iron and copper

szampino, you don't need ascorbic acid unless you have staining. You just need to make sure you have the sequestering agent in the water - that is what holds the metals in suspension. You need to keep your chlorine no lower than 3ppms at all times with a cya of 30, if under a chlorine of 2ppms is the lowest. Since you had cloudy water, you want to keep your chlorine at shock levels till the cloudiness goes away! The ascorbic acid is what made the pool cloudy - you will now use up a lot of chlorine breaking down the ascorbic acid - so keep checking and don't let it fall under 3ppms for now, and you can even keep it up to 10 if you didn't have any staining before putting in the ascorbic acid. The only reason you have to take the chlorine up slowly after doing a stain treatment is in case there is any metals that have not been sequestered after the ascorbic acid lifted them, they will fall back out. Since you had no stain to lift, then the metals were already sequestered and you can raise your chlorine. Just keep your ph low when raising the chlorine - no higher than 7.3. Hope this explains a little more to you - feel free to ask any more questions you may have. If you are afraid metals have been introduced into the water,then it is a sequestering agent you want to add, not the ascorbic acid. The ascorbic acid is only to lift stains that have precipitated out of the water.

Mbar -

First of all Thanks.

The cloudyness in the water appeared before I AA'd.

I added PoolMagnet, then slowly brought the Chlorine up to 10(+) in hopes of removing the cloudyness. I left the chlorine level at 10+ for about 1-2 hours. I then added AA (thinking that the cloudyness was due to Metals) I knew the AA would bring down the Chlorine level pretty quickly. I then began to raise the Chlorine level to 1-2 where I plan on keeping it. I also wanted to make sure the Chlorine would hold, so I brought it up twice throughout the day and it maintained all night so I was pretty sure the AA wasn't attacking the Chlorine.

Throughout the whole process the cloudyness didn't budge.

This morning I took a sample down the PoolStore to get a reading and any suggestions they may have.

The readings were as follows:
TC 1.3
FC .9 (A little lower then my test strips showed)
pH 7
TA - 107
Hardness-120
Copper & Iron- 0 (it looks like the PoolMagnet is working)

**I saw some info on Calcium hardness and tried to raise it to the 200 level but obviously haven't gotten it that high yet. Then I read the 100 cloudy water causes and saw under the myths that WaterHardness does not make cloudy water.

The pool Store recommeded raising the Chlorine to 3 and keeping it there. I've got it just about 3 now and am holding steady, not change in cloudyness.

Last year I had the same problem, Cloudy, (I define cloudy as I can see the bottom of the pool but it isn't very sharp. I can't actually see the small designs on the vinyl.) I couldn't get it clear for the life of me.

This year I thought I almost had it licked through the info from this site and especially your posts.

Q1. Can the metals be causing the Cloudyness? if so, should I add more PoolMagnet? What about AA-(tried this but I didn't add a lot only about 1/2 lb)
Q2. What about clarifiers? I'm afraid to add more stuff before I know what I'm dealing with.
Q3. Doesn't too much Clarifyer or Too much pool magnet also cause cloudyness?

I think I'm almost about to POP my POP!

I would not add anything else yet. I would however bring the chlorine up to 10 - 12. You are fighting something because you have combined chlorine. I think if you take the chlorine up to 10 or 12 and leave the filter on 24/7, the water will clear. I don't have any experience with cartridge filters, as I have a sand one, so I don't know how long it will take to filter out what the chlorine has broken down. Take up your chlorine, and your POP, and I think it will do the trick.

OK -

I had it up (10+) all night. (Filter 24/7)

No change at all, no better no worse. One thing I find interesting is that I have a fountain on the pool return. The splashing of the fountain appears to create some bubbles on top of the water that linger for longer then I would expectected

I've just changed the cartridge filter to rule out a dirty cartridge.

TA-80 (a little low)
PH - 7.0 - 7.2

I too had iron in my water, have been fighting this battle for 11 days. Started by filling the pool with brook water (14,600), adding 4 gallons of super shock 12.5%. Water turned green within an hour. Tested positive for Iron. Added two quarts of mineral magnet - kept pool filter running for days. No better. Balanced pool for alk & ph and added one more quart mineral magnet. Nothing. Got a second opinion at another pool place. Rebalanced water & added 4 more gallons of super shock to adjust free chlorine. Added two quarts of ez-loc drop out. I quart is suppose to treat 40,000 galloons of water so we did a heavy dose. Shut the pool pump off. Waited two days, no improvement since the day we first added the water and got it green with orginal shock. Add two more quarts of DROP OUT yesterday and this morning still no better. Call the pool guy, he said bring him a sample again and we will have to add a clarifier! HELP!

I'm no pro but think I have a pretty good handle on the blue/brown metally water. The brookwater concerns me because I don't know how to deal with Bacteria.

The first think you need to do is drop your ph to 7.2. The next thing you might try is Ascorbic Acid (Vitaman C). My water wasn't Brown it was more of a Greenish color. I used a bout 1 lb of Acorbic Acid for my 8000(+-) gal. pool. This amount may need to be adjusted based on the size of your pool.

Shut your filter down, drop the Ascorbic Acid down the sides of the pool and let it sit there for at least a 1/2 - 1 hr. Then Turn on the filter and let it run overnight. The AA will eat the chlorine up very quickly and bring it to a 0 level. This should clear up the water if it is in-fact metal. (worked for me)

After your water gets clear the next step is to prepare the water for Chlorine. I learned from this forum that Metal in water never disappears, it's sort of like living with a disease. You have to add a sequesterin agent (pool magnet, metal magic, etc) to keep the metal in what is called "in solution" this means the agent keeps the metal from reacting to chemicals (Chlorine). If the agent isn't added, the chlorine and higher PH will cause the Metal in the water to become visable and actually stain the pool liner and stuff. this is called "falling out of solution". To effectively use this site, I suggest you read through all the different posts that have simmilar problems. you will learn a lot.

Keep posting and people will help. I learned a new acronym last week POP (pool owners patience). I'm now dealing with cloudy water and it is definately testing my POP! Good luck

Marie was very helpful for me also, in learning to control my iron. She gives great advice!

The only thing I might add/question, is about your comment of using a maintenance dosage of pool magnet weekly. Once your iron is under control, the only time you need to use the pool magnet again, or any other type of metal out is when you have to fill/add water to your pool that contains iron - due to evaporation, splash out, refill after draining down for winter...

You'll get the hang of it, have patience! Our local pool store tried to tell me I couldn't use a DE filter, bleach, or many other things because we have iron in the water in all of NE - - trust the forum and the advice you get here! My pool is gorgeous and glistens!

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Originally Posted by huskerfan

Marie was very helpful for me also, in learning to control my iron. She gives great advice!

The only thing I might add/question, is about your comment of using a maintenance dosage of pool magnet weekly. Once your iron is under control, the only time you need to use the pool magnet again, or any other type of metal out is when you have to fill/add water to your pool that contains iron - due to evaporation, splash out, refill after draining down for winter...

You'll get the hang of it, have patience! Our local pool store tried to tell me I couldn't use a DE filter, bleach, or many other things because we have iron in the water in all of NE - - trust the forum and the advice you get here! My pool is gorgeous and glistens!

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I agree both Marie and Waterbear have been of tremendous help to me, and still are.

I also need clarification as to whether or not you add sequesterant weekly, monthly or just when adding water after you finally get rid of metal stains.

I had the pool guy out to look at my light the other day and he saw my bleach, borax and baking soda supplies. He didn't say a word. I thought it was funny :)

huskerfan is right - you only need it when you add fill water, or sometimes if your metal is coming from some other place, like your plumbing - and is constantly putting more metals in the water, then you will need to add it weekly so that any metals introduced to the water will be sequestered. That is why it would be good if you can find the source of your metal problems.

Well, The pool guy was right. After two treatments of EZ-Loc Dropout (2 Quarts each) We used their clarifier and everything dropped to the bottom by morning. I vacuumed it up to waste and it look good, still need to vacuum the remaining particles but the water is clear! Just a little cloudy from sediment. I have to vacuum to waste one more time then add two bottles of shock and we should be swimming by morning! Yeah!!!