Adjusting the Calcium Hardness in your Swimming Pool
Calcium is the greatest influence on the total hardness context of your swimming pool (how hard the water is). Other minerals such as magnesium, iron, manganese and a few others don’t impact the total hardness enough for us to bother with so we stick with adjusting the calcium hardness. The recommended and best range is between 250 and 350 ppm (parts per million) for your calcium hardness.
If the calcium hardness is too low, it can cause problems similar to low total alkalinity in that it becomes corrosive and try to rob minerals from your pool walls and equipment, particularly the metal. This reaction can cause staining as well.
If the calcium hardness is too high, it will cause a scale build of on all of the pool surfaces, cloudy water, irritated eyes, and can reduce the efficiency of your filter. This is also what causes that white ring around the top of your swimming pool.
Luckily, low calcium hardness can be easily corrected by adding calcium chloride that can be purchased at any swimming pool store. Divide the recommended amount up into three treatments allowing the water to circulate for at least four hours in between.
Reducing high calcium hardness is very difficult. The easiest way to do this, although it doesn’t always work, is to replace some of the water with fresh water. If that does not work consult a pool professional, as they will have to add a chemical to keep the calcium in solution that prevents it from depositing.
In conclusion, the calcium hardness does not influence the balance of any other chemicals in your swimming pool and takes quite a while to cause any damage so it should be one of the last things you worry about adjusting unless you are having consistent issues with cloudy water.
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