So this is a problem that I've been trying to solve for over two years. We bought a house with an existing fiberglass pool that the finish has gone chalky. There are small areas of the sparkly blue that exist to drive me crazy, but is mostly covers the entire fiberglass pool. LOTS of Scaletec has produced zero improvement. It is not rough and does not scratch off. New info for today is that when I added Hardness Plus, where the pellets were sitting went back to the correct blue sparkly finish and the chalkiness disappeared. The sad part is that after the Hardness Plus dissolved the chalky finish returned. Thought this new clue might help someone with what may have caused this problem or spark ideas on how to correct. Thanks!
Chalky Finish on Fiberglass
- Thread starter MANASSASPOOL
- Start date
- Jun 22, 2014
- 52,061
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
Re: Chalky Finish on Fiberglass
That is very interesting. I've taken a personal interest in some of these FB issues, and I have seen where other FB owners claimed by increasing their CH level, a chalkiness went away. Almost as if the water was too acidic or something. Curious, could you post your current pH, TA, and CH so we can figure out your CSI level?
Re: Chalky Finish on Fiberglass
Thanks for helping! My numbers today are:
pH 7.2
FC .5
cH 250
TA 60
CYA 20
Not sure what happened to all my chlorine, maybe adding the hardness plus caused it to go down. Fixing that and CYA now. My manufacturer recommends 350 CH, so still working on raising that as well. I can still faintly see where the Hardness Plus was sitting on the fiberglass surface.
Thanks for helping! My numbers today are:
pH 7.2
FC .5
cH 250
TA 60
CYA 20
Not sure what happened to all my chlorine, maybe adding the hardness plus caused it to go down. Fixing that and CYA now. My manufacturer recommends 350 CH, so still working on raising that as well. I can still faintly see where the Hardness Plus was sitting on the fiberglass surface.
Re: Chalky Finish on Fiberglass
So this is a problem that I've been trying to solve for over two years. We bought a house with an existing fiberglass pool that the finish has gone chalky. There are small areas of the sparkly blue that exist to drive me crazy, but is mostly covers the entire fiberglass pool. LOTS of Scaletec has produced zero improvement. It is not rough and does not scratch off. New info for today is that when I added Hardness Plus (raising from cH of 200), where the pellets were sitting went back to the correct blue sparkly finish and the chalkiness disappeared. The sad part is that after the Hardness Plus dissolved the chalky finish returned. Thought this new clue might help someone with what may have caused this problem or spark ideas on how to correct. My numbers today are:
CYA 20
FC .5
pH 7.2
TA 60
cH 250
Thanks!
So this is a problem that I've been trying to solve for over two years. We bought a house with an existing fiberglass pool that the finish has gone chalky. There are small areas of the sparkly blue that exist to drive me crazy, but is mostly covers the entire fiberglass pool. LOTS of Scaletec has produced zero improvement. It is not rough and does not scratch off. New info for today is that when I added Hardness Plus (raising from cH of 200), where the pellets were sitting went back to the correct blue sparkly finish and the chalkiness disappeared. The sad part is that after the Hardness Plus dissolved the chalky finish returned. Thought this new clue might help someone with what may have caused this problem or spark ideas on how to correct. My numbers today are:
CYA 20
FC .5
pH 7.2
TA 60
cH 250
Thanks!
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,511
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Calculate your CSI using PoolMath. I don’t know what your salt or water temp is. But it looks like your CSI can be very negative. I would adjust your water balance towards a zero CSI and see how your pool changes.
- Jun 22, 2014
- 52,061
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
I also suspect that the Scaletec depleted some of your FC. I experimented with ScaleTec on occasion when trying to ascertain the problem with my gelcoat and found that my FC dropped quicker when using that and some other supplemental products. While in general CH terms, we don't think of FB pools (or vinyl) requiring much (or any) calcium since they are not fabricated with calcium like a plaster pool, some of those other members I noted above saw an improvement with a healthier CSI level (see PoolMath), either by raising their CH and/or pH/TA. Like Allen said, try bringing your CSI closer to zero or only slightly negative and see how that works for you.
Looks like it is at -.69, should I just play with the other numbers on the calculator to see what raises it or is there a prescribed method? Fiberglass manufacturer recommends CH of 350 so I'm assuming it must be of some merit.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,511
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Do some what if modeling and see different ways the CSI changes. You have to figure out what works for your pool. Some combo of raising CH, TA & PH.
I get the same issue every other year in the spring. Get a foam sanding pad and sand down the whole pool and filter it out and you should be OK for the season.