White flakes from SWG

[MarieB]

@MarieB ... White flakes from your SWG means your CA is high and your CSI is allowing it to deposit. You should start a thread on that and we can help you get that under control. If you have high CA in your fill water running it through a water softener (if you have one for your house) will help.

I was trying to find a sequestering agent that I could also filter out.. hence the use of MM.. but it appears to be not a complete solution. I am now convinced the surest way to get the iron out of a pool water is with a drain/refill. I think I will try a few staged drain and refills during our rainy season. I just hope it rains this year.

Posting new thread per @mguzzy:
My csi has been within optimal range and I am getting white flakes out of my returns, as generated by SWG. Pool store states calcium hardness at about 440 or so. My fill water is about 200-250 if memory is correct. Replacing evaporation loss always adds more CA. Too expensive to drain and refill, can only refill every five years. I am trying to vacuum out and net out the white flakes, hoping that will make some degree of difference. I do not have a water softener. If my csi is optimal, then the CA won’t attach to surfaces, is that correct?

 

[cowboycasey]

about the best thing you can do is add a water softener and tie in the hose or whatever your pool fill uses.. That will slow the addition of extra calcium.. I have mine setup this way as my calcium is WAY up there from our water, I have never had an issue with mine..

the next thing may be to do a reverse osmosis on your water, that will take most of the solids out of the pool and get it back to where you can deal with it.. ( I just know about this, I Have never done it)

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

I recently had the same issue. I worked on lowering TA and adding borates. I'm no longer seeing flakes.

Calcium Flakes in Properly Balanced Pool with SWG

I'm seeing calcium flakes coming from the returns, most likely being generated in the SWG cell. I collected some flakes this morning with the net and they tested positive for calcium (MA drops test). The flakes are soft and dissolve on contact. Test results: FC: 8 CC: 0 pH: 7.6 (Ranges from...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[cowboycasey]

speaking of that how are you testing your water? It says you have a K-1005 and you need a K2006C or TF100 to do a complete test...

 

[MarieB]

I use the k-1005 kit for DPD chlorine and pH and Total Alkalinity and sometimes for calcium and CYA. CYA is hard for me to read so I go to Leslie’s for their tests and make sure mine are similar. I got a separate kit k-1106 for phosphates. Plus I have both chemistry booklets from Taylor.
Also I vacuumed the spa under the returns where the white flakes accumulate the most and collected about 1/4 cup of sludge. My csi is within the pool app range of +- .60.

 

[mknauss]

With a SWCG, if your CSI is above 0, you are likely creating scale with in the cell.
What is the CH using your kit.
Have you taken some of the flakes and put some acid on them?

 

[MarieB]

My calcium today was 520. Been adding fill water due to hot days. And I hadn’t vacuumed since late June so there was a lot of the sludge. I put acid on the sludge and it fizzed like alka seltzer. If I’m within good csi range, are flakes something to be concerned about chemistry-wise? Or is it just aesthetics?

 

[mknauss]

The flakes are coming from the SWCG. It may or may not completely scale up. So be ware of that.

Otherwise it is mostly aesthetic.

 

[MarieB]

Ok thank you very much! I’ll keep an eye on the swg plates!

Do you think if I keep vacuuming the flakes out my Calcium ppm might decrease a little?

 

[mknauss]

It will take 10's of pounds of scale to be removed to lower your CH a measurable amount.

 

[MarieB]

Oh yikes! Thank you for that!!! I appreciate all your help on this!!! Have a great weekend!!!