Hey everyone, very happy to wake up this morning to Crystal clear water for the first time in a month of finding this community and learning about chemicals and chemistry.
To recap, I have been steady slamming for about a month on a swamp. Finally got to where I passed the overnight chlorine loss test, but still had milky water even with constant backwashing. I just learned about my low Calcium levels and how it has been damaging the plaster in my pool, nothing terrible, just not quite as pretty as it should be. I was at 60 ppm calcium hardness, added approximately 25 lbs of calcium chloride yesterday. I woke up this morning to Crystal clear water. The only factor that changed from yesterday to this morning was the addition of calcium.
And this wasn't a gradual change. I couldn't put a dent in the cloudiness, even tried to do a deep clean of filter, only to find out i need to cut the pipes and add unions, so that is on my project list for the future. Just wondering if the the low Calcium could have been the sole reason of the cloudy water, or was it just a big coincidence that the chlorine finally won the pool the same night as i added the calcium.
I have a second question about testing for calcium. When I add the second set of drops that change it to red, it's a very pale shade. When i watched a person test on YouTube, it turns a bright red, then goes to a bright blue. Before when I had low Calcium, it would be a light shade of red, then after 6 drops went to a light shade of blue. After adding calcium chloride, when i tested this morning, it still was a light shade of red, but took 36 drops to get it to a light shade of blue. I assumed that when I got my calcium up the colors in the test would be more pronounced.
~11,500 gallon in-ground 27 x 13 ft
3 ft in shallow, 5.5 ft in deep
Plaster bottom/fiberglass sides(?)
To recap, I have been steady slamming for about a month on a swamp. Finally got to where I passed the overnight chlorine loss test, but still had milky water even with constant backwashing. I just learned about my low Calcium levels and how it has been damaging the plaster in my pool, nothing terrible, just not quite as pretty as it should be. I was at 60 ppm calcium hardness, added approximately 25 lbs of calcium chloride yesterday. I woke up this morning to Crystal clear water. The only factor that changed from yesterday to this morning was the addition of calcium.
And this wasn't a gradual change. I couldn't put a dent in the cloudiness, even tried to do a deep clean of filter, only to find out i need to cut the pipes and add unions, so that is on my project list for the future. Just wondering if the the low Calcium could have been the sole reason of the cloudy water, or was it just a big coincidence that the chlorine finally won the pool the same night as i added the calcium.
I have a second question about testing for calcium. When I add the second set of drops that change it to red, it's a very pale shade. When i watched a person test on YouTube, it turns a bright red, then goes to a bright blue. Before when I had low Calcium, it would be a light shade of red, then after 6 drops went to a light shade of blue. After adding calcium chloride, when i tested this morning, it still was a light shade of red, but took 36 drops to get it to a light shade of blue. I assumed that when I got my calcium up the colors in the test would be more pronounced.
~11,500 gallon in-ground 27 x 13 ft
3 ft in shallow, 5.5 ft in deep
Plaster bottom/fiberglass sides(?)
