I have a hard time keeping my Calcium levels stabilized. I will push to 400 then test two/three weeks later and I’m back at 325. Add again,test,repeat. I use the TF-100 and the test is hardly brain surgery. I will do twice in two different spots in deep end and it’s repeatable. Yes it rains here and when it rains “it rains”. My Primera Stone is fairly new (8 months or so. Does this come into the equation? I spend a lot of time and money on Calcium Increaser. Definitely more than any other chemicals that’s for sure. Anybody else see this in HOUSTON or surrounding area??
Calcium maintenance in HOUSTON
- Thread starter Bvacchiano
- Start date
- Jun 22, 2014
- 47,949
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
My CH will only drop when water is exchanged from the pool. A simple rain won't do it, but heavy TX downpours in excessive amounts to cause water exchange can reduce CH over time. The CH can be a bit tricky, at least it always is for my eyes. I have to be very patient and wait for that baby blue. A small variance won't be a deal breaker for the plaster as long as the numbers aren't too far off (apart) for too long. Also take into account your overall CSI (see PoolMath) which factors water temp, TA, and pH into the equation. If you don't already have a magnetic speedstir, I'd recommend one. It really helps with the CH test,
Yeah I love the Speed Stir for sure! Always keep the CSI in range though Calcium is pretty much “Weightless” in the CSI equation. I think I have the pool that eats Calcium! Lol
Are you having to drain water at times to lower your pool level after those Texas sized rains?? If so, that's where your CH is going.
People in FL and along the gulf coast with heavy rains do have some frequent nature driven water exchanges to deal with. It also tends to affect the CYA levels. How's yours been?
Maddie
People in FL and along the gulf coast with heavy rains do have some frequent nature driven water exchanges to deal with. It also tends to affect the CYA levels. How's yours been?
Maddie
I have an auto fill and “auto drain”. I had the builder come look at the auto fill and he said everything was perfect. Just measured my CH TWICE and got 50. Hard to believe since we are known to have hard water here in Sugar Land and I DON’T have a water softener. TA was 210 (just thought I’d check as I never did that). So my fill water has low CH but a high TA. Anyways yes in summer I’m adding CYA to pool not OFTEN but frequently.
- Jun 22, 2014
- 47,949
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
The fact you are losing CH and CYA in what may be unexplained/significant amounts is concerning. Regardless of the builder's initial assessment, I'd monitor everything and keep good notes. You may need that to convince your builder later there is something odd. While CYA can degrade slowly over the summer, it generally doesn't drop too fast unless you exchange large amounts of water. CH only goes down with water replacement, and only then good amounts of it. Autofills are sneaky in that sense. You might start to keep tabs on your water meter numbers to see if there are unexplained water losses. You should test your tap water (hose bib) to see what your CH is.
One last thought ….. you have no concerns about performing the CH test right? No chance you are mixing-up any of the instructions for a 10ml versus 25 ml water sample?
Pool School - Calcium Hardness
One last thought ….. you have no concerns about performing the CH test right? No chance you are mixing-up any of the instructions for a 10ml versus 25 ml water sample?
Pool School - Calcium Hardness
OrangeAndBlue
Silver Supporter
- Aug 19, 2017
- 128
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
My experience is somewhat similar (Katy area) - not as extreme as you describe for CH, but I lose a lot of CYA. My CH was up and down between 300 and 350 through the warmer months. My fill water has pretty high CH so I did not have to add that much CH (I think twice through the spring / early summer), but definitely I notice it decreasing after big rains and after lots of kids splashing in the water.
I have the option to fill with regular city water (high CH) or softened water, but outside of the hottest couple of summer months I rarely had to fill my pool and most of the fill water has been rain. I don't have an autofill so I know when it's filled from the tap and from which one - hard or soft water. I've learned to never fill with the soft water to keep CH from dropping. However, while the high CH fill water helps keep my CH in line, my CYA really takes a hit. I was losing 20-30 ppm of CYA every 4-6 weeks while the pool was used most heavily during the summer. Our pool has an overflow drain a little below the coping and when there is lots of activity in the pool I think I'm losing a good amount of water through there as I can see the waves are going above the drain cover in the wall. I believe that and the heavy rains cause these losses in CH and CYA. Are you experiencing similar losses with CYA?
I have the option to fill with regular city water (high CH) or softened water, but outside of the hottest couple of summer months I rarely had to fill my pool and most of the fill water has been rain. I don't have an autofill so I know when it's filled from the tap and from which one - hard or soft water. I've learned to never fill with the soft water to keep CH from dropping. However, while the high CH fill water helps keep my CH in line, my CYA really takes a hit. I was losing 20-30 ppm of CYA every 4-6 weeks while the pool was used most heavily during the summer. Our pool has an overflow drain a little below the coping and when there is lots of activity in the pool I think I'm losing a good amount of water through there as I can see the waves are going above the drain cover in the wall. I believe that and the heavy rains cause these losses in CH and CYA. Are you experiencing similar losses with CYA?
I doubt heavy rains have anything to do with your CH loss. Shut off your autofill and observe over a week or so. It sounds like you have a leak but your autofill is masking it. Shutting it down will prove or disprove that idea and we can go from there.
What do you mean heavy rains would have little effect? If you have an auto drain as it is raining it’s pushing water out the drain and replacing it with either rain water or fill water. How can it not have a profound effect??
Because they don't. The average pool is about 4-5' deep overall (call it 50"). Most of these pools have the ability to take on 4 inches plus of rainfall before they start to overflow. (I assume you meant "auto drain" as an overflow device)
So, let's say you have a 6" rain from one thunderstorm. That means only 2" of your pool depth is replaced by rainwater so only 4% of your total pool water is replaced (2 divided by 50).
4% is not even measurable in the tests we use.
Now, you can take that out to extremes and say you have a 54" thunderstorm (Houston's average is around 50" for the year) and it has a 100 percent affect but if you ever have that occur, you have much bigger problems than your pool.
It is very easy to assume rainfall has a dramatic affect on all pool chemistry (we see that assumption made all the time) but the hard fact is that rainfall is very seldom ANY significant factor in significantly altering your chemistry.
Even if you have a 54" storm, the largest effect on water chemistry would be around 50% , unless your pool was completely empty at the time.