Stupid high calcium

[Smokeyhill]

I filled our new pool a little over a month ago. I am loving the TFP system! It is some easy pool maintenance. Since my pool is 24' AGP I wasn't worried about calcium. Just for giggles, I checked it the other day. It's 1100! Thinking I messed it up, I tested it again, same 1100. So, I tested the tap water, yep, 1100. I knew we had hard water, the scale will plug faucets up in just a few years, and toilets don't last much longer. But dang! So, I ran the saturation index in the Taylor kit and am sitting at 0.4 and flirting with 0.5 because the wife likes to keep the pool bath water warm UGH! At least that's the best I can estimate because the balance calculator only goes up to 1000 calcium. Here's my numbers:

pH 7.4
TA 90
CYA 40
FC 6
CC 0
calcium 1100

Edited to add: I checked the water temp with my digital thermometer. 89° O.M.G.

I'm afraid if the wife heats it up any more it's going to go cloudy (if it doesn't start boiling first, I should buy her a hot tub). I am considering dropping the pH to 7.2 to buy me a little more room. Is there anything else I can do? The water looks so beautiful and clear. I want it to stay that way.

 

[jblizzle]

If the pool and the tap water have the same CH, then replacing water is not going to help.

Best you can do is keep the pH lower and perhaps get the TA to drop a bit.

 

[Smokeyhill]

I just plugged the digital temp into the calculator. SI is roughly 0.55. I'm running the solar panels tonight to cool the pool down some. She's just going to have to deal with it.

- - - Updated - - -

If the pool and the tap water have the same CH, then replacing water is not going to help.

Best you can do is keep the pH lower and perhaps get the TA to drop a bit.

Thanks Jason. That's what I was afraid of. How low can I go with TA and still be reasonably safe from bounce? Our rain and tap water are both on the acidic side and I have to monitor the pH to keep it at 7.4 if we get a lot of rain or have to add make-up water.

 

[jblizzle]

Seems like you have the opposite issue of most where the pH is always trying to rise

For you, I would keep the TA down to 60ppm at the lowest and see how the pH behaves.

Putting you numbers into PoolMath indicates a CSI of 0.39

A couple other options that will lower the CSI:
1. Raise the CYA some
2. Add salt for the feel

 

[Smokeyhill]

Argh! I use pool math for everything, but never even thought about looking at it for sci. I guess I was too fascinated by the Taylor circle calculator gizmo. Shame on me. .39 isn't as scary as over .5. That's a relief. I'll drop the TA by 10 each week and see how the pH behaves and bottom it out at 60. I can bring the cya up to 50. I'll have to investigate how much salt to add. My pool is not rated as a salt water pool though.

 

[jblizzle]

All forms of chlorine add salt ... you might be surprised at how high the salt level can get without ever "adding salt"

SWGs need around 3200, the ocean is 32000.
For feel, getting to 2000 is usually enough and you might already be at 1000ppm.

 

[zea3]

Adding salt for feel doesn't require as much salt as it does for an SWG. You only need about 2000ppm. Test for salt before adding. All chlorine breaks down and leaves salt behind. Use PoolMath to determine how much salt you need.