Will this work?

If your pH is too low, you can use Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, at 1/2 the rate of borax -- but it will also increase your carbonate alkalinity.

I actually found some Borax the other day and have been using that routinely. I have been keeping tabs of every test and addition in PF Pool History. Water seems to be getting clearer at a very slow pace, which is cool with me as long as my stains don't come back. I've been dosing with Borax to raise PH, but it keeps wanting to come back down to around 7. Everything else seems to stay pretty consistent. I ordered more KemTek HEDP to do a maintenance dose every couple weeks, and keep metals sequestered. The first round of ascorbic acid treatment I did worked for about one week until the stains started to come back. I am now approaching one week since my last round and I'm getting nervous that I will come home from work to a stained pool like last time. Should I just trust the KemTek will keep metals sequestered longer than the metal free and do nothing, or would it be wise to do a very small maintenance dose when it arrives. And would dosing cloudy water make it worse? I'm trying to fix two separate issues (cloudy water, stains) at the same time, and not sure how managing one may affect the other. Thanks.

As long as you don't overdose, but DO dose as frequently as the label states, the HEDP should hang onto the metals. Keep in mind that it does NOT remove the metals; it just keeps them in the water.

To remove them, you have to use the CuLator; OR precipitate them with alum or polyaluminum chloride, and then vacuum them out, OR use calcium + high pH + high chlorine to get them to filter out -- and then backwash them off the filter.

The HEDP is buying time, but you need time, right now.

My pool is making slow progress i guess, but I'm down to my last couple doses of Cal Hypo. I will need to buy something to keep my pool chlorinated. At this rate I'm adding some type of chlorine 3-5 times a day just to have a readable level throughout. While the cloudiness has dissipated over the past couple weeks, I can't tell if it's the Cal Hypo helping or the constant filtering, or both. I guess I just figured it would have cleared by now. I would love to go a cheaper route with the constant chlorinating, but only if you guys would. Any Thoughts?

If you would, fill out the Pool Chart form; it will take about 30s, but make it much easier for us to help you:

Pool Chart Entry Form
Pool Chart Results

Done.

Several questions:

1. Have you seen any evidence of new staining?

2. Why is the cal hypo expensive? How are you buying it?

3. Do have access to a Sams Club? If so, buy their 24lb pack of 1# bags of 100% dichlor shock. Each bag will add about 2.5 ppm of chlorine, and about 2 ppm of stabilizer to your pool. Otherwise, order dichlor from Amazon:

Kem-Tek Dichlor 22 lbs

You need to start bringing your chlorine and stabilizer levels up. You can use the dichlor to raise both at the same time. I'd aim for 1 - 3 ppm levels. You can add the dichlor to your skimmer, but take the CuLator out before you do, and replace it after. I don't recommend buying dichlor locally, otherwise, at least until you are an EXPERT reader of chemical labels. The chlorinating pool chemicals sold at Walmart, Kmart, Costco, and most other local stores are diluted blends, sometimes with copper and other products with bad side-effects.

1. Yes, only on my stairs though. The liner seems to be clean to this point. I really hope it doesn't come back like last time. Literally stains 85% of my liner.
2. The Cal Hypo is sold at a local pool store and costs $50 for 12 bags. At this rate, I figure I'll be spending $100/month to keep chlorine in the pool.
3. No Sams club. Will most likely order Dichlor from Amazon.
For now I just have 10% liquid chlorine and was planning on using that until I get something else. Thanks.

Well, I'm convinced that I need to drain my pool and start over. The stains have come back. Not as bad as the first time, but enough to give my water a green tint again. My CuLator bag has been in for only 2 weeks and is now brown/tan in color. I'm guessing it did it's job based on the color change, but I cannot afford to drop $70 each month on a new one. I'm thinking of doing another AA treatment, then draining the thing once all the stains are sequestered. I'm just confused as to the source of the stains in the first place. I've never had to add fill water, and when we closed it last year it was clear, blue, and clean. The only thing I can think of is that there were 2 metal hook things left on each side of the pool that were used to attach a divider rope from shallow to deep end. I'm guessing the guys that closed the pool should have taken them off, but instead they were submerged from November until May. Anyway, I read somewhere that draining the entire pool is a bad idea because it could cause the liner to wrinkle. Any truth to that, or am I good to go if I decide to do it this year?

Draining a liner pool will almost certainly guarantee that you'll need to replace the liner. When there's no water to hold the liner down, it will float and will almost never stretch back out once it's refilled.