Calcium Deposits

[fvanskike]

Good morning,

What are the best products to attack the calcium buildup I have on my pool tiles (pictures below). The pumice stone I have does some work, but I know I need something else to truly take it down. Any products anyone can recommend would be great!

Also, one general question, how long does one need to run their pool pump daily? Is the, for every 10 degrees, run 1 hour correct?

Thanks.

 

[pooldv]

Here is an article to help determine pump run time. Pool School - Determine Pump Run Time

What you have there is calcium scale. Unchecked it will spread over your whole pool. Scale develops when pH is too high in combination with TA and CH. Folks in the southwest have an extra challenge to manage their pools to prevent scale. You will have to learn how to manage your CSI. PoolMath will give your CSI number. Keep your CSI between -0.3 and 0 to prevent scale.

If you lower your CSI to -0.8 or -0.9 then the scale on your tiles will dissolve on its own in a few weeks. Brushing will speed it up.

More here, Pool School - Calcium Scaling

 

[fvanskike]

Thank you for the feedback and links. Will give it a shot!

 

[Richard320]

Diluted Muriatic Acid, about 1:3 in a squirt bottle, a coarse nylon scrub brush, and plenty of elbow grease. Personally, I'd get in the pool and sit myself on a pool noodle or something so I could work at a convenient height, and keep a plastic cup or bucket handy on the deck. Spritz, scrub, slosh some pool water on it to rinse, and slide down to the next section. It doesn't have to be perfect all at once. Get the worst off and keep the pool water high and the pool chemistry in the negative CSI and it will go away.

 

[mknauss]

After you clean off all that calcium and put it back in to solution in the pool water - you may find your CH is very high and you need to replace your water or use Reverse Osmosis. Do you have a test kit to determine all your parameters? Pool School - Test Kits Compared

You can usually get to about 1000 ppm CH before it gets to be quite a balance to maintain a negative CSI. With our high CH/TA fill water and high evaporation rates it needs to be monitored closely to prevent having the calcium deposits again.

Take care.

 

[SoCalGuy]

Calcium deposits are an ongoing issue for us as the water here in San Diego is rock hard.

I used to spend hours trying to scrape and wash them off with acid. But I've found that the easiest way to deal with them is to just maintain correct chlorine and TA levels. Once your chemistry is balanced, the deposits more or less start to dissolve by themselves within a few weeks.

 

[fvanskike]

Thanks for all the advice! Will try all of your suggestions. When we bought the house, the pool was like this so we are trying to fix it up. Been working on lowering the pH and TA. They released a quality water report for Phoenix and the Calcium is high, so I don't really see how I can lower it. Current results were as below:]

FC: 2.2 (I know this is low, added bleach last night) PS....do floating chlorine dispensers do anything? The previous owners had one and I am using the tablets they left as well, but seems to be no effect. Maybe due to the heat, it's evaporating quickly?
pH: 7.2
TA: 100
CH: 420
CYA: 60

I've gotten the pH down from 8.2 and the TA from when I started it was 160 I believe.

Richard, any safety precautions you recommend when using your method? Obvious eye protection, but do you wear gloves and a mask or anything? Would seem hard in the pool.

Thank you all!

 

[SoCalGuy]

If you're going to spray & scrape the calcium with muriatic acid... get some floaties to sit on so you aren't treading water in the deep end. Definitely wear a mask and gloves. And a hat and lots of sunscreen because you'll be spending time in the water. It doesn't come right off, trust me.