Calcium hardness causing problems?

[nicole712]

An update and plea for help once again!!

For about the past month I have kept my pH between 7.2-7.5 and lowered my TA to around 100 as suggested to help with the white 'ring around the tile' and stained, splotchy brownish plaster. I have also kept my Chlorine level at about 5 (cya is around 30). My Calcium has gone down slightly to 420 with a little draining and refilling. The water looks beautiful.

My white 'ring around the pool' is still there - I tried diluted muriatic acid and a 'green pad' to scrub it with, but all that did was make the white scaly stuff fizzle a bit. Didn't really remove any of it. The only thing that will help is a ton of elbow grease and pumice stones. Even then, there is still a residual white ring.

My plaster is still stained - splotchy brown all over, and rougher than it should be (poor kids toes get beat up). The only thing that will help this is a scrubbing with a pumice stone - I did this in one small area with good results - (silky smooth clean plaster) and dread having to do it to all three of my steps (they are especially bad).


Questions:

1. Should I just load up on pumice and scrub the tiles and plaster down? Is there anything else I can do? (called for a quote on tile cleaning - it's pretty expenive, but may end up being worth it!!)

2. Is a 'stained' looking plaster normal for a 3 1/2 year old pool??? (This part is really bothering me...)
Could this be due to inadequate sweeping of the plaster? My pool builder told me that I should sweep 'when needed' (which to me is just when it's visibly dirty).

3. Is it okay to keep my chlorine high all the time or should I let it go down now that it's been high for so long and I don't appear to have any issues with algae?

Thank you so much for any help or personal experiences you can offer, I appreciate it!

Nicole

[Simmons99]

Try the metals forum - there are a lot of stain experts there. I don't know if you have had a metals issue (from iron or copper) - but you can use absorbic acid (vitiman C tablets) and see if the brown stain goes away. If so then it is a metal stain.