Help with Calcium test

[JoyfulNoise]

When calcium combines the indicator dye, it can agglomerate and form the “floaties” you see. Metal ions like iron can also cause the dye to precipitate. Shaking may help to redissolve it but the best method is to do the test fast and use a SpeedStir.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

The other thing to understand is that these Eriochrome indicators (various types for different kinds of mineral hardness) are not very water soluble at all. It takes a great deal of work to create the R-0011L indicator which is why it has a short shelf life and can easily go bad. If you look at the dye liquid and it appears overly viscous and “clumpy” or if it leaves solid residues on the side of the dispenser bottle (kind of like curdled milk), then it is probably going bad and should be replaced. The CH indicator is probably the least stable of the chemicals used in these test kits along with the R-0871 chlorine titrant.

 

[AUSpool]

By chance have you used any magnesium chloride or magnesium sulfate in your pool? Do you happen to know the total hardness (Ca + Mg hardness ) of your water? Australian pools/owners tend to utilize magnesium chloride and Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) in their pools.

These newish ’mineral‘ salts or ‘mineral crystals’ as they call them are “amazing”, they can even predict the lotto numbers… so I’m told.

Most of the major suppliers have a range, Fluidra, WaterCo, Zodiac, etc. all with the cheesiest marketing I’ve ever seen. One is 98% MgCl2.6H20, while the others are blends that also include KCl, NaCl and borax. The only thing that they don’t include is magnesium sulfate, it must be too expensive.

Apparently there’s no salt in magnesium chloride but an existing chlorinator will run on it just fine… must be magic. Cant be witchcraft, chlorinators don’t float.

These new mag salts are about 10X the price of our regular salts and are only 98% pure for the better ones while our regular salt is 99.4%. Pay more, get less.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

There’s nothing wrong with magnesium chloride per se when it comes to creating the brine. The biggest issues are cost and interference with the CH test. Magnesium has high solubility in water similar to sodium and potassium. It usually will only scale once the pH is above 10 (which can happen INSIDE and SWG cell 😉).

Magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) is bad because the sulfates added by it are not good for pool plaster and SWG cells. People love to soak in Epsom salt because of skin and joint issues but it makes very little sense to do that in a swimming pool.

Pool chemical suppliers will say whatever they can get away with to sell a bag of salt for more than it’s worth. Here in the USA it’s not uncommon to find bags of cyanuric acid labeled with “Specially Formulated for Salt Pools” and they charge 1.5X the price of the “boring” CYA 🙄. There’s literally no difference between the two.

 

[AlexPowell]

When I was younger I competed in weightlifting, and still practice strength training to this day. There is a supplement industry that supports strength training and the associate fitness/bodybuilding industries. It's incredible how corrupt and immoral this industry is, with supplements being marketed as steroids with steroid producing results being the norm. Even in CostCo with the vitamins I saw something along the lines of "testobol" which was nothing more than zinc and magnesium in a pill.

The pool industry has incredible parallels to this. I have now been a working pool owner for a month and I have been to a great deal of pool shops in my city to try and find the one I want to give my business to. Unfortunately the independents were just as bad as the big chains, and when you go into them it is the exact same as the supplement stores. They sell preparations of chlorine with CYA in them as the norm, with bleach not even visible to the customer. At the counter they have tablets of aluminium salts on special that are marketed to clearing pools. I personally witnessed person after person come in and buy these tablets and there was not a single word of guidance from the pool store people. They were more than happy to simply sell terrible products along with magic potions to the uneducated

 

[AUSpool]

I do not have a speed stir yet but it would be interesting to see if that made a difference

When you get one you will question yourself how you ever lived without one. CCL have one.

 

[AlexPowell]

When you get one you will question yourself how you ever lived without one. CCL have one.

Today I actually did the calcium test again, and my swirling action was much better and it didn't precipitate like before. The speedstir will definitely help, especially with the 25ml tests that can't be swirled easily

 

[AUSpool]

The pool industry has incredible parallels to this. I have now been a working pool owner for a month and I have been to a great deal of pool shops in my city to try and find the one I want to give my business to. Unfortunately the independents were just as bad as the big chains, and when you go into them it is the exact same as the supplement stores. They sell preparations of chlorine with CYA in them as the norm, with bleach not even visible to the customer. At the counter they have tablets of aluminium salts on special that are marketed to clearing pools. I personally witnessed person after person come in and buy these tablets and there was not a single word of guidance from the pool store people. They were more than happy to simply sell terrible products along with magic potions to the uneducated

I don’t think our regulator has enough authority. Do we even have a regulator, the domestic market seems to be self regulated with industry driven standards. The EPA doesn't appear to get involved, I have always been surprised that domestic pools are allowed to discharge copper and silver ions to the environment. Sanitation equipment is regulated by the Aust. Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority which dosen‘t seem appropriate. Commercial pool operations are regulated by the individual state health departments. We have a national standard for safety barriers but not for sanitation and other chemicals used for domestic pools.

There’s nothing wrong with magnesium chloride per se when it comes to creating the brine. The biggest issues are cost and interference with the CH test. Magnesium has high solubility in water similar to sodium and potassium. It usually will only scale once the pH is above 10 (which can happen INSIDE and SWG cell 😉).

Magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) is bad because the sulfates added by it are not good for pool plaster and SWG cells. People love to soak in Epsom salt because of skin and joint issues but it makes very little sense to do that in a swimming pool.

Pool chemical suppliers will say whatever they can get away with to sell a bag of salt for more than it’s worth. Here in the USA it’s not uncommon to find bags of cyanuric acid labeled with “Specially Formulated for Salt Pools” and they charge 1.5X the price of the “boring” CYA 🙄. There’s literally no difference between the two.

I like the boring CYA, I pick up a few bags for under $10 each when Aldi has them. At 100% pure CYA its a bargain. But I cringe when I the see bags of Epsom salt for sale and hope they don‘t end up in the back yard pool.

 

[AUSpool]

Today I actually did the calcium test again, and my swirling action was much better and it didn't precipitate like before. The speedstir will definitely help, especially with the 25ml tests that can't be swirled easily

I just did the CH test yesterday but didn’t think about the floaties. I think I get that all the time although its not noticeable when spinning on the SpeedStir, only when its turned off, but by then I’m already halfway to the sink. I thought the floaties were a complex of the R0011 die and magnesium.