Help! Low calcium level in pool

[RyanandAngie]

Hi there new to forum. Need some advice! Somehow and I am not sure how but my CYA levels were through roof after only a week and a half of having pool up. Obviously I added too much stabilizer. Well we drained about 25% of pool to get level down. It was at 75 and now is about 50. Decided to use bleach now instead of pucks. After we refilled the pool, I tested water so we can get our alkalinity back in order. PH is 7.6, TA is 150, water temp is 84, free and combined chlorine is both 0. Here is the crazy thing put calcium hardness is so low that when I did the test with the Taylor test kit, it turned red right away. So I don’t even know how to read that. I didn’t even have to add drops to the solution to get it to turn red. What do I do? What is causing this? I used a lot of muriatic acid last week to get TA down. Could that cause it? Thanks for any help you can give me!

 

[Oly]

The good news is your vinyl pool does not need calcium like a plaster pool.
You need to keep your FC up into the proper range for your CYA FC/CYA Levels
When your pH gets to 8 add MAcid to bring pH down to middle 7s and over time your TA will drop, no stress and easy. Test your fill water for TA and pH.

 

[RyanandAngie]

So you don’t think I should add muriatic acid right now?

 

[Oly]

So you don’t think I should add muriatic acid right now?

Your pH is fine at 7.6 but you do need FC ASAP, very important with your water temps now.
FC/CYA Levels

 

[Oly]

I just saw you have the Taylor K-2005 test kit. Be aware this kit has an upper limit on your ability to test FC levels and is not as precise as the FAS-DPD test. If you get behind the curve and develop an algae problem you will be unable to use the SLAM Process and clear your pool water properly. You will also be unable to diagnose an active algae condition with an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test test because your liquid DPD test lacks the precision needed to detect a small but significant FC loss. You can add only the FAS-DPD test to upgrade kit.

 

[jesse-99]

Yep, get that FC up using liquid chlorine, no real need to add anything to bring up your CH on a vinyl pool. pH is okay. You're going to be in good shape, especially having dropped your CYA some already, good job.