I've heard all kinds of thoughts about calcium for vinyl liners, but my fellow pool obsessed people at TFP have opinions I can trust. My hardness level (tested at the pool store) is around 60. Should I raise it or not?? If yes, to what level.
Calcium Level
- Thread starter vejadu
- Start date
- Status
That hardness level is perfectly fine for your vinyl pool. With vinyl, calcium hardness is hardly an issue. A very high hardness level (much greater than what you have) could make your water cloudy.
Calcium is important if you have any plaster, concrete, tile (grout), or stone surfaces in contact with the water. There can also be situations where a particular calcium level is required by a builder or equipment warranty. Other than that just make sure it doesn't get too high (to avoid scaling).
The pool store said the low calcium could affect the liner. How could that be? The pool store people weren't sure.
I'm not sure about fiberglass, a fiberglass pool might be affected by a low calcium level or it might not. Vinyl will not be bothered at all. There might maybe be some effect on metal surfaces, but if so it is very very slight.
The pool store people don't know, they are just repeating something they read somewhere. There is a lot of misinformation out there. Plus they would really like to sell you some calcium even if you don't need it. At least with calcium it is comparatively unlikely to hurt anything. Some of the products pool stores push on people can cause worse problems than the ones they are intended to solve.
The pool store people don't know, they are just repeating something they read somewhere. There is a lot of misinformation out there. Plus they would really like to sell you some calcium even if you don't need it. At least with calcium it is comparatively unlikely to hurt anything. Some of the products pool stores push on people can cause worse problems than the ones they are intended to solve.
Fiberglass pools might or might not need calcium to help prevent staining and to keep cobalt from leaching from the gelcoat. Jury is still out from everything that I have been able to find on the subject. In a vinyl pool calcium does nothing for your liner BUT having some calcium hardness in the water WILL help prevent foaming (soft water has more of a tendancy to foam than hard water). Personally I think a CH of around 150 is more than enough for this purpose.
waterbear
waterbear...what do you keep your fiberglass calcium level at? I have a new fiberglass pool and what to keep it looking that way..
ps how do i make the emoticons appear in the body of my relplies?
waterbear...what do you keep your fiberglass calcium level at? I have a new fiberglass pool and what to keep it looking that way..
ps how do i make the emoticons appear in the body of my relplies?
- Status