Yellow Staining

[Bnelson]

I have an above ground pool 17x29. Getting yellow staining on skimmer and ladder along with streaks on the floor and walls. Been using the pucks since weather is cold. Pool temp now is 80. Was 68 this past weekend and 72 last 2 weeks. MN weather.
Where do I purchase the absorbic acid?
And the sequestering agent? Local pool store?
Also have a mustard algae problem?

Drained pool the beginning of the year and refilled. Could that be the staining problem?

I use liquid chlorine 12% as shock. can I use that to bring chlorine up or reg bleach.

Kids want to have a pool party end of the week. Can they swim while it is being treated?

[CarlD]

What are your numbers:
FC--Free Chlorine
CC or TC Combined or Total Chlorine
pH
T/A Total Alkalinity
CH Calcium Hardness
CYA Cyunaric Acid--Stabilizer

You have been using pucks. It's likely your CYA is very high, making it likely your FC isn't high enough, and you may have mustard algae.

On the other hand, it could be something else--but I'm not sure what metal causes yellow staining--green is copper, red or pink is iron.

But the initial round of numbers is necessary first.

[Bnelson]

Im thinking since I drained pool and refilled, the new water had some metal in it.
Alot of the mustard algae is gone. Finally.

Temp was 80. back to 74 this morning.
readings from last night are from a pool store. Ran out of CYA agent.
CYA 27
TC 6.5
FC 6.1
PH 8
Adj Total Alk 148
Hardness 252

[CarlD]

Im thinking since I drained pool and refilled, the new water had some metal in it.
Alot of the mustard algae is gone. Finally.

Temp was 80. back to 74 this morning.
readings from last night are from a pool store. Ran out of CYA agent.
CYA 27
TC 6.5
FC 6.1
PH 8
Adj Total Alk 148
Hardness 252

IF these numbers are right (and let's assume they are ballpark) then you need to lower your pH to the 7.2-7.3 range and shock the heck out of it. At 8.0, your chlorine has lost most of it's effectiveness, and your TRUE T/A is lower.

Start there and see if that helps. Shock to 15ppm.

That's my best guess for where to begin.

[Bnelson]

OK, Brought chlorine to 0 and Got yellow stains out of pool with absorbic acid treatment. YEA! Clear pool!

Readings now are
Temp 75
CYA 0
TC .4
FC 0
ph 7.8
TA 131

Am going to add bleach to bring up chlorine level as well as add some stabilizer.
How does that sound?

[aylad]

Sounds good, just remember that the stabilizer take several days to dissolve, so in the meantime you're going to have to add chlorine daily to keep the algae gone.

Janet

[Bnelson]

Thanks, Add 4 gal bleach today. To bring the chlorine to 0 I added some chem remover to eat the chlorine. Taking more bleach to eat that up.
Pool is a little green, hoping from the heat and low chlorine levels.
I will check levels again tonight after it has circulated a few hours.

Readings now
TC - 1
FC- 0
PH 8.6
TA 185

Should I get ph down prior to adding bleach? I have a few gallons of liquid shock, thinking of using that to bring chlorine up.

[CarlD]

Yes. Your bleach won't work if pH is so high. Add acid to lower it--aim for 7.3. The acid should only take a few hours to work, then shock the green out of it!

See the stickied threads on cleaning up algae.

[aylad]

Thanks, Add 4 gal bleach today. To bring the chlorine to 0 I added some chem remover to eat the chlorine. Taking more bleach to eat that up.
Pool is a little green, hoping from the heat and low chlorine levels.
I will check levels again tonight after it has circulated a few hours.

Readings now
TC - 1
FC- 0
PH 8.6
TA 185

Should I get ph down prior to adding bleach? I have a few gallons of liquid shock, thinking of using that to bring chlorine up.

I totally don't understand what you're saying in this post....what chem remover did you add to "eat the chlorine", and why did you lower the chlorine and then have to use the "liquid shock" to bring it back up? I must've missed something here..........

Also, if your FC is 0 and the TC is 1, then you still have CC's that need to be dealt with--which you need to do by shocking the pool...that's why it's greenish looking.

Edit: I just realized this post is a few days old..I've been away out of town. But I still don't understand what you're trying to do....did you get it worked out?


Janet

[mbar]

First I am really surprised that your ph stayed that high using the ascorbic acid. Your ph was probably even higher than you thought. It usually takes the ph way down. Second, you didn't say you put in any sequestering agent. You will need to do that asap - it should also take the ph down. Anytime you have your ph above 7.4 and you have metals in your water, when you add chlorine the metals will fall out and stain the surface of the pool. If you are having algae problems, then you need to add the sequestering agent, make sure your ph is no higher than 7.2 and then shock. I would also use some algaecide because it is hard to keep chlorine levels up after doing an ascorbic acid treatment. The remaining ascorbic acid eats the chlorine.