You ideally want to keep the calcium hardness level balanced as too low or too high can cause problems for you pool.
Calcium hardness vinyl pool.
The ideal reading for calcium hardness in pool water is about 200 to 400 parts per million.
These are symptoms of swimming pool water that is unbalanced.
It also produces itchy skin.
Calcium for a liner pool can be a bit lower than a plaster pool in the range of 150 250 ppm.
Low calcium levels in the pool.
If you have a concrete or plaster pool keep the level between 200 ppm and 275 ppm.
When people see calcium scale or plaster problems that are white in color they immediately assume it s calcium s fault.
Calcium hardness has a bad reputation and that reputation is undeserved.
The recommended range is 150 400 ppm parts per million with an often cited stricter range of 200 400 ppm.
Calcium hardness is also very important to the chemical balancing of your vinyl liner swimming pool.
Keeping your calcium hardness in the midpoint.
In addition to ph and total alkalinity calcium hardness must be kept in balance so that your pool water does not become too corrosive or end up scaling the surface of your pool.
If you keep your calcium hardness in the midpoint between those two limits about 275ppm then you should be fine.
One can assume in the course of a week the ph in a plaster pool will rise and in vinyl or fiberglass pools the ph will drop in most cases.
Calcium on the low and high end of the scales will eventually cause problems and when they do be ready for some serious problems.
Low calcium as is often the case will cause long term serious damage especially to plaster vinyl liners grout in between tiles metal rails and even concrete decking around the.
Fortunately calcium hardness changes rather slowly so a once a month testing and adjustment should be all you need.
If calcium hardness goes above 400 ppm you will likely see a white flaky crust on the liner and pool equipment.
For vinyl pools calcium should be between 150 250 ppm.
If your pool has a vinyl or fiberglass liner the calcium hardness level should be between 175 parts per million ppm and 225 ppm.