Calcium Source and others...

Is a calcium blend ( with cacl2, nacl, kcl, mgcl2) such as many brands sold online okay to use for increasing calcium hardness?

How do you know if low calcium ( 130 ppm in concrete pool; water source (well) is the same. ) is being precipitated out and causing the sandy sediment on the bottom of the pool that Polaris 480 cannot pick up versus dead algae? Sand/dirt in the area is black not white (ah, maybe it is being bleached!!). I think the calcium has been at that level for 2 years. Just ordered a sand/silt bag for the Polaris.

Maybe the sand in filter should be changed to pick up these particles!?! Pool installed in 2005.

Are there reasonably good sources in the south for quality products?

Are there any other chem effects I need to be aware of when I add the calcium? (kaboom?) I do not want to create more milky appearance either.

As always, your wisdom is greatly appreciated!

So, after surfing the net, I have found several products that are above 90% Calcium Chloride but only a couple are available by shipping unless you live in the north. I was also looking for brands that had no heavy metal products or other junk. After reading another forum, ALL products have contamination and some do not disclose those.

However, I discovered that Tetra makes the purest, cleanest formula but cannot be easily obtained. ( http://www.tetrachemicals.com/index.asp?page_ID=1224 ). The best products are likely those for the food industry.

Dowflake has lower calcium chloride whereas Peladow is the pelleted form made by Dow which has a greater % CACL2. ( http://www.ice-melt-products.com/f/peladow.pdf ). The latter which is the same product called CForce (http://www.packandseal.com/p-5733-ca...50-lb-bag.aspx ) and can be acquired at big box stores at season.

Scottwood Industries has a product called Prestone Driveway Heat 50B-HEAT ( http://www.scotwoodindustries.com/brands/10/products/24 ) which is 90-92% CACL2 and shows no heavy metals which one can buy at Amazon. It is also found as Ice Melt ( http://www.homedepot.com/p/50-lb-Con...8#.Uce-9p3D_3g.) ****CHEAP**** but for which I can only locate in the upper US and they do not ship.

Lastly, there is this product, North American 50850 Extreme 7300 Salt, ( http://www.acehardware.com/product/i...LAID=615416390 ) which is suppose to be comparable to the other products. It too can be had at Amazon.

So, now I just have to make the decision of which one. Hope this helped anyone else looking for Calcium Hardness Increaser without chlorine additive.

I just ordered 2 - 50 pound bags of Dow Flake Extra (83 - 87%) from E & R Industrial (www.erindustrial.com). $18.38 per bag and $12.00 for shipping (+tax). Search for "ice melt".

Update. I got an email that shipping was going to be $67.00. I cancelled. But Fastenal will order it for you in a 50 lb. Bag for pickup at one of their local stores. No shipping. I paid $54 for 2 bags.

Wow, that is fantastic. I will keep them in mind for my next purchase!

I need to add around 85 lbs. of Calcium Chloride to my pool (need to raise the Calcium Hardness). Last year I filled from empty (40k gallons) and used a product I got from Fastenal to raise CH.
I just now picked up a bag of Road Runner Ice Melt which is from Scotwood Industries. However it doesn't indicate the percentage of Calcium Chloride - the spec sheet online shows "Proprietary" for the percentage.
Anyone know the percentage of Road Runner Ice Melt? Also, anyone heard of any negatives of using this? As it's not 100% Calcium Chloride - I want to be careful of what else in the bag I'm adding.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mm_putnam

I need to add around 85 lbs. of Calcium Chloride to my pool (need to raise the Calcium Hardness). Last year I filled from empty (40k gallons) and used a product I got from Fastenal to raise CH.
I just now picked up a bag of Road Runner Ice Melt which is from Scotwood Industries. However it doesn't indicate the percentage of Calcium Chloride - the spec sheet online shows "Proprietary" for the percentage.
Anyone know the percentage of Road Runner Ice Melt? Also, anyone heard of any negatives of using this? As it's not 100% Calcium Chloride - I want to be careful of what else in the bag I'm adding.

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Please try not to hijack others thread. I answered this same question you posted in your other thread - http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...lcium-Chloride

If you start cross posting the same questions in multiple threads, it's only going to lead to confusion. Ben Powell and the Mods are no longer actively managing this site (they are occasionally posting but not doing much admin activity). Therefore there is no one around to clean up and combine duplicate threads. The Pool Forum will start getting very messy if folks don't take a lot of care with posting questions.

Thanks

(I'm not officially anyone important on the PF, just trying to be a good PF citizen....)

PS - My answer to your post is this - be careful with standard road surface deicing products as they can contain trace levels of metal impurities. That's not at all something you want in your pool.

Thanks for the prompt reply. I did see the reply on my other post as well - sorry for the hijacking. I was thinking someone who had found this thread may benefit as well but then wondered if an older one like this would be viewed. Sorry for double post.
Would it be best to delete my post here - if I can even do that?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mm_putnam

Thanks for the prompt reply. I did see the reply on my other post as well - sorry for the hijacking. I was thinking someone who had found this thread may benefit as well but then wondered if an older one like this would be viewed. Sorry for double post.
Would it be best to delete my post here - if I can even do that?

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I wouldn't delete anything (not even sure how to do that). Just leave it as-is.

Just to comment on Calcium deicer blends, the sodium and potassium chloride will do nothing for your CH and the magnesium chloride would be bad for your pool surfaces (Mg can scale out and discolor plaster) and bad for SWCG pools. If you have to raise your CH a lot, then you need to know exactly how much of those other components you are adding to your water.

It would take a heck of a lot of magnesium to scale out. Typical hard water has both calcium and magnesium, but the solubility of magnesium carbonate is far higher than that of calcium carbonate. As for SWCG pools, the main issue is with splash-out of magnesium sulfate that has a high re-crystallization pressure so can do the most damage to unsealed soft stone or concrete. Even so, if the magnesium were a minor component of the ice salt, I wouldn't worry about it.