Hello everyone,
I want to say that I have never enjoyed my pool and spa so much since the day I discovered this web site, studied pool school and employed the BBB method for maintaining my pool and spa. My pool has never looked so beautiful. It has been completely trouble free and is so easy to take care of thanks to all of you.
That being said my brother visited me from Southern California last weekend and asked me how he can have pool water that looks like mine. I told him the first thing he needs to do is order a good test kit and test the pool water himself. He arrived to my house on the day that I do my full weekly set of test with my Taylor test kit. I took the opportunity to show him how to do all the tests. When I finished showing him my pool tests I had him do a full set of tests for my spa. He was so impressed that on that very same day he did as I suggested and ordered the TF100 test kit and speed stir. His test kit arrived a couple of days ago and the first thing he did was to test PH. In a text he told me his PH was off the scale too high. He has an approximately 20K in ground plaster pool with a DE filter and an algae problem. He also has a lot of scale on his pool tile at the waterline. Based on the pool calculator I suggested he add 156 ounces of 20 Baum Muriatic acid to his pool and test the PH the next day to see where he was at. Tonight he e mailed me the following test results after adding the suggested amount of acid:
PH 7.6
FC 13
CC (I dont think he tested for this)
CH 700
CYA 100+
TA 340
I told him he definitely needs to drain his water to get his CYA and CH numbers balanced. He told me that he has always used Trichlor pucks to sanitize his water which explains the high CYA. I asked him if he had ever sanitized with Calcium Hypochlorite and he said no. It seems a mystery to me how his CH number can be so high. He said that the Southern California water supply comes from the Colorado river and it is notoriously high in hardness. How can he successfully manage this?
He plans to completely drain his pool tomorrow and let it sit empty for about about a week or so until a friend of his in the pool industry can sandblast his tile to get rid of the calcium build up. Is there any downside to letting the pool sit empty for at least a week?
He says his pool has a pressure release valve so that there is no danger of groundwater lifting his pool out of the ground.
Does anyone have tips for how to proceed besides cleaning the calcium deposit off of his tile? I am going to encourage him to read pool school and join this forum when he has more time but in the interim I am trying to give him the best advice I can.
Thank you for any suggestions you can give me to pass along to him.
I want to say that I have never enjoyed my pool and spa so much since the day I discovered this web site, studied pool school and employed the BBB method for maintaining my pool and spa. My pool has never looked so beautiful. It has been completely trouble free and is so easy to take care of thanks to all of you.
That being said my brother visited me from Southern California last weekend and asked me how he can have pool water that looks like mine. I told him the first thing he needs to do is order a good test kit and test the pool water himself. He arrived to my house on the day that I do my full weekly set of test with my Taylor test kit. I took the opportunity to show him how to do all the tests. When I finished showing him my pool tests I had him do a full set of tests for my spa. He was so impressed that on that very same day he did as I suggested and ordered the TF100 test kit and speed stir. His test kit arrived a couple of days ago and the first thing he did was to test PH. In a text he told me his PH was off the scale too high. He has an approximately 20K in ground plaster pool with a DE filter and an algae problem. He also has a lot of scale on his pool tile at the waterline. Based on the pool calculator I suggested he add 156 ounces of 20 Baum Muriatic acid to his pool and test the PH the next day to see where he was at. Tonight he e mailed me the following test results after adding the suggested amount of acid:
PH 7.6
FC 13
CC (I dont think he tested for this)
CH 700
CYA 100+
TA 340
I told him he definitely needs to drain his water to get his CYA and CH numbers balanced. He told me that he has always used Trichlor pucks to sanitize his water which explains the high CYA. I asked him if he had ever sanitized with Calcium Hypochlorite and he said no. It seems a mystery to me how his CH number can be so high. He said that the Southern California water supply comes from the Colorado river and it is notoriously high in hardness. How can he successfully manage this?
He plans to completely drain his pool tomorrow and let it sit empty for about about a week or so until a friend of his in the pool industry can sandblast his tile to get rid of the calcium build up. Is there any downside to letting the pool sit empty for at least a week?
He says his pool has a pressure release valve so that there is no danger of groundwater lifting his pool out of the ground.
Does anyone have tips for how to proceed besides cleaning the calcium deposit off of his tile? I am going to encourage him to read pool school and join this forum when he has more time but in the interim I am trying to give him the best advice I can.
Thank you for any suggestions you can give me to pass along to him.