Opening Pool Questions and Levels

[jrsdws]

I think for now I'm going to forget about the calcium hardness issue, unless I find a product that will help that without screwing anything else up.

The pool is now crystal clear and I've been able to hold FC of 12 overnight for 3 nights running.

New test results:

FC: 12
CC: 13.5
pH: 7.8
TA: 520
CYA: 35

I will now start to lower pH so I can begin aerating to lower TA.

Thanks all for all the help....now if the sun would just stay out enough to warm things up we'd be swimming!!!

[madwil]

you can swim in it now, with your current levels...
however, your tests do still show CC, so you may want to keep the FC up another day or two.
I think what you listed as CC might be TC, and only 1.5 CC, but you should still maintain the FC until the CC drops <.5

[jrsdws]

Oops my mistake. Yes CC was 1.5 so TC is 13.5

Water temp only about 70 degrees so we have to be patient....at least I do....the kids might get in.

We'll maintain another day and check it as I lower pH and start aerating.

[Watermom]

You need to keep shocking until you can hold chlorine overnight without losing more than 1ppm and until your CC is no greater than 0.5.

[jrsdws]

Ok...new problem here. We went for our first swim today....nice and refreshing on a 92deg afternoon. However, low on the sidewalls and on various places on the bottom of the pool there are very rough spots...feels like something built up on it there. We also noticed this with the frequent brushings and vacuuming of the pool....the brush would really drag in these spots.

Water looks great. The bottom of the side walls had a little tint where it was rough in spots....brownish/greenish kind of....hard to tell against the blue liner.

Do you think this is scaling due to the high calcium hardness or something else?

It doesn't brush right off....even with lots of elbow grease.

What to do now? Still maintaining FC of about 12 and trying to get it to hold overnight....lost about 2ppm last night.

[jrsdws]

Forgot to mention the brownish/green color brushed away easily so it was probably a bit of algae left. The rough scaley stuff feels like sandpaper and appears white or clear.

[jrsdws]

Chlorine levels finally looking right and holding overnight. I worked on lowering pH slowly with muriatic acid over the weekend...still have a little to go. This morning I moved the return eye up so it's shooting upwards and bubbling hard at the surface for aeration. Here are current readings.

FC = 12
CC = .5
TC = 12.5
pH = 7.5
TA = 500

Will the lowering of pH and TA make the water more acidic and aid in brushing away of the sandpaper like rough spots?