Dealing with scale problem

[beaverplt]

Two years ago, We had a "gusher" of a leak in a return line and lost a lot of water quickly. To make a long story short, we bypassed our iron filter (which was failing at the time also) and water softener to refill the pool more quickly. I was not very vigilant at testing the water because I was spending more time digging down to and repairing the line. We have very hard water and the result of all this is our vinyl liner is about 70% covered in white scale. We tried a powder (I don't remember the name of it) that the pool dealer recommended to soften it. It barely touched it with the main benefit being my hardness decreased quickly. Of course the scale gives algae a great foothold and I'm fighting that right now also. Through my last thread I've managed to greatly improve my pool chemistry, but how do I deal with that much scale?

My test readings this morning using an HTH 6 way kit gave me these three readings.
Chlorine (using the color chart) 9 ppm
TA 110
PH 7.2
When I tested for hardness, the sample turned yellow after I put in the 5 drops of indicator and swirled it. I have no idea what that means. Last week it tested at 210. Is my water suddenly too soft? Is the kit defective?

Considering that we have algae clinging to the scale I added 2 gallons of 12.5% chlorine to raise the chlorine level. What should I do from here?
Thanks

[PoolDoc]

+ Watch the Taylor videos, or at least the 2 calcium ones, and then retest:

http://pool9.net/tk-guide/
http://pool9.net/tk-interfere/

+ Order a K2006 -- you're gonna need it! http://pool9.net/tk/

+ Use bleach to keep your chlorine in the DARK yellow OTO range, till ALL traces of algae are gone.

[beaverplt]

Hi. Thanks for the links and advice. Thanks to this forum and the advice I've gotten, It seems I am on the right path. Keeping the chlorine in the dark yellow to orange area has been helpful. Brushing 1 - 2 times a day along with running our Dolphin has loosened some of the scale and along with it taken out algae with it. Here is my problem, While I fully intend to get a K2006 kit, some recent issues with other household problems have stretched our budget farther than we'd like. It's an expense that will have to wait. In the meantime, My HTH kit, while maybe not the most desirable, is still better than dip strips and will need to do for now. This takes me back to my question on the yellow color test result. Nothing in the HTH instruction guide deals with that result. Has anyone had this experience with the HTH kit? One thought that comes to mind is the high chlorine level. Could that mess with the test result?

[PoolDoc]

Here's a rough color chart for high ranges with OTO: http://pool9.net/oto-chart/

As far as I know, I'm the only one who has advocated using OTO this way; certainly I've never seen a pool kit with color block for the high range.

I'll help where I can, but you have to understand: no matter what your budget is, your pool will NOT forgive you. And it will cost far, far more to clean up, than to avoid problems.

I'm sure you really want to swim. But you might consider replacing the cover on your pool -- leaving 1/8 exposed, to 'breathe' the gases that form when chlorine breaks down goo. Covering the pool with hurt the algae and GREATLY reduce the chlorine need to eradicate it. That's the only way I know to deal with your situation AND cut expenditures significantly.

You would be able to swim in the late evening, without increasing costs much IF you avoid lotion on the swimmers (chlorine demand) and pee (BIG chlorine demand). You could continue aeration that way, too. Just keep it covered when the sun is shining.

Best wishes.

[beaverplt]

I'd rather leave covering the pool as an absolute last resort. To keep my cover on means having the brass bolts raised. Too great a risk of someone stubbing a toe. I am making progress. Maybe not as fast as I'd like, but as I keep at it and follow your advice on chlorine, oh, etc, the algae is slowly going away. My biggest concern is the scale. I think my current course of action is helping, but getting the strange reading from the hardness test concerns me. I'm still curious what a yellow color result when the hardness indicator is used means with the HTH kit.

[PoolDoc]

Maybe not as fast as I'd like, but as I keep at it and follow your advice on chlorine, oh, etc, the algae is slowly going away.

Then, you're losing.

You are wasting chlorine, wasting time, wasting effort, and wasting money.

Kill it quickly, as Watermom told you several days ago:

If you stop adding chlorine, your algae will take over even more than it already is! You don't want that. You need to be adding chlorine daily up to shock levels! Don't stop and let the algae get even worse!

My biggest concern is the scale.

Maybe, but you can't deal with the scale, till the algae is gone.

I'd rather leave covering the pool as an absolute last resort. To keep my cover on means having the brass bolts raised. Too great a risk of someone stubbing a toe.

You raised the issue of the cost of dealing with the algae. If cost is not that much of an issue, leave the cover off. If it is, cover it.

I wasn't suggesting that you swim with the cover one. I was suggesting that you forgo swimming till you've solved your algae problem.

I'm still curious what a yellow color result when the hardness indicator is used means with the HTH kit.

The HTH 6-way has a different hardness test then the K2006. Here are the instructions: http://pool9.net/hth-6way/

[beaverplt]

Losing? How? Since Watermom told me several days ago to keep adding chlorine, I have kept my chlorine level in the orange color range of the OTO chart that she sent me. I'm checking it twice a day. The lowest it's gotten is dark yellow. That has been over a week now. During that time my PH has stayed at 7.2 and my TA near 110 until tonight when they were 7.5 and 150. Is it possible that the algae is dead, but so intertwined with the scale that removing it requires a lot of brushing? The algae is no longer green, rather kind of an ochre/light brown color.
My HTH kit came with the same instructions you linked, so I have been following the correct procedure. The good news is when I tried it again tonight, it worked and I was able to get a hardness reading of 310. I wonder if the kit has a "floor" it won't give results below.
Another little bit of good news is I saved a good piece of change when a lawn tractor repair I needed to do cost me almost nothing other than my labor and some good luck. I immediately ordered a K2006. I'll have it Thursday. I'll keep testing with the HTH until then, but I'll share my new test results Thursday night.