Lime Softening Bucket Test Question, confused...again

[Watermom]

I've asked Ben to pop back in here on this thread.

[Old Bat]

I am completely amazed yet again. I retested the top water in bucket for hardness today. It has NO red coloration whatsoever. NO hardness! Unheard of round these parts! But yes, I'd like to make sure to proceed on the pool with somebody holding my hand. Yes, I admit it, I'm very dumb about this chemistry stuff. And with such a high number to start with I imagine I could really screw things up bad if I go about it wrong.

[PoolDoc]

I am completely amazed yet again. I retested the top water in bucket for hardness today. It has NO red coloration whatsoever. NO hardness!

That's precisely the result you are looking for. If you do it in your pool, you have to be prepared to vacuum the sediment out to waste -- so you'll want to start with the pool filled to the max.

Lemme know what if you want to get started, so we can calculate doses on the pool itself. The polyquat algaecide is effective at high pH; chlorine may not be. We want it in place so the pool dosen't turn green while we're removing the calcium!

[Old Bat]

Hello Pool Doc!

Sorry, been a busy weekend. Daughter leaving for Arkansas again

I have the washing soda, acid, chlorine. Any particular polyquat I should get? I will order off Amazon. All the algaecide available here seems to be copper based stuff and I assume that is wrong. And yes I will remember to click through one of the links here to order.

Thanks so much for your help.

[PoolDoc]

No, either of the polyquat's I've posted links for is 60% polyquat; just get whichever one is currently cheapest on Amazon. I just checked, and the Kem-Tek product is still cheapest. If you order 2, they should ship free, and polyquat doesn't seem to go bad. I had a 55 gallon drum purchased from Buckman (the mfg of the raw material) that I used for 4 years!

Kem-Tek 60% polyquat @ Amazon
Nava 60% polyquat @ Amazon

[Old Bat]

Hooray, it is ordered! Should be here toward the end of the week.

Now I printed out all your instructions and lost the papers somewhere around here. Hope to get started soon. Thanks so much for all the help. Please if you have time, give me any more helpful hints along the way.