Calcium Hardness

[Vermonter]

Well, since adding the 2 oz of hardness up yesterday evening, and checking again today, it was registering on my strips at 100 ppm, so maybe I should quit while I'm ahead... I actually only added the pH buffer because my girlfriend accidentally bought it for me instead of pH up, so I said what the hell, I've got it, might as well use it. That'll learn me.

In the meantime, what am I supposed to do about this? Is it going to be real bad for the spa to have a low TH level for the next few months? Everything else is in proper range, I'm going to bring a sample to the dealer next week just to recheck everything, but how worried should I be if the TH is at, say, 89 or whatever?

And no, Richard, I haven't checked the filters, though I will do that tomorrow for sure. Not that it will do much for my current situation, I suppose, but force me to clean my filters. I mean, is this enough of a problem that I should drain (or partially drain) and refill?

Tony

[chem geek]

Calcium Hardness for a spa is mostly to prevent foaming (this happens at around 100-150 ppm CH). Unless the spa is plaster or has exposed grout from tile, the CH doesn't have to be very high. I wouldn't worry about it, but Hillbilly Hot Tub would be better to ask in terms of what's practical here.

[anexela]

I think I made the same mistake as a Vermonter. After filling up a spa (2.5 weeks ago) for the first time and balancing a water I added Ph lock. I am checking my CH now and its low (around 45-50). I already dumped 2 - 14oz. of calcium hardness increaser and it still low. I did check my filters and a main filter had a white residue on it. I cleaned a filter and switched them around.

Any idea what should I do now? Should I drain a spa and refill it? I don't want to have any problems with equipment because of the soft water.

Thanks in advance....

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

I think I made the same mistake as a Vermonter. After filling up a spa (2.5 weeks ago) for the first time and balancing a water I added Ph lock. I am checking my CH now and its low (around 45-50). I already dumped 2 - 14oz. of calcium hardness increaser and it still low. I did check my filters and a main filter had a white residue on it. I cleaned a filter and switched them around.

Any idea what should I do now? Should I drain a spa and refill it? I don't want to have any problems with equipment because of the soft water.

Thanks in advance....

I would not continue to add CH, you are fighting a losing battle and could start causing issues with scale. Just leave alone, and decide if you want to use PH Balance or CH on next fill, not both. Low CH in an acrylic spa is fine as long as you keep the PH in check. The only part(s) in a spa that calcium woul be drawn from is in the ceramic disks that are in the pumps and in some heaters. If you keep all the other water aspects in balance you should be fine till your next change.

IMO and experience, I would not use PH balance if 1. you are in the hard water area 2. If you are good about keeping your water chemistry weekly. I would stick to using the CH, as chem geek said, it decreases foam and it stops any chance of trying to "pull" calcium fro the disks in your pumps/heaters.

The only people I have that use PH balance are customers on town/city water who do not do their water chemistry weekly such as people with second homes ect.

Hope we have all helped. Also as chem geek said, check your filters and clean them out, you may see a scaley build up on them. If it seems bad we will go from there.

[Vermonter]

Okay, so, I found all that extra calcium... it was in my filters. Rinsed it all out, seemed mostly to be loose, not scaled yet. At least mostly, there was a little scaling on the filters.

However, during my soak today, I got a "rHNf" error message, which means in my case something to the effect of "no flow"... I figure it must be the scaling clogging the filters. Any recommendations for a filter soak that removes scaling? I remember someone recommending CLR ("as seen on TV") on another thread, but I would prefer a soak, as 1) I'm lazy, and 2) I'm thorough. That would be great! Thanks,

Tony

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Okay, so, I found all that extra calcium... it was in my filters. Rinsed it all out, seemed mostly to be loose, not scaled yet. At least mostly, there was a little scaling on the filters.

However, during my soak today, I got a "rHNf" error message, which means in my case something to the effect of "no flow"... I figure it must be the scaling clogging the filters. Any recommendations for a filter soak that removes scaling? I remember someone recommending CLR ("as seen on TV") on another thread, but I would prefer a soak, as 1) I'm lazy, and 2) I'm thorough. That would be great! Thanks,

Tony

Omni makes a good filter soak, you can also try soaking in some stain and scale remover. You may have to purchase new filters. You should run stain and scale through the tub to get anything that may be in the lines or attached to the heater and jambing the pumps(whiich will also cause a flo error message) Scale attaches to the heater first and very quickly.

[Vermonter]

Hmm, can't seem to find a web site for Omni products, do you have a link handy? And, new filters!? These WERE new filters! Argh! Stupid pH balancer, what garbage! Well, wish me luck, perhaps with some perseverance I will be able to save them. Also, I run a product called Shimmer Plus made by Blue Wave which is a clarifier, but also claims to be a "concentrated stain and scale preventer which inhibits stain and scaling in spas and prevents calcium buildup on spa surfaces." It calls for 1 oz. once a week... does this sound right? Thanks again!

Tony

P.S. Just looked at the bottle of pH balancer I used, and it says not to use in cases where the CH is higher than 350 ppm, which certainly was not the case for me (I was around 200-ish)... think I can sue them for a new set of filters?

P.P.S. Finally got a drop-based test kit, and ran some numbers today... CH was around 40 (low, as we expected), TA at 90, pH around 7.5, and Br at 2.0... everything seems pretty decent, except that low CH number. Where should I keep my other values until the next fill? It seems to me the pH and TA should be kept towards the high side of OK to compensate for low CH... is this right thinking, or am I over-analyzing?