Sandblasting calcium from pool walls and bottom

hatecalcium · Postby **hatecalcium** » Sat 06 Mar, 2010 12:51

I have a tremendous buildup of calcium in my pool. I was being lazy and cheap, and was not keeping up with the muratic acid. I have well water in an area with extremely hard water, and in Central Texas it is all limestone. I had a bit of a buildup, but when my pump died, I had to wait a couple of weeks until pay day in order to purchase another one. I poured about 10 gallons of bleach into my 10.000 gallon pool to ward off an invasion of algae, and it seems to have produced a chemical reaction.

I now have a buildup of about 1/8th of an inch of calcium all over every surface. I am wondering if I need to drain the pool and sandblast, as it is impossible to scrape it all away. It is like walking on needles in my pool. Help!

If this question has been posed before, please forgive me. I searched the forum and did not find the info that I need.

hatecalcium · Postby **hatecalcium** » Mon 08 Mar, 2010 13:18

Darn! No answers.

Okay, maybe I should be asking HOW do I sandblast? I have read that I should use a wet medium, I have read that I should use a something that is not exactly sand, but rather some kind of plastic tiny pellets stuff. Does anyone have any experience with this? :?:

Postby **Pool Clown** » Tue 09 Mar, 2010 08:35

Sandblasting is what we do when its time to re-plaster. It roughs up the existing plaster so the bond coat will adhere. If you sand blast, you should be careful not to go through calcium and begin to blast the plaster behind it (easy to do). Don't even know if it could be done without hitting the plaster... There are company's that will bead blast your tile to remove the calcium, perhaps they can give, or offer you a solution.

hatecalcium · Postby **hatecalcium** » Fri 12 Mar, 2010 12:51

Thank you for your reply, Pool Clown.

I had a guy come out and he said he uses microscopic spherical glass beads made from silica and lead free soda lime and are applied at low pressure. "Safer than harsh chemicals and pumice stones."

But he wants $3000 to do the entire surface of my 10,000 gallon pool.

Does this seem reasonable? Is there any way I can fix my pool myself?

Postby **Pool Clown** » Sat 13 Mar, 2010 12:02

Sometimes you have to take into consideration the labor involved as opposed to the "service" given. If possible you can get a second opinion/estimate, to see if the price is in line with the market in your area?

Guest · Postby **Guest** » Wed 21 Apr, 2010 21:54

Where are you located? My company specializes in the safe and effective removal of calcium / scale deposits from any surface. Visit me

Best wishes,

Chris

Watermark Pros · Postby **Watermark Pros** » Wed 21 Apr, 2010 21:57

Contact me and your calcium troubles will be solved! Best of luck to you!

hatecalcium wrote:I have a tremendous buildup of calcium in my pool. I was being lazy and cheap, and was not keeping up with the muratic acid. I have well water in an area with extremely hard water, and in Central Texas it is all limestone. I had a bit of a buildup, but when my pump died, I had to wait a couple of weeks until pay day in order to purchase another one. I poured about 10 gallons of bleach into my 10.000 gallon pool to ward off an invasion of algae, and it seems to have produced a chemical reaction.

I now have a buildup of about 1/8th of an inch of calcium all over every surface. I am wondering if I need to drain the pool and sandblast, as it is impossible to scrape it all away. It is like walking on needles in my pool. Help!

If this question has been posed before, please forgive me. I searched the forum and did not find the info that I need.

Postby **czechmate** » Mon 26 Apr, 2010 12:40

Question for Richard;

I just found out that over my Calcium hardness reached 500ppm mark. Instead of draining a lot of water and loosing my valuable borates, to protect from scaling potential, I am thinking about adding 3 bags of salt.
It will raise the salt to about 1500ppm and CSI will be still balanced at summer temperature of 86+ F, even if the CH goes to 600. Leslie's clerk showed me a new product, "that will lower the CH", but I suspect that it is only a sequestrant to suspend calcium, expensive temporary remedy without any side benefit.
Salt on the other hand will benefit swimmers with softer water, it is quite natural and will stay there for quite a while.
Meanwhile I am buying time to dilute during the season.
My CYA is only 40 so I can use Trichlor to maintain FC for a while.
Does all this make some sense?
Thanks,
Ivan

Watermark Pros · Postby **Watermark Pros** » Wed 28 Apr, 2010 21:17

Watermark Pros wrote:Call Watermark Pros or visit and your calcium troubles will be solved! Best of luck to you!

hatecalcium wrote:I have a tremendous buildup of calcium in my pool. I was being lazy and cheap, and was not keeping up with the muratic acid. I have well water in an area with extremely hard water, and in Central Texas it is all limestone. I had a bit of a buildup, but when my pump died, I had to wait a couple of weeks until pay day in order to purchase another one. I poured about 10 gallons of bleach into my 10.000 gallon pool to ward off an invasion of algae, and it seems to have produced a chemical reaction.

I now have a buildup of about 1/8th of an inch of calcium all over every surface. I am wondering if I need to drain the pool and sandblast, as it is impossible to scrape it all away. It is like walking on needles in my pool. Help!

If this question has been posed before, please forgive me. I searched the forum and did not find the info that I need.

polyvue · Postby **polyvue** » Thu 06 May, 2010 09:31

czechmate wrote:Question for Richard;

I just found out that over my Calcium hardness reached 500ppm mark. Instead of draining a lot of water and loosing my valuable borates, to protect from scaling potential, I am thinking about adding 3 bags of salt.
It will raise the salt to about 1500ppm and CSI will be still balanced at summer temperature of 86+ F, even if the CH goes to 600. Leslie's clerk showed me a new product, "that will lower the CH", but I suspect that it is only a sequestrant to suspend calcium, expensive temporary remedy without any side benefit.
Salt on the other hand will benefit swimmers with softer water, it is quite natural and will stay there for quite a while.
Meanwhile I am buying time to dilute during the season.
My CYA is only 40 so I can use Trichlor to maintain FC for a while.
Does all this make some sense?
Thanks,
Ivan

I'm not Richard, but I was intrigued by your question. I gather that you have run various scenarios through a CSI calculator to determine "balance". Yes, salt is cheap and does affect the SI but once your calcium gets to a certain point (assuming you have fill water with excessive calcium) you're still going to have to dump the water and refill with a lower calcium source -- or use a company that offers reverse osmosis filtering. I can't imagine that distillation, which would also work, would be an economical choice.

So, sooner or later, the borates are going away. As is the money you've invested in salt, cyanuric acid, muriatic acid and so forth. If you can manage to keep the water balanced with high calcium, that's good but warranty compliance may present an issue if you have newer pool equipment.

PoolTileCleaner · Postby **PoolTileCleaner** » Fri 17 Sep, 2010 18:03

What you could do for the plaster surface, is what we do at Surface Renewal, have the tile cleaned by a professional pool tile cleaner. They would use either "glass bead blasting" to remove the deposits from your pool tile or pressure wash with an injection nozzel where they would introduce a mineral to remove it. As far as the plaster is concerned try an acid wash and then hand sand the plaster with 60 grit sand paper. You can check out some before and after pictures here http://www.surfacerenewal1.com We don't service Texas, Yet. :wave: