You're a wizard, seriously. I just started cleaning residential pools professionally for a small company, and I've learned so much from your website that my co worker referred me too. So 🍒
Thank you that makes alot of sense, we couldn't figure out what the dust at the bottom of our new pebble sheen pool was. We will keep brushing and vacuuming it up and watch our water balance religiously. This was super helpful information.
Hello, we remodeled our pool back in October 2023, the situation is that now we have several stains in our plaster, we did the color midnight blue from diamond brite, we have a big shallow area and this part its the worst area, the pool cleaners keeps telling me that i should do an acid wash, but then again, my pool is basically new, will this product get rid of these stains?? if possible i can send you photos of my pool, please advise, thanks. Frank.
mine is really bad . im at a loss. i had the plaster company replaster the first time because they could nit fix the problem . so now on my second plaster job and my pool looks so bad it embarssing and i really need help
My pool is murky and when I clean the pool maid it’s heavy with what I think it is the plaster coming off of the walls. Is that what you’re talking about? Every time I brush the pool it gets even murkier.
It could be. Email Eric@orendatech.com with your chemistry and describe your situation. Photos help too. Eric will give you personalized orenda support.
Gday Erick I have a 5x3 fibreglass pool 18,000 litres , and have a light film on the walls & at the bottom of the pool If I rub my hand over it nothing happens,so it’s not powder, but I tried a wet & dry sandpaper & lightly rub a spot for a minute 0r two & I could see that the colour of the gelcoat underneath & still showing its sparkle.I can’t go round the hole of the pool with wet & dry sandpaper ,as it would take for ever. The pool is well balance & I do use your fantastic app ,as I’ve been searching for something like this for a while.can you please advise what I should .cheers Keith
Hi Keith, try rubbing some very diluted acid on the affected area on a cloth. If nothing happens, it’s not calcium/scale of any kind. Most likely it’s from aggressive water breaking down the gel coat, and chlorine oxidizes the gel coat and turns it white. If that’s the case, the only answer for fixing is draining and re-doing the gel coat. In the short term you can stop it from going worse by balancing the LSI, and like you said, sanding off the outermost layer of the gelcoat to bring back its original color.
I feel like we are seeing pitting in our plaster/gunite pool, no real signs of scaling (no cloudiness or dust) Plaster is original from 2016 construction, blue-dyed. We purchased the house/pool one year ago. We are seeing sweeping streaks of white and white circles in the plaster and there are tiny holes everywhere. Historically, our CSI is positive, CYA around 50, TA around 60 and CH around 450. Is it possible that etching can somehow occur with a positive CSI/LSI...or could the previous owners have done the damage that we are continuing to see develop, even though we are keeping the water chemistry well-balanced now? Thank you so much for your advice!
The water parameters sound pretty good, but that’s just this moment in time. The question is where your chemistry has been in the past. And yes it’s possible to etch with otherwise balanced LSI if acid is overdosed or undiluted. But the etching would be localized to where the acid was poured.
Drained my pool filled back up made sure chemicals are good and now the bottom looks dirty and spotted been brushing and vacuuming but no change. Why does it look dirty and spotted?
I have a 27k gallon pool in NJ where it gets cold enough that because I didn't add calcium last year when closing I opened the pool to find the dreaded sharp crystals on the bottom of my pool that scratch unspecting toes that rub on them. Sometimes I can rub the surface with my fingers and some of the crystals come off but it irritates my fingers and obviously it's not a solution since it's all over the pool walls and floor. I added the required amount of calcium to bring the calcium reading back to normal (and adjusted the others as well such as ph and alkalinity) . Would scrubbing with a metal brislted brush be an efficient way to get rid of them in the pool at this point or would the chemicals you mention soften the crystals up before scrubbing with the brushy and possibly remove them on it's own (without brushing)?
Yes, wire brushing should help. Depends on the type of crystals you have, because some are more stubborn than others. Divide up the SC-1000 purge dose over several days, and the crystals should soften, especially since you’ve already added calcium to the water.
If I have low calcium in a plaster pool (150ppm) can I raise the PH to 7.6-7.7 and TA around 100ppm to maintain LSI balance in the -0.3 to 0 range and not worry about erosion of the plaster? I’ve read a good blog on orendatech and remember seeing that if you have high calcium you can simply lower the PH and TA to maintain the LSI balance and help prevent scale , so was wondering if I can go the other way around with low calcium and be ok. I know it’s easier to add calcium to low ch tap water but would rather not worry about raising calcium all the time because it very easily drops under 200ppm from 300ppm in my case. Temperature of water is 80f and CYA 30.
Great question, we recommend being slightly positive in the LSI rather than sightly negative. As long as you have your LSI within equilibrium any strategy will work. We at Orenda recommend calcium hardness between 300-500 ppm because calcium doesn’t change or fluctuate much as your pH, alkalinity, temperature and other factors do, so using the calcium as your foundation will make the chemistry easier to handle
I have a newly replastered gunite pool. I admit I haven’t taken care of the pool like I should (obviously). I have the calcium crystals everywhere. Very rough on the skin. You say to use a non-acid product (sc-1000) to fix the issue. I actually tried acid before finding your video. Is it too late to use that product?
Hi Dennis, it depends on if the roughness is actually crystals or scaling. Is it on the walls AND floor? Or just the floor? Also, now that it’s approaching winter, chances are it’s too cold now to use SC-1000 and it will need to wait until spring. Best thing you can do now is get your calcium hardness up to insulate your pool for the winter. Use the orenda app to find out how much you need to maintain LSI balance at your coldest water temp.
Thanks so much for the video. When you say dissolve it back into solution do you mean put it in the water or drain the pool and scrub the walls? I’ve got these crystals that were in my pool and they stuck to my pool vacuum, I drain my pool to get it acid washed and they said they couldn’t get it all off.
Some dissolve back into solution with SC-1000 and LSI balance, meaning the chelant (SC-1000) binds to the calcium carbonate and dissolves it, grabbing the calcium and binding it in solution. But it sounds like the crystals you had were of the harder-to-remove variety. We know of at least 4 types of crystals at this time, and some are just REALLY hard to get rid of.
It’s the only practical way, aside from reverse osmosis filtration. Technically you could throw in some soda ash to force calcium carbonate out of solution for vacuuming. But that’s a mess.
Hi question. I have pools in hard water areas that’s coming out of the pipe at 100ppm. I notice modules breaking the surface of the plaster and my calcium reading was a bit high at 500ppm. Was the nodules caused by high calcium?
Aloha, and thank you for the question. We wouldn’t consider 100ppm or calcium “hard water” at all. In fact it’s pretty soft. As for calcium nodules, they’re not usually chemistry related. They’re caused by moisture trapped behind the plaster that has to work its way out. Nodules are a type of efflorescence, not scale. blog.orendatech.com/weepers-efflorescence-and-other-concrete-pool-shell-problems
Orenda Technologies thank you for the reply. So even though i have 100ppm coming out of the pipe and my pool reading was 500ppm, the nodules was caused pretty much a bad plaster job?
I live in Bucks County, PA. 3 years ago we had our 18,000 gallon pool replastered. Each Spring since then, we have had significant calcium crystals when opening the pool. In July 2020, my calcium reading was 350 (done at Leslies); this year it is 503. I have extensive crystals and dust. Two days ago I added 2 quarts of SC-1000. I have been brushing the pool with a wire brush to remove the very stubborn crystals but I am seeing improvement. I am following LSI and I order some of your clarifier to reduce some of the cloudiness. Here are my questions: Now that my water has a calcium content of 503 ppm, is my water so saturated with calcium that this will no longer happen or do I need to monitor my pool chemistry throughout the winter? Is there a product that I can use when I close the pool (Sept), so I don't have to constantly monitor pool chemistry throughout the winter?
@@RockyStatue I tested pool water throughout the winter using the Orenda app. Through the course of the winter I added approximately 1.5 gallons of muriatic acid. Doing this was a pain in the neck b/c I have a safety cover. I would undo part of the cover, take measurements, add muriatic acid and then use my pool cover pump plus a smaller pump to recirculate the water. When I opened the pool last week, I didn't have the crystals on the side/floor of the pool but I do have about 35 - 50 calcium fissures of different sizes throughout the pool (below the water line). Tacking these calcium fissures is my next challenge!
The problem is that when will increase the alkalinity then ph automatic increased. When we reduce the ph then automatically reduce alkalinity. So i can't maintain ph 7.4 and alkalinity 100.how am adjust pls.
Raj, you are correct. The goal shouldn’t be to maintain a 7.4 pH. Rather, maintain a balanced LSI. Use the Orenda app to figure out what works for your pool. If you have over 300 calcium and you’re using a non-stabilized chlorine (salt, liquid or cal hypo), during the summer you won’t need 100 ppm alkalinity. You will want less.
You’re not wrong, but it’s not just when alkalinity is high….calcium carbonate falls out of solution when the LSI gets too high. Alkalinity is just one of the LSI factors.
If it’s crystals or scale, yes it can be smoothed out. Scale can be reversed, but anything caused by cold water in winter was likely a low-LSI (etching) situation. ask.orendatech.com/knowledge/calcium-crystals-in-pool
I was told not to worry about my low calcium levels(120) in my new gunite pebble tech pool , it is only 4 months old , pool contractor has told me not to worry till after at least 1 year, what is your take on this.?
That’s ridiculous and totally false. You need enough calcium to maintain LSI balance or your water will be aggressive and etch away your brand new surface.
That’s what everyone was taught, that plaster has to lose some calcium to the water. But with LSI balanced water, it doesn’t take anything from the surface (the only exception being within the first few days of startup when it hasn’t carbonated yet, which is why our startup process needs +0.20 to +0.30 LSI instead of just any balanced LSI). It sounds like you’re balancing your LSI without higher levels of calcium, which can be done with higher pH and alkalinity. It works for the summer, but winter will be here in a few months and if your temp drops, you’ll need more calcium. We have all this written down in various blogs and procedures on our site and app too 👍🏼
It depends on what type of deposits they are. Sometimes simply adding calcium to the water (at a warm enough water temperature) is enough. Sometimes it takes SC-1000 and a few weeks or balanced LSI. And sometimes the crystals are stubborn and they may need to be physically removed with a sander or grinder. There are several different variations of severity, and we don’t know why.
