A balancing act in your swimming pool

Have you ever heard of the term “soft” or “hard” water? This refers to the level of calcium dissolved in water.

Soft water, will lather excessively with soap in the bath, but is also harder to rinse off completely, leaving you feeling a little “slick”.

Hard water, with higher levels of calcium, will make it more difficult to produce a soap lather, but rinses off quite well. So why do we care about how hard or soft pool water is?

Calcium on the low and high end of the scales will eventually cause a few hiccups and when it does, be ready for some serious problems.

Low calcium, will cause long-term serious damage especially to plaster, vinyl liners and grout in between tiles, because water seeks to dissolve and bring into solution minerals, metals and other substances. Although soft water is desirable in everyday home use, calcium hardness is necessary in pool water.

With sufficient levels of calcium dissolved, the aggressive nature of water is tamed and will help prevent the leaching out of certain substances in pool equipment.

Low calcium levels in a plaster pool will cause the water to draw calcium directly from the plaster, causing it to pit, become rough, and eventually crumble after a few years, leaving you faced with a premature resurfacing job. Low calcium also contributes to vinyl pool liners losing their elasticity and supple nature.

Excessively high levels of calcium also have adverse effects. In this case there is simply too much calcium for the water to hold in solution, and it begins to cause cloudiness that does not subside, and leaving excess calcium in the form of scaling.

It will also slow down your filtration system in many cases as it begins to clog the filter therefore limiting the rate at which water may flow.

The good news about calcium is that once established at acceptable ranges, often in the beginning of the season, it will generally remain constant throughout the season and possibly into the next year.

So check those calcium levels, adjust as needed and avoid expensive repairs.