Calcium

[zelmo]

Is there a "grocery store" source for adding calcium?

[waterbear]

Drink lots of milk?
(ok, I'll go back to my corner now!)

Not that I know of but it can be had at other places than a pool store. Calcium cloride (I beleive it is 73%) is also used as a de-icer in winter. My friendly neighborhood pool store carrier it in the small expensive 5 lb plastic jars marked for pool use and also sells it in 25lb bags which are marked as being for deicing. I double checked their price at my friendly neighborhood Home Depot and the pool store was competative so I decided to give them my business since the owner always takes the time to answer my questions to the best of his knowlege. (The guy tries but he has been pool stored himself!)
Anyway, I am getting off track, You can find it at home improvement stores like Lowes and Home Depot but it migh not be any cheaper than at the pool store if you buy the BIG bag sold as a deicer. If you don't need a whole lot you can buy the small jars and Walmart, lowes, home depot, ect. in the pool supplie dept.

(If anyone is wondering why I use calcium with a fiberglass pool and acrylic spa--my fill water comes out of my whole house water softener and I do have a heatpump in the system so I run my CH at about 140-150 ppm since I have 0ppm CH normally.)

[zelmo]

Thanks. My local Leslie's sells their Calc Up (CaCl2) in larger buckets, but it isn't cheap. Are you saying that your local store brings in the de-icer and sells it as calcium increaser?

[waterbear]

-a

Thanks. My local Leslie's sells their Calc Up (CaCl2) in larger buckets, but it isn't cheap. Are you saying that your local store brings in the de-icer and sells it as calcium increaser?

Yes, the local Pinch-a-Penny frachise sells DowFlake brand Calcium Chloride in big bags. It says it's 77% -80% calcium chloride and the instructions on the bag are for melting snow and ice. They also sell a few pool brands in small and big plastic buckets but they co$t a lot more per pound and have the same ingredient.
Once again, calcium chloride is calcium chloride

[zelmo]

After looking around, a local hardware store still has PELADOW de-icer. I looked at Dow's website and it is very similar to DowFlake, except that it is in pellet form and is 90% CaCl2.

Does anyone know how easily the pellets dissolve?

[kaybinster]

Why do you want to add calcium chloride to raise calcium, why not calcium carbonate which is plain old lime. You can buy a 50# bag at the garden store very cheaply -- remember to get the white powdered kind not that newer pellet style.

[zelmo]

Why do you want to add calcium chloride to raise calcium, why not calcium carbonate which is plain old lime. You can buy a 50# bag at the garden store very cheaply -- remember to get the white powdered kind not that newer pellet style.

Since what the pool stores sell to raise calcium is CaCl2, I figured that is what I needed. It is also what waterbear suggested, and is the chemical in the bleac calc program.

Thanks for suggesting lime. I will look into that.

[kaybinster]

Zelmo WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!!

I am not saying you should run out an buy lime, I am asking why not use it as a cheaper source of calcium. I don't know off hand if it would be a problem or not, but I would think it would work quite well. I suggest you wait till someone that knows replies before you run off and possibly screw up your pool if this is the wrong way to go. I cannot see why it would be a bad additive, but lets wait and see.

[waterbear]

Biggest problem with calcium cabonate is the solubilty vs. calcium chloride. Calcium carbonate is also what we call "scale deposits" and if you have ever has them on your tile line you KNOW that they are hard to remove . Eggshells are about 95% calcium carbonate and marble is just about all calcium carbonate and they will not dissolve in normal pool water (at least I hope the marble doesn't or my spa spillover is going to have some MAJOR problems )."Lime: is actually either calcium carbonate or calcium oxide and calcium oxide would most likely play havoc with the pH

[kaybinster]

Biggest problem with calcium cabonate is the solubilty vs. calcium chloride. Calcium carbonate is also what we call "scale deposits" and if you have ever has them on your tile line you KNOW that they are hard to remove

Not sure I follow why this would be a problem, if you need calcium. The CaCO3 should dissociate and just result in CO2 off gasing assuming you don't add more than is needed.