that.

 

[duraleigh]

Actually, that's probably the best (almost only...drain and refill is the other) way to do it and has been done by posters on this forum before. I have no personal experience but someone else may come along who does.

You may hear about using TSP, but don't.....you'll be inviting an algae bloom.

 

[mas985]

The problem with home water softeners is that they are made for fairly low volumes of water. So a fill will wipe it out fairly quickly. Check the volume on your unit to see if it will handle it.

You could refill right after they change the tank but you won't have any soft water after the refill and probably only half the water will be soft.

I have heard of people renting water softeners but I am not sure who would do this.

 

[nocaster]

You may hear about using TSP, but don't.....you'll be inviting an algae bloom.

I read some sites that talk about TSP, but most of those were also selling magnets and other weird things so I decided to discount that advice as bunk. There seems to be a lot of junk science surrounding pool water.

 

[cliff_s]

You can reduce the calcium by running your fill water through a water softener, only problem it
will take a lot of salt and many recharges to process that amount of water you need. In your
case it might be the only solution as what good does it do to drain your pool and refill it with the
same high calcium water.

Cliff s