Chemical levels and cleaning salt cell

[dooger54]

I’ve recently taken control over my pool using TFP for that. I have always had to clean my cell about every 3-4 months, but you guys have stated in other posts that maintaining proper chemical levels should prevent the need for cleaning.

So my question is which of the chemical levels will have the most effect on calcium buildup on my cell?

My most recent levels here -

Ph-7.4
Fc-5.5
TA-70
Ch-425
Cya-90
Salt-4000

Thanks!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Use pool math or the pool math app to track CSI. Keep your CSI in a negative range (0 to -0.3). pH and TA will have the greatest influence on CSI. You can also consider adding borates to your pool water as they act as a high pH buffer. All of those things will help to control scale and keep the cleaning frequency low.

 

[dooger54]

Use pool math or the pool math app to track CSI. Keep your CSI in a negative range (0 to -0.3). pH and TA will have the greatest influence on CSI. You can also consider adding borates to your pool water as they act as a high pH buffer. All of those things will help to control scale and keep the cleaning frequency low.

CSI calculated at -.37 from pool math calculator. Higher ph and TA causes problems?

Will keeping these levels in balance also help with the white line on my pool tile? Always have a problem with that too. We drained our pool last year and had the line cleaned with a bead blaster. One year later and the line is already bad again.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Your pH seems much too low to me for a pool in Tucson. How often are you adding acid to get it to 7.4? If you are adding acid frequently, are you adding baking soda to compensate for the TA drop? What other chemicals are you adding?

 

[dooger54]

Your pH seems much too low to me for a pool in Tucson. How often are you adding acid to get it to 7.4? If you are adding acid frequently, are you adding baking soda to compensate for the TA drop? What other chemicals are you adding?

No other chemicals. According to this forum TA should be between 60-80 and that’s where I usually am. Never added baking soda. I add MA maybe once every couple weeks when ph gets up to 8. I last added on April 2.

 

[ping]

Since you are getting calcium scale the pH must be sitting at 8 for far too long, the highest I recommend is 7.8.

Adding 50ppm of borates will help your situation. This will slow the rate that the pH will rise and it will also limit the pH level inside the cell when it is generating chlorine.

 

[dooger54]

Since you are getting calcium scale the pH must be sitting at 8 for far too long, the highest I recommend is 7.8.

Adding 50ppm of borates will help your situation. This will slow the rate that the pH will rise and it will also limit the pH level inside the cell when it is generating chlorine.

Up until January of this year I had a pool company maintaining our pool since we are snowbirds. I don’t know how well they maintained the Ph, they were not very diligent. I will be using another service when we leave to go back to Illinois in May. That service will be once per week, so the Ph won’t get checked more than that. If adding borates will help keep Ph more stable I will do that.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Up until January of this year I had a pool company maintaining our pool since we are snowbirds. I don’t know how well they maintained the Ph, they were not very diligent. I will be using another service when we leave to go back to Illinois in May. That service will be once per week, so the Ph won’t get checked more than that. If adding borates will help keep Ph more stable I will do that.

Knowing that you are snowbirds and that you are using a pool service is kind of critical information ...

Since you are not directly controlling and treating the pool water, there is no telling what the pool service is doing. They could be using cal-hypo Shock weekly to keep the water clean as that is a very common practice. Cal-hypo adds calcium to the water as well as carbonate alkalinity. If they dumpnit in the skimmer (and many do it that way) then your SWG is going to get blasted with calcium and would explain why you are seeing scale inside the cell.

Many pool service techs also use soda ash (sodium carbonate) to raise pH and that too can add too much alkalinity all at once and drive up pH. This is usually used when pucks are added to the skimmer because trichlor pucks are acidic and lower TA over time.

You need to have a sit down meeting with your new service and be very clear with them about what chemicals you will let them use and what testing you want reported. If you just throw them the keys to the pool, they are simply going to do whatever they want (or not do anything at all) to the pool. They might not like being told what to do but, if you hope to keep your pool from getting all fouled up, you need to find a service that will listen to you. Or find a temporary renter for your home that will take care of the pool while you are away.

 

[dooger54]

Knowing that you are snowbirds and that you are using a pool service is kind of critical information ...

Since you are not directly controlling and treating the pool water, there is no telling what the pool service is doing. They could be using cal-hypo Shock weekly to keep the water clean as that is a very common practice. Cal-hypo adds calcium to the water as well as carbonate alkalinity. If they dumpnit in the skimmer (and many do it that way) then your SWG is going to get blasted with calcium and would explain why you are seeing scale inside the cell.

Many pool service techs also use soda ash (sodium carbonate) to raise pH and that too can add too much alkalinity all at once and drive up pH. This is usually used when pucks are added to the skimmer because trichlor pucks are acidic and lower TA over time.

You need to have a sit down meeting with your new service and be very clear with them about what chemicals you will let them use and what testing you want reported. If you just throw them the keys to the pool, they are simply going to do whatever they want (or not do anything at all) to the pool. They might not like being told what to do but, if you hope to keep your pool from getting all fouled up, you need to find a service that will listen to you. Or find a temporary renter for your home that will take care of the pool while you are away.

Well I will be very clear when interviewing a new service. As snowbirds we obviously don’t have any choice but to find a service for the pool while we are gone for 6-7 months. That really doesn’t affect my original post/question though. I have been taking care of the pool for 4 months now so I know what’s been put in the pool.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Well I will be very clear when interviewing a new service. As snowbirds we obviously don’t have any choice but to find a service for the pool while we are gone for 6-7 months. That really doesn’t affect my original post/question though. I have been taking care of the pool for 4 months now so I know what’s been put in the pool.

My suggestion was that your pool service is not maintaining your pool to TFP standards while you are away and this is why your cell is scaling with calcium and why you have to clean it so often. If you follow TFP Recommended levels 6 months out of the year but your pool service does not (and they very likely don’t and would not even if you asked them to), then there’s no way to know for sure what’s going on.

We do have a TFP Guide in Las Vegas that is a snowbird also - he leaves his fiberglass pool to the care of a “professional” while they travel. But, he is very clear with his pool boy that the only thing he is to do is to brush and clean the pool and adjust the pH, no other chemicals allowed. So perhaps you might take the same approach and pay a service to do cleaning and pH adjustments only, no other services needed. Otherwise the pool guy will just do whatever they are trained to do.

 

[dooger54]

My suggestion was that your pool service is not maintaining your pool to TFP standards while you are away and this is why your cell is scaling with calcium and why you have to clean it so often. If you follow TFP Recommended levels 6 months out of the year but your pool service does not (and they very likely don’t and would not even if you asked them to), then there’s no way to know for sure what’s going on.

We do have a TFP Guide in Las Vegas that is a snowbird also - he leaves his fiberglass pool to the care of a “professional” while they travel. But, he is very clear with his pool boy that the only thing he is to do is to brush and clean the pool and adjust the pH, no other chemicals allowed. So perhaps you might take the same approach and pay a service to do cleaning and pH adjustments only, no other services needed. Otherwise the pool guy will just do whatever they are trained to do.

I will give see what I can do. Do you think it still makes sense to add borates?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I will give see what I can do. Do you think it still makes sense to add borates?

That’s up to you but I probably would not do that with a pool service guy taking care of the pool. The problem is, if a pool guy checks pH and then adds acid simply based on the pool volume, he’s going to get confused and it takes more acid to lower pH when borates are present.

 

[dooger54]

That’s up to you but I probably would not do that with a pool service guy taking care of the pool. The problem is, if a pool guy checks pH and then adds acid simply based on the pool volume, he’s going to get confused and it takes more acid to lower pH when borates are present.

Thanks. I’ll leave it as is.