How to maintain the Calcium Levels of your Pool

Home Repair Articles | June 5, 2009

If you have a pool, you have to check the chemical levels, but some people forget to check the calcium pool levels. If the levels of all chemicals combine is to low, you pool could sustain corrosion to fixtures and become cloudy. If the swimming pool calcium level is high, the pool gets calcium deposits. When you check individual chemical levels, you must also do a calcium check to make sure that all the chemicals combined are not causing calcium hardness. If the report is not at an ideal level, you must take steps to correct the problem.

Ideal Levels in Pools

The calcium pool levels should be between 200 and 400 PPM. This is not a small range, so most pools will always stay between this range. If you have to add chemicals for any reason, you should always check the calcium level to make sure that the water is ideal. You do want the calcium level to be too high or you will have to take care of any calcium deposits that can occur. The same is true for low calcium levels. You must try to maintain a level between 200 and 400 to keep the pool free of any problems.

Swimming Pool Calcium Deposits

If your calcium pool levels are low, you will see deposits that will need to be cleaned and removed from any fixtures. Prolonged exposure to calcium deposits will cause corrosion that can damage the fixtures. You will not want to drain a pool to clean the calcium deposits so you will need to use a cleaner that is especially made for cleaning fixtures while the water is still in the pool. Swimming pool calcium comes from the unbalance chemicals in the water, and this must be corrected first or you will just be defeating the purpose.

Fixing the Calcium Pool Level

If the swimming pool calcium level is high, you will need to either reduce the water level or increase the water level by using a calcium hardness reducer. If the levels are low, you need to ad calcium chloride to the water. This should be done according to the directions on the canister. You do not want to use too much of the calcium increaser and create high levels. Make sure to read the directions and add the increaser according to the directions. Then test the water again after a day.

Swimming pool calcium is not healthy for swimming. It can cause burning of the nose and eyes. It can also affect the skin if the person is sensitive to calcium hardness. Test the calcium pool levels weekly and use the correct way to reduce or increase the levels in the water. One way to take some of the water out of the pool is to backwash the pool for as long as it takes to bring the water level to where it should be. Always check the calcium pool level after a hard rain because this can cause a high reading with the test kit.

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If you have a pool or just had a new pool installed, you need to have some pool cleaning instructions to make things easier. You may not know all the techniques or the equipment needed for pool cleaning. poolcleaningguide.com will help you with this often tedious task.