Will this work?

WOW! Pools are crazy. Haha. So I

• took out all chlorine tabs I had in the skimmer,
• added Cal Hypo through it for a couple days and
• pool got to be cloud free.

I can see the entire bottom and am super happy. The water still has a green tint to it, so I decided to put some Natural Chemistry brand "Stain Free" that was laying around in a sock to rub on my stairs. Stairs instantly became bright white!! Tried the same method on a corner of my pool liner and floor and they also cleaned up like brand new! When I look at that corner, the water appears crystal clear. So, the stained liner seems to be making my water appear green. My question is, can I use this product as recommended and follow it up with "Metal Free", or should I do something else to clean my liner? Also, the "Stain Free" that I found seems to be pretty old and I feel like I read somewhere on these boards that it is not the same as it used to be formula wise if I buy it new today. Thanks!!

Orange stained pool surfaces can DEFINITELY make pool water look green.

But, whichever Stain Free you have -- if it's lifting the stains and putting them back into the water, that is an IDEAL situation while you using cal hypo. The calcium on the filter will tend to recollect the stains onto the calcium dust that you will then be backwashing out.

So, use it up; maintain chlorine with cal hypo, and run your filter 24/7, till you are all cleaned up . . . and then for 3 or 4 more days.

Cool. I added the Stain Free, and instantly I have a multicolored Liner. I tried to distribute it as evenly as possible, but the areas in which the stain free made it down to the floor before dissolving cleaned up right away. I'm hoping that with time the stains will begin to lift on their own and the liner will look uniform. Am I able to get in the pool while stain free is present? I'm thinking I may need to get in and do some manual cleaning somehow. Also, The directions say not to super chlorinate for 24 hours after adding to the pool. Does this mean I should avoid maintaining chlorine with cal hypo within that time. I'm just wondering because I let the FC get down to around 1 before adding stain free and I have a feeling it will be at 0 if I wait 24 hours. Thanks.
-Update- Well, That didn't take long. My FC is now showing 0. Wondering how I should raise it up without having a bad interaction with the stuff I added recently.

I imagine you are going to see either an immediate effect, or no effect. The chemicals that have been in both the old and the new Stain Free aren't chlorine compatible. So, once it's fully dissolved, chlorine breaks it down.

So . . . if you have an adequate chlorine level, you can swim now . . . but your Stain Free is gone, or soon will be.

To LIFT the stains, without having to shut the pool down is tricky. Read this thread to get a handle on what is likely to be involved in really cleaning up your pool: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?15092

Meanwhile, if you do these things, it will tend to gradually lift the stains:

• Maintain pH levels in the 7.0 - 7.4 range, ratther than higher.
• Dose with an HEDP product every 2 weeks:

  20% KemTek HEDP @ Amazon

• Do NOT over clean your filter. Let it run till you see a 5 - 8 psi increase over clean pressure (or 2 - 3 psi increase, on low)
• Brush regularly (2x week)
• Consider using CuLator, with skimmer socks, to protect the Culator from contamination with gunk.

  1 ppm Culator, direct from Amazon
  1.5 ppm Culator, sold by Amazon, shipped from Periodic
  4 ppm Culator, sold by Amazon, shipped from Periodic
  Poolmaster 16242 Poolmaster Skimmer Basket Liner

We *think* the Culator product works, but we're not completely sure. So skip it, if you can't risk the cost. If it does work, it's the only sure method that will 'rob' the HEDP of the metals sequested by that product and actually remove them from they pool. Filtering in the manner I told you will gradually capture the metals, but only as the HEDP breaks down and releases them.

Try that for 6 weeks. After July 4, your family will probably be less interested in swimming, and if the stains haven't lifted by then, you can go with the full treatment.

When I got home today, I noticed that my pool turned from green to blue. A bit cloudy, but blue finally. Apparently the Stain Free did it's job. There are still some stains left, but its about 90% fixed. I figure I will do another round in a few weeks, but for this weekend I need to swim! The online directions say to vacuum pool and backwash after 24 hours, then balance as needed. I just passed the 24 hour mark, and ran my numbers. They are: PH= 7.2, Alkalinity= 120, and Chlorine= 0. I now want to get everything balanced for the weekend and need to raise my chlorine. The older bottle of stain free I have says to not super chlorinate for 72 hours after treatment. The newer one says not to add chlorine or "shock" until pool has been vacuumed and backwashed after 24 hour period. Thinking I would be cautious, I just put 4 98% Trichlor pucks into my skimmer hoping it may give me a chlorine level, without going overboard. The recommended amount of tabs is 8 to achieve 1-1.5 PPM increase in a unbalanced pool. In an earlier post, PoolDoc said to not add tabs to my skimmer and just use Cal hypo through it. Should I take the tabs out and add a small amount of cal hypo, or just keep them in and monitor the situation? Thanks.

Once the stains are lifted, your best best to REMOVE the iron, rather than to RE-STAIN the pool (because all the iron is STILL in the pool; just dissolved in the pool water) is to use cal hypo ONLY in small, increasing doses, so that you gradually raise your chlorine and pH levels

NO TABS; JUST CAL HYPO. If you put tabs ANYWHERE in the system, you MUST stop with the skimmer cal hypo!!

Quote:

---

In an earlier post, PoolDoc said to not add tabs to my skimmer and just use Cal hypo through it. Should I take the tabs out and add a small amount of cal hypo, or just keep them in and monitor the situation?

---

Yep, I didn't say it just because I like the feel of of whacking away at a keyboard!

So I did one treatment of stain free with metal free, and it worked great. I then brought up, and maintained chlorine with small doses of cal hypo through the skimmer. A week later, and I notice the stain reappearing. It is not nearly as bad as before, but I notice it. I was thinking that maybe it is the result of the metal free breaking down and releasing the metals that had not been filtered out yet. I'm probably wrong though. I plan on purchasing the KemTek HEDP and 4ppm CuLator that you recommend to try. The KemTek says it "prevents" stains, while the CuLator catches metals out of the water. I'm wondering if I should first use the Stain Free to get the metal stains off my liner, and back into the water for the CuLator to catch. Or will one of those products remove the staining on my liner instantly like the stain free did? Thanks.

The sequence is (1) get the metal off the walls and into the water (ascorbic or citric acid), (2) keep the metal in the water for awhile (HEDP), (3) get the metal our of the water (CuLator or calcium hypochlorite on the filter).

Did I link the Mountain Stone post? (Yep, it's in post #24)

Sorry, must have skipped over the link somehow. Thanks for the info. Gonna give it a shot as soon as order arrives.

Ok. Did a round of ascorbic acid and waited for stains to lift, added the KemTek HEDP that was recommended, and then added my CuLator 4ppm. So far so good. Everything looks brand new. I forgot to order the Polyquat 60 so decided to just risk it with no chlorine for a little bit. I am now on the 28th hour since introducing the ascorbic acid and about 12 hours since the dose of KemTek. Is it ok to start bringing my chlorine back up now? My pool is blue and clear and I am nervous that adding chlorine may somehow release the metals back into the pool like it did last time. Forgive me if this info is posted somewhere else. I read through a lot of other posts and just didn't see a specific amount of time to wait. Thank you.