Is it truly common to have low CH in TX/southwest?

dfwnoob

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Feb 27, 2022
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DFW
Pool Size
15000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Jandy Aquapure 1400
Seems like a dumb question for me to be asking at this point, but for the first time ever my CH tested low. 200 instead of the usual 250-325 it's hovered at since I bought the house. I see endless complaints from folks across Texas and the southwest, especially, regarding high CH due to their fill water. Is this a common thing in DFW? Because of the sunlight and spillover running twice a day, I get a lot of additional fill water into the pool due to evaporation, so I'm just kind of surprised to see it low.

Either way, I guess I'll pick up some "calcium hardness increaser" as ice melting-style calcium chloride is pretty much impossible to find around these parts.
 
How's the weather been ? We had crazy rain in Jan and Feb and I drained a foot 3 times. We didn't get 3 ft, but the patio runoff added some extra.
 
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Either way, I guess I'll pick up some "calcium hardness increaser" as ice melting-style calcium chloride is pretty much impossible to find around these parts.
If you can locate a concrete supplier nearby they will have calcium chloride much cheaper in 50# bags ($25-ish) than what you’ll pay for the pool labeled product.
 
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How's the weather been ? We had crazy rain in Jan and Feb and I drained a foot 3 times. We didn't get 3 ft, but the patio runoff added some extra.

I didn't even think of that. It's actually been a fairly rainy year so far, and we just had over two inches of rain last week. I did just pick up a small amount of CH Increaser. Poolmath wants 13 lbs; I certainly didn't buy that much. I'll put in what I have and monitor it as we go through spring and more and more fill water gets added. Unless you guys think it's imperative to bring it back up toward 300.

If you can locate a concrete supplier nearby they will have calcium chloride much cheaper in 50# bags ($25-ish) than what you’ll pay for the pool labeled product.

Good to know! If I end up needing to buy more, I'll try calling around to concrete places. Thank you!
 
I'll put in what I have and monitor it as we go through spring and more and more fill water gets added. Unless you guys think it's imperative to bring it back up toward 300.
Historically your rain and fill have reasonably balanced each other and it's been stable. It either goes back to being stable, or it stays wet and keeps slowly dropping. I'd add back to your typical target and monitor from there.
 
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Thanks sir! Since I started with TFP from the beginning I almost never have any actual chemistry concerns and spend most of my time here complaining about Jandy products. Then I end up realizing "wait I don't actually know that much about fixing water problems" :laughblue:
 
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Don't sell yourself short. You've mastered the basics to say the least, and then some. But peer review is an amazing thing and the more eyes one on has on an issue, the less chance something gets overlooked.

Or we run down 63 things it isn't until we come up with what it is. It's still great here.
 
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CH will never decrease unless pool water is being exchanged with fresh water.

What is the CH of your fill water?

Do you have an autofill? Do you have a wall drain or other type of drain in the fill pot or skimmer?

CH always increases in the south west. If you are seeing decreasing CH without a good explanation, then you need to start looking for a leak.
 
Calculate the volume of water in 1” of pool surface. In my pool, it equates to around 290 gallons of water … in a 16,000 gallon pool. It’s peanuts. And surface water flows out drains taking very little CH with it.

It’s possible the measurement is off due to lack of mixing but that’s unlikely if pumps are regularly running.

Falling CH is sometimes a measurement error. But consistently low levels are worrisome. It just doesn’t happen here in the southwest.

Let’s see what the full water looks like.
 

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Calculate the volume of water in 1” of pool surface. In my pool, it equates to around 290 gallons of water … in a 16,000 gallon pool. It’s peanuts.
Agree fully. But some areas have been pounded with storm after storm lately. We picked up 6 inches in a couple days for one of them.
But consistently low levels are worrisome.
This is a recent issue after consistent stability. Which could of course be a new leak. Time and testing will tell. (y)
 
Answers to the following questions would be helpful -

1. What is the CH of the municipal water used in the pool?

2. Does the fill line connect to a water softener or does it use water straight from the municipal source?

3. Is there an overflow drain on the pool or has a submersible pump been used to drain water?
 
Just tested it. Fill water comes out to 125-150. I tested it with both my "old" reagents from last year and the new refill I just got today. I now forget which one was which.. but either way, it's in that ballpark. Granted, I did just get a letter in the mail stating that they're messing with the water and it may smell/taste odd for the next few weeks. I don't know if that's skewing my tests to be lower than average.

We do have an autofill in the form of a Fill-o-Matic. Pump runs 24x7 at low speed. No water treatment at the house (no softener, filter, etc.)

On average, my water level sits about an inch below the overflow drain; there's nothing I can do about this given it's location and the level of the skimmers. So virtually any hard rain causes the pool to overflow. When it rains a lot over the course of a few weeks, I end up going through a lot of CYA and salt to put it back up to where it needs to be. Last spring/summer was very dry with minimal rain, so that might explain the stability I experienced (sorry for not having good PM logs, I just generally don't bother doing it since the results are normally so consistent).

Late last year we did get some appreciable rainfall in a major storm and that storm also killed the sump basin pump that my pool overflow connects to. Over the course of the night, the water level had risen so far in the pool it was maybe an inch from overflowing into the yard. I just opened the backwash valve to get rid of all that water. That had to be a ton of water; even with my VSP running at full speed it took a while to drain that back down to a normal level. Embarrasing as it is, I don't think I've bothered to test CH since then - so it's possible it's been this way for months.

Need to get more consistent with my testing beyond FC and pH, I suppose!
 
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My water source is Lake Lavon, which supplies most of the northern 'burbs of Dallas, and I had to add calcium on our initial fill and will use cal hypo in the winter to replenish calcium.

Generally speaking, in our area if your water source is a lake you will likely need to add a bit of calcium but if an aquifer if your source you probably have a good deal of calcium in your water.
 
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That checks out, I'm not too far from you at all. Makes sense then! I'll just keep an eye on the CH and maybe do calhypo in the winter as well.
 
That checks out, I'm not too far from you at all. Makes sense then! I'll just keep an eye on the CH and maybe do calhypo in the winter as well.
If you do add significant quantities of Calcium, it's a good idea to check your FC levels 24hrs after. There is some evidence that depending on the Calcium you add that it could cause a drop of FC levels. This happened to me after adding some from a relatively expensive lot picked up at Leslie's. (Rest assured I only went after knowing exactly what I needed). Do some searching on the Calcium and FC levers on the site and you'll find several threads discussing the topic. Seems very much a your milage may vary topic thus the advise to test FC soon after.
 
We've seen it a bunch but weren't able to replicate it or nail down which brands are frequent offenders. The best we could tell it is from impurities in the batch.
 
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