New pool questions

[dsilchenstedt]

I just bought a house that has a pool that’s about a year old.
1. The Calcium Hardness is about 650 and the water used to fill the pool has a CH of 150. I drained a large amount of water due to rain and it didn’t drop the CH levels. Could the CH levels be related to leaching from the pool plaster since it isn’t very old?
2. The pool has white blemishes on the bottom. The previous owner said it’s because the plaster is new. He said the way to get rid of it is a muriatic bath i e increase muriatic acid levels really high until it goes away. What’s he talking about?

 

[Texas Splash]

Your current CH could be for different reasons. Some depends on how much water you exchanged and how high it was previously. How you tested is also important. I see from your Poolmath logs your pH was elevated quite a bit over the past few months when the water was warmer. That, along with an elevated CH will lead to scale quickly. Do you have any scale? Also, can you tell us which test kit you used and also add that kit to your signature please? As for leaching, I kind of doubt it at this point based on the the pools' age (a year), so it should be fully cured. Also, if the CH is that high there should be no leaching unless your pH was extremely low which it doesn't appear to have been.

Which reminds me .... a fresh, full set of water test results would be ideal at this point.

As for the blemishes, it could be from how the plaster was applied, at which point there's not much you can do. An acid bath is sometimes an option, but remember that acid baths remove a fine layer of plaster, thereby shortening its life span. Perhaps it's related to the elevated calcium level along with other chemical levels (i.e. pH and TA), but we'll know more with a full set of test results.

 

[dsilchenstedt]

okay. I’ll have to work on that a bit and get back to you. I’m deciding wether to drain and winterize right now or keep the pump on and chance a power outage. All this while being out of town. One problem at a time...will resume this conversation soon enough.