Adding Calcium Chloride dropped FC level

[chckles]

I added 4 pounds of Poolmate Calcium Increaser. FC went from 4.5 to 0,0 overnight. CC was also 0.
I also have a white precipitate near the returns.

Moved from here.

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
We have had that reported in the forum in the past. To our knowledge, there is no chemical reason for that to occur. Best to just monitor and raise the FC before adding calcium.
The white precipitate sounds like you may not have need to add calcium. How are you testing your pool water chemistry?
I suggest you read through Pool Care Basics - Trouble Free Pool and even look at a few of our videos TFP-TV - Trouble Free Pool

 

[duraleigh]

Something else may have depleted your FC but I don't think it was calcium.

 

[chckles]

Welcome to the forum!
We have had that reported in the forum in the past. To our knowledge, there is no chemical reason for that to occur. Best to just monitor and raise the FC before adding calcium.
The white precipitate sounds like you may not have need to add calcium. How are you testing your pool water chemistry?
I suggest you read through Pool Care Basics - Trouble Free Pool and even look at a few of our videos TFP-TV - Trouble Free Pool

I'm using TF-PRO Salt.

 

[chckles]

Something else may have depleted your FC but I don't think it was calcium.

I agree. Not Calcium. Probably an impurity in the product.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

It’s best to say that TFP doesn’t really know what causes this. We have had many reports of people adding CH increaser to their pools and their FC levels bottom out to zero or near-zero. We had one of our expert conduct a series of simple experiments adding controlled amounts of calcium chloride to a water sample measuring FC before and after with no detectable drop in FC. So we basically have conflicting results.

It seems that there is something in using granular CH Increaser products that causes chlorine to be depleted. Perhaps it is an anti-caking agent that is not being disclosed. We simply do not have enough information at this time.

One thing to try is to premix any CH increaser in a 5 gallon bucket first and then add it slowly in small batches to see if dissolving it first avoids FC loss. If so, then that’s a useful bit of information to have and it would correlate with some of the bench top testing that was done.

 

[JamesW]

Maybe a reducing agent or something is added to reduce metal corrosion or to help minimize iron staining from any iron in the product.

It is also blended with deicing compounds like salt and calcium chloride to protect metal without deterrent of the deicing compound to dissolve ice and snow.

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In any case, there are enough reports that something might be happening.

Can adding a lot of calcium chloride at once reduce FC??

My thinking was to have measurable quantities in a bucket the people have at home. And ideally two of them. Anything around and below 1g will be difficult to weigh, and buckets around 10L are relatively common. No idea what is common on the other side of the Pacific. Another thing is: We are...

www.troublefreepool.com

https://www.google.com/search?q=adding+calcium+to+pool+lower+chlorine+site:www.troublefreepool.com

 

[JamesW]

I added 4 pounds of Poolmate Calcium Increaser.

Contact the company and ask them if anything in the product will cause a loss of chlorine.

 

[newdude]

Contact the company and ask them if anything in the product will cause a loss of chlorine.

Sir. Did you turn the bucket off, then turn it back on again ?

That's about all they'll know at customer service.

 

[JamesW]

Don't be so cynical; I am quite sure that they have a crack staff available to answer any questions you might have.

 

[JamesW]

I am quite sure that they have a crack staff available to answer any questions you might have.

Edit: That should have read a staff that is on crack unable to answer any questions you might have.

 

[mgtfp]

Greetings from Melbourne, VIC, to Melbourne, FL!

Do you still have some of that calcium increaser left over? If yes, then you could try that experiment that Joyful Noise was mentioning. Once your FC is stable again, fill two buckets with pool water, ideally after sunset, and confirm FC.Then add a tea spoon full of calcium increaser to one of them and see what happens to FC in both buckets.

I did that test with an Aussie brand of calcium increaser and didn't see a significant drop in FC, which showed that these reported FC drops after adding calcium increaser don't seem to be created by calcium chloride itself. But the effect has been reported a number of times now.

 

[duraleigh]

Probably an impurity in the product.

Sadly, that's a good bet.

 

[chckles]

Sorry for the delay in responding. I started a new thread based on the recommendation since it has been a long time. I have been travelling for a number of reasons not all good. Anyway, I did the bucket test and the FC in the Calcium Chloride bucket dropped from 8 to 2.5 in one day. The control bucket 8 to 7.5.

I sent an email to PoolMate and got a response from the National Sales Manager with the SDS which I have attached. He said to ignore the company name.

I am only sending this for information purposes. Because of a lot of rain and drain and more rain I am adding Calcium in small batches after pushing up the FC before the additions.

When I next purchase calcium Chloride I will do the 5 gallon bucket test BEFORE I add the product to the pool.

Thank you all for your prior responses.