New product to remove calcium hardness??

[photogold]

Leslies just started selling a new product that will *remove* calcium hardness in your pool. The product is Caltreat from United Chemical. I called United Chemical and asked if this is another sequestering agent. The rep said no, it is not a sequestering agent, it will remove calcium from the pool. One application is supposed to decrease calcium hardness by 200-400ppm. The rep said that after adding Caltreat, if no new calcium is added to the pool, the the CH level should stay at the reduced level, no additional treatment required. When I pressed him on where the calcium goes, he was somewhat vague, but suggested that it precipitates, and is collected in the filter. He says there is one other competing product available on the market. He said that the product has been available for about 1 year, but he said they don't have any information posted on their website. Caltreat sells for about $29 at Leslies.

If it does what it says, this would be much better than draining the pool. Is this too good to be true? Could this possibly just be just masking the test?

Chem Geek, what is your take on this?

Does anyone have experience with this product?

[chem geek]

This was brought up here, but we don't really know what is in it. One reliable way to remove calcium is to add phosphates since calcium phosphate is insoluble, but then you end up with phosphates in the water. The plus side to this is that they are a strong pH buffer. The downside is that they are also an essential nutrient for algae. Of course, one can prevent algae growth in spite of high phosphate levels.

So if it's not a calcium sequestrant and not phosphate, then I don't know what it is. Does it say anything on the bottle that might give a clue either to its ingredients or to side effects (i.e. preciptates calcium; gets caught in filter; balances pH)?

Richard

[Aquaclear-NZ]

our chemical supplier picked up on this last year, really due to water shortages in australia, dumping pool water is not an option

i have some at the office i can tell you what is claimed to be in it

we have sold quite a bit, and the feedback has been good, however the directions are a bit vague

will post some more info as it comes to hand

[California Pool Owner]

Save your money - it doesn't work. Used it as directed & did everything it said to on the label.

Calcium level increased. It also totally wiped out all the clorine in the pool. We have a salt pool, don't know if that made a difference.

C

[Pool User]

The reason your calcium went up is because the pool was more than likely scaled. I have had several people tell me the same thing and we found out the pool was scaled. s

[Rickster]

So if it's "scaled", what's the solution?

I have a pentair IC-40 Salt generator.
I'm getting white flakes coming out.
Also impossible to remove white ring around spa tile (actually quartzite).

Is scale different than calcium buildup?

I've heard of Scaltec and Beautec?

Suggestions?

[chem geek]

Unless your Calcium Hardness (CH) is very high, the scaling is most likely coming from a Total Alkalinity (TA) and pH that are too high. Read Water Balance for SWGs and note that a lower TA will not only help to reduce scale but will also lower the rate of pH rise allowing you to prevent the pH from getting too high. You can also use 50 ppm Borates in the pool to act as an additional pH buffer (after you've got your TA lowered) to help prevent scaling in the SWG cell.