Quote Originally Posted by chem geek View Post
Other than drain/refill with low CH water, the other way to reduce CH is putting the water through a water softener (ion exchange resin or equivalent). This is usually impractical for a full volume of pool water, but is useful for fill water once a pool is already filled.
Why is it "usually impractical"? Is it because the softener would have to be constantly recharged with brine?

I ask because my parents operate a pool at their beach resort in the Philippines and have issues with cloudiness. The pool man needs to constantly add pH down/acid to stop it from clouding up. I figure it is due to the well water they use, which is rather hard. I believe as the pH goes up, the calcium would 'precipitate' out. I suggested they put in some kind of water softener to reduce the hardness, but not sure how to configure it. I read that you could use zeolite as the exchange medium. Currently, they have a DE filter. If you added a sand filter to the mix and use zeolite instead of normal sand, I would think the only other issue is how to plumb the system for the recharge cell.