Testing out my test kit

No, the calcium hardness is only for calcium. Iron, copper, and manganese require special tests that are not in the K-2006. You can get the pool store to test for them, though.

Janet

If your pool is filled with water that has gone through the softener, there should little if any copper, iron, or manganese present. One test for metals, is to fill a CLEAN 5 gallon white bucket with water, add a tablespoon of bleach, cover it, and let it stand for a day. Metals will tend to settle to the bottom. If you want to take it a step further, add a couple of tablespoons of washing soda when you add the bleach. Be sure to mix afterwards.

So hard water is bad because it contains metals, but soft water is also bad because it can be corrosive, so well water should be avoided if possible?

Sorta, but not exactly. Neither hard water nor soft water is necessarily bad, nor is well water. The well water in parts of my area is EXTREMELY pool friendly -- metal free, and pretty much dead on in pH, alkalinity and calcium. Those wells are in limestone karst. Now, the wells in shale are something else altogether!

We can make taking care of your pool pretty easy. But, really *understanding* it? Not so much.

To completely understand pools (and I don't) you have to understand

• hydrology
• geology
• electronics
• motor circuits
• hydraulics
• mechanics
• structure (metals, plastics & concrete)
• organic chemistry
• inorganic chemistry
• pathogenicity of amoebic, bacterial, & viral organisms
• human immune response, and hyper-response
• . . . and more.

I know it sounds like I'm being facetious, but I'm not. I have books on every one of those topics within 10' of where I'm sitting, have read some of all of those books, and have, at one time or another, used something I learned from each of them, to understand a little more about pools. Believe it or not, the ones that have MOST affected how I think about pools are the ones on philosophy and theology ;)