Balancing water and getting rid of algae and stains

[aylad]

Total hardness = calcium....and in a liner pool, the lower the better!. Hardness doesn't really matter in a liner pool because there's no contact between your pool water and the concrete. In a concrete/plaster pool, if the calcium level is too low in the water, it will leach calcium out of the concrete around the pool, making it brittle and weak.

In a liner pool, the only issue with calcium is letting it get too high and causing water clouding...but you're not going to have a problem with that until the calcium gets to be at least 200, or sometimes much higher. So....with yours at 40, you're in good shape.

Your other numbers look pretty good, except that I would lower your pH a bit to the 7.2-7.4 range.

I'm in Northwestern Louisiana, and the pollen is crazy here too...it seems to be worse right now than ever (maybe because the winter never got cold this year?). I currently have a sheet of pollen across the top of my pool water, and when the wind blows, it all congregates at one end of the pool and gets thick and sludgy--so much so that I have to dip it out instead of letting it go through the filter. I suspect that's what your tan deposits are. I don't know what to tell you to do about them.....in my pool, I just keep stirring it up into the water by brushing, and let my filter run longer than usual to try to get it all out.

As far as the ascorbic acid goes, I've never used it and don't know a whole lot about it, except that it does drastically lower your chlorine level, which is why you're supposed to let your chlorine level drop first.....I would look in the "stains" forum at any posts by Mbar (Marie) who is the resident experts on stains and ascorbic acid.

Janet

[chem geek]

Actually, "Total Hardness" is a measure of all of the divalent (doubly charged) cations and in most water this means both calcium and magnesium. The number is usually expressed in units of ppm equivalent of calcium carbonate. Calcium Hardness is typically around 70% of Total Hardness, but this varies depending on the water source.

Magnesium does not precipitate as readily and is not found in plaster so is not relevant when looking at hardness for plaster pools. You should not use a Total Hardness test but should rather use a Calcium Hardness test that specifically tests for calcium only. The test kits recommended on this forum, such as the Taylor K-2006, have a Calcium Hardness test.

Richard

[CarlD]

I think the real question is what is the brown stuff? I think it's pollen that the chemicals have tinted. You need to keep filtering. Try putting a skimmer sock in your skimmer--that should trap a lot of it--but check and clean the skimmer a couple of times a day.