Calcium hardness reading jumped 60 points, didn't add any calcium

Started by Karen Delgado · · 1 reply
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#1
Taylor kit's been steady around 420 for two years since I know my fill water. Tested last week and it's pushing 480 out of nowhere. Haven't added hardness increaser, haven't done a big top off, spa's not overflowing into the pool that I know of. Only thing different is I ran the water feature a lot more this month with the heat.

Evaporation makes sense to me on paper, water leaves, calcium stays, number climbs. But 60 points feels like a lot for the top off amount I'm doing. Anybody see jumps like that just from evap alone or should I be looking for a leak somewhere pulling fresh fill water in constantly. Not scaling anywhere yet, tile line still clean, just don't want to get blindsided in August.

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#2
Actually the water feature running more probably explains most of it without needing a leak, splash and spray off a feature is just accelerated evaporation, more surface area exposed to air than your normal pool surface, so you're concentrating everything faster than a calm pool would even with the same top off volume. 60 points over a month of heavy evap on a 22k gallon pool doesn't strike me as leak territory, I'd only start hunting for one if the CH keeps climbing after you dial the feature back down.