Calcium hardness causing problems?

[KurtV]

The scale on the tile will also come off very easily with a strong muriatic acid solution and a green pad. I use a squeeze water bottle to apply the acid, wait a few seconds for it to act on the scale, and then scrub it off with a green pad. Repeat as necessary. You need to wear good eye protection and latex gloves, be mindful of the wind direction and careful of the fumes. You also need to keep it off concrete, stone, and metals.

Always remember to add acid to water and not vice versa.

[nicole712]

Thank you, Pat and Kurt for the replies. I just added some extra chlorine bleach, and some more acid to lower pH. I will try the acid to clean the tile ring.

Nicole

[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.