How to Lower Calcium Hardness in Pool
Easy ways to reduce calcium hardness in your pool
If you're a pool owner, you already know that your backyard oasis requires the perfect balance of chlorine, pH, and alkaline levels to stay clear and comfortable. When numbers tip and dip, taking a dip without worries becomes impossible because you're stuck with calcium hardness. Luckily, you don't need a chemistry degree to achieve perfect calcium hardness in your pool. This guide to how to lower calcium hardness in the pool does the deep dive for you.
What Is a Pool's Calcium Hardness?
Calcium hardness is the measure of your pool water's "softness" or "hardness." When measuring calcium hardness, you're looking at how much calcium has dissolved in your pool's water. The ideal range for calcium hardness is 200 to 400 parts per million (ppm).
Why Do I Have to Lower Calcium Hardness in My Pool?
When you have hard water due to high calcium hardness, your pool water can become corrosive to the point that it causes staining. Over time, hard water can cause corrosion in your pool's plumbing and hardware. Your pool can even develop thick scale deposits.
Signs You Have High Calcium Hardness in Your Pool
It's recommended that you test your pool water's calcium hardness at least once a month. Ideally, you will catch increases in hardness before your pool is damaged by hard water. The first sign of high calcium hardness is a cloudy appearance in your water.
Next, you will notice crusty scale deposits on surfaces in your pool. Finally, pool piping, equipment, and surfaces may become rusty once hard water begins to corrode your pool. If you've been putting off a water softener repair cost that can range from $161 to $975, your formerly balanced pool may be sliding out of the normal range.
Preparing to Lower Calcium Hardness in Your Pool
Start by giving your pool a thorough cleaning. This should include brushing your walls, vacuuming your pool, and backwashing the filter to clear it of any contaminants. A good cleaning can be as effective as other types of water purification because it addresses external factors that would affect even treated water. You should also make sure that your water's alkalinity and pH are in the correct ranges. A pool's pH should be between 7 and 7.6. Alkalinity should be between 80 ppm and 120 ppm.
How to Lower Calcium Hardness in Pool
Steps for how to lower calcium hardness in the pool are fairly straightforward. However, you should consult your pool manufacturer for specific advice based on whether you have a fiberglass, vinyl, or concrete pool. Here's a look at the steps to try to lower calcium levels in your pool quickly.
1. Drain Some Water
One easy tip to try is the "drain and replace" method. Simply partially drain some of the water in your pool. Next, refill your pool to the correct level using fresh water. This tip only works in areas where homeowners know that their local tap water is not hard water.
2. Use Pool Flocculant
Pool flocculant is a commonly used chemical that helps to lift small particles from pool water. Store-bought pool flocculants work by clumping floating particles together to make them easier to lift from the water. While flocculants are effective for removing dirt, debris, and bacteria from pools, they can also bind calcium sediment together to make it easy to lift calcium deposits from your pool. Once you've used flocculant to get calcium deposits in your pool to clump, you can use a sand filter to remove calcium from the water. If you've done the preparation step of brushing your pool walls before treating your pool, all of the calcium deposits that were clinging to the sides of your pools should now be easy to filter away.
Pool owners should be aware of the fact that flocculant is harmful to filters! Always turn your pump and filter off before using flocculant in your pool. Pools with cartridge-style filters typically aren't compatible with flocculants.
3. Use Dry Acid
Dry acid that is used to treat pools can be sold under the labels of hydrochloric acid, muriatic acid or spirits of salt. This colorless solution can help to bring a pool's chemical composition back into balance. However, acid treatment is considered a last resort because it requires pool owners to handle chemicals.
How to Prevent High Calcium Hardness in a Pool
Staying in tune with your pool is the best way to avoid runaway calcium hardness! Fortunately, all of the basic steps that pool owners should be taking to keep their pools safe and healthy also help to keep calcium hardness in check. Your checklist for preventing damage from hard water in your pool includes:
Routinely cleaning your pool
Looking for clumps or buildup
Carefully monitoring pool chemistry
Testing water hardness at least once a month using strips or a test kit
Finally, get in the habit of addressing problems early. Hard water isn't usually a big problem as long as you can detect problematic calcium levels before rusting and erosion begin. Take action as soon as you see numbers shifting toward the upper limit of the "good" range. If you're overwhelmed by the task of cleaning and testing your pool regularly, consider hiring a pool maintenance company to manage your pool's cleanliness and chemistry for you.
DIY vs. Hire a Pro
Learning how to lower calcium hardness in a pool is something that most pool owners can tackle. However, you may be unsure when it comes to handling pool chemicals. Local pool services can offer ongoing or emergency calcium hardness management.
Frequently Asked Questions
If your pool has high calcium hardness as a result of hard drinking water at your home, installing a water softener could help to reduce calcium buildup in your pool. The average water softener installation cost is between $200 and $6,000.
Calcium deposits that float around on the surface of your pool water can form when a pool's water parameters are not in the normal range. The most common causes of calcium lumps in pools are calcium hardness above 1,000 ppm, alkalinity over 120, and a pH over 7.8.
Yes, swimming in a pool with high calcium hardness is considered safe as long as you have sufficient chlorine and pH levels to keep bacteria growth under control. The main issue with high calcium hardness is that it damages your pool through rust and corrosion. However, you might want to consider finding methods for how to make water safe for drinking at home if you have water that is hard enough to corrode your pool.