5 days of "burn out"???

[steveinaz]

THANKS! I was thinking 1 drop=1ppm, my fault. I was using the 25ml sample. It is the 47% mixture. This makes sense then. I do need to raise calcium level.

Thanks again

[chem geek]

Well, Burn-Out Extreme (Cal-Hypo) isn't a very effective way of adding a LOT of calcium since even after five 1-pound bags you will only raise your CH by 17 ppm. Adding Calcium Chloride will get your CH up as well and is probably a lot less expensive. I remember buying a 50-pound container after I did a half drain and refill equivalent using winter rains, so needed to get my CH back up. You should probably test your CH level to see what it is. If you pool is new plaster or re-plastered, then calcium hydroxide will get into the water from the plaster as the plaster cures. That will add calcium to your pool and will raise the pH so expect to be adding lots of acid over the next few months to maintain the pH. At any rate, you probably want to do what your pool builder says regarding calcium levels assuming you are under some sort of warranty for this job.

So, I agree that using Cal-Hypo makes sense as your chlorine source while you are needing to raise the CH, but if you need to raise it quickly then adding calcium chloride is more cost-effective. In other words, I would do both -- use calcium chloride for the bulk of the increase you need (remembering that more calcium will be coming from your plaster during curing) and use Cal-Hypo for chlorine until the CH is where you want it.

Richard

[steveinaz]

My fill water calcium (from the tap) was 180ppm. I would imagine I want it around 200-400 for a plaster pool right?

[chem geek]

Yes, you will probably shoot for around 300 ppm CH, but you are already at 180 from your tap water (are you sure about that? you tested it with the CH test? the "hardness" number from water companies isn't the same as CH since it includes magnesium as well as calcium). Since the calcium level should rise if the plaster is new, your PB's advice of just using Cal-Hypo for chlorine is probably good enough for now. If you're at about 200 ppm CH, you're in pretty good shape and can just let the plaster plus your Cal-Hypo get you up higher.

My water isn't nearly as "hard" so that's why I thought you'd have to use Calcium Chloride to get your CH up faster, but you don't have to do that with your "already high CH" water.

Richard

[steveinaz]

Ok, thank you Richard appreciate your help/expertise with this stuff. You rock man.

I did the Taylor calcium hardness test on our tap water and got the 190ppm figure. the 180ppm I quoted earlier was incorrect.

[huskyrider]

Just as two attorneys interpret a particular law differently, so do pool guys.

I completely disagree with your pool builders start up procedure.

I start up my pools with a minimum of chlorine for the first two weeks, around 1 to 1.5ppm. During this time I'll get my hardness to 200 +or-, my stabilizer in line for the type of chlorinating system, and strive to keep my PH in the mid 7's.
You'd think that a guy with my kind of experience could tell you why, but I can't. It's just what I was taught in the late 70's by a man who'd been building pools since the early 50's.
I've taken everything he taught me as the Gospel itself, LOL.

This is how I learned about BBB, That's the thing I really loved about this website. I known this method for almost 30 years and it's always been awesome. I'll tell you guys this for fact, my pool is 120,000 gallons and is always sparkling, it's very easy to maintain good chemistry in spite of its size.

See ya,
Kelly