High CH

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R

Regafrega

0
Mar 6, 2015
4
Margate, FL
So, I am a new homeowner and have been working on getting my pool looking good. I have been reading a lot on here and have started a Acid bath to remove some scaling and stains in my plaster. My pool CH from what I could tell from my Taylor 2005 test was at 1200 so I am trying to find a way to lower my CH after the acid bath is over. I just tested my hose water and the CH there is 600. Is it better to drain and fill with the 600 CH water or is there a chemical way to lower the CH? Thanks in advance for any help.
 
:wave: Welcome to TFP!!!

I had no idea your water was so hard there. Can you explain exactly how you are doing the test to be sure there is not a testing error?

There are only 2 ways to lower the CH in your pool. 1. Replacing the water with water that has a lower CH content. 2. Reverse Osmosis treatment, which is very expensive and very limited in where it is available.

BTW, I recommend you add the FAS-DPD Chlorine Test to your kit so that you have the equivalent of the K-2006 which is one of the Recommended Test Kits.
 
I followed the instructions exactly as it said to on the lid. Filled to 25ml, 20 drops of R-0010, 5 drops of R-0011L, then I added 1 drop at a time and mixed till it turned blue and stayed blue, at 5 drops it almost stayed blue but at 6 it stayed. And for the pool water I did the 10ML test since I had a feeling it was going to be high.
 
After you verify that your testing is accurate, the most economical way to attempt to lower your CH is by collecting rainwater to replace your pool water. Obviously very dependent on mother nature helping you out, but if you can divert rain gutters on your house into the pool, that would help. Rain water has essentially no or very low CH but... depending on how you get the rain water into the pool, it could introduce fine dirt or organic materials, thereby increasing your effective bather load/chlorine demand.

Replacing with 600 CH water is an option but you will have to do partial drains and fills and using high CH water already, you'll likely only get it down to 800 or so without finding a source of lower CH water.

RO treatment is an option, but it will cost you a pretty penny.

Water hauled in on a truck from another source with guaranteed low CH? Maybe...

EDIT after reading response: Looks like your CH is 60 in that sample. Not sure if you were referring to the pool water or tap water.

Calcium Hardness Test

  1. Rinse and fill large comparator tube to 25 mL mark with water to be tested.*
  2. Add 20 drops R-0010. Swirl to mix.
  3. Add 5 drops R-0011L. Swirl to mix. If calcium hardness is present, sample will turn red.
  4. Add R-0012 dropwise. After each drop, count and swirl to mix until color changes from red to blue.
  5. Multiply drops in Step 4 by 10. Record as parts per million (ppm) calcium hardness as calcium carbonate.
 
Yup. I think you are off by a factor of 10 on your tap water test. With 25ml water sample, each drop is 10ppm. So you are at 60ppm.

How many drops did you count for the pool water? With a 10ml sample each drop would be 25ppm ... it would take 48 drops to get to 1200ppm.
When you are doing the 10ml test, you only need 10 drops of the R-0010 and 3 drops of the R-0011L.
 
+1 what jblizzle said.....I think there is some confusion. For clarity's sake, please only do the CH test with 10 ml of sample. Then, you count each drop as 25 ppm.

I would be a bit surprised if FL water was as high in CH as you report.
 
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