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.

[mwsmith2]

Well, you *could* use lime, but it is somewhat of a pain the the butt to do. Adding lime to water results in "kalkwasser" which is used to maintain Ca levels in marine aquaria. However, to do this properly, you need to add the lime, mix and let the cloudy bits settle out. The cloudy material is the insoluble calcium carbonate. Then the clear, calcium rich portion is decanted off. This has to be done as soon as possible after it settles, because the kalkwasser will react with air to form more carbonates. However, I don't think it's worth the trouble, and for sure is not as potent as calcium chloride.

Generally, Ca only needs to be adjusted once or twice a season, unless you get a LOT of rain (several feet worth). The cost for CaCl is worth it in time savings.

Oh, and please don't use ice melter. God only knows what's in that stuff, as it isn't designed for swimming in. Is your health worth it to save a few cents?

Michael

[waterbear]

Oh, and please don't use ice melter. God only knows what's in that stuff, as it isn't designed for swimming in. Is your health worth it to save a few cents?

Michael

What in it is 73-80% calcium chloride. If you look up most cacium increasers at the pool store they also say that they are calcium chloride in that same range. All I know is that is whay I was sold at the local Pinch a Penny pool store. Where is Ben when you need his knowledge?