Are you struggling with high Calcium Hardness (CH), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), or Cyanuric Acid (CYA) levels? Based on those levels being high, has anyone told you that it’s time to start thinking about draining your swimming pool? Our water in Southern California is hard and over time it’s recommended to change out the water in your swimming pool to prevent issues that we want to discuss in this blog post. As a resident of the Sothern California area, we deal with high levels of CH in our fill water. When your swimming pool water evaporates and you use this water to fill it back up, the levels of calcium will gradually increase. Typically, when it comes to calcium in your swimming pool the recommended levels should be between 200 – 400 parts per million (ppm). Since our water coming out of the tap is in the area of 400ppm it doesn’t take long for these levels to increase along with TDS and CYA!

That’s why it shouldn’t be a surprise to you when pool professionals recommend a water change on average every two years. In the Orange County area, the calcium levels will continue to climb and when they reach 600ppm and higher scaling will occur on your water tile line, the interior finish, filtration equipment, spillways and decorative water features. High levels of calcium will also make it more challenging to take care of your swimming pool! As a residential or commercial swimming pool owner, it is important to familiarize yourself with this because scaling occurs it can be extremely expensive to remove! So, it is our recommendation to replace the water in your swimming pool with the following options:

  • Drain and refill
  • Mobile Filtration Reverse Osmosis (RO)

Most pool professionals will recommend a drain and refill because it’s the most common method to lower CH, TDS, and CYA but keep in mind that the water you are putting back in the swimming pool is hard and it’s dangerous to drain a swimming pool!

Whereas, with RO filtration it is possible to lower the following without draining the swimming pool:

  • CH
  • TDS
  • CYA
  • Waterborne Diseases
  • Phosphates
  • Salts

This process is mobile which means it comes to your residential or commercial swimming pool and recycles the water on site. This process will conserve up to 85% of the existing water in the swimming pool, will not expose the interior finish and you can actually swim in the pool while filtration is occurring. Since we use RO filtration you can actually drink the water that goes back into the pool which means it’s much better than tap water! In conclusion, your best defense against calcium scaling is to recycle your swimming pool every two years. Trust us when we say, you will notice a difference in the feel and clarity of the water. If you should have any questions in regards to this, please contact us today!