Newbie - Stain removal via ascorbic acid

[PoolDoc]

Use muriatic acid to lower the pH, about 1/4 of a gallon poured into your pool per dose. (Pump on 24/7; wear gloves and glasses, don't breathe fumes; rinse bottle off in pool after recapping, rinse spill or splatters off promptly; purchase at hardware store)

As long as you've got both *some* chlorine and the polyquat, the pool is swimmable.

United Chemical Products tend to be unlike any other companies; most contain sodium bromide and/or ortho phosphates. Pool Stain Treat is, as I recall, oxalic acid and probably some phosphates. It's NOT the sort of thing I'm talking about.

Trichlor tabs are - I think - available almost everywhere in the country. Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart and Sams proabably all have them near you. They are 3" - 4" diameter round white tables used in skimmers, floaters or feeders and contain trichoro-isocyanuric acid, a form of chlorine and stabilizer combined together.

Ben

[aylad]

Trichlor tabs are - I think - available almost everywhere in the country. Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart and Sams proabably all have them near you. .

Be careful--all those places carry trichlor tabs, but the ones at most WalMarts are labeled "dual action", meaning they contain copper--which is a whole other ballgame when dealing with removing metals. You don't want to add copper to your pool, especially when you already have metal staining problems. Just check the ingredients on the trichlor pucks you buy, and make sure that copper is not listed as one of the ingredients.

Janet

[herb396]

Janet,
thanks and yes I noticed thta today thta they have asmall % of copper in them,,,can I just ues bleach to pump up the chlorine?

[aylad]

yes, in a 25K gallon pool, each 6 cups of 6% bleach will raise your chlorine by approximately 1 ppm.

Janet

[herb396]

So here's my update:
I added two quarts of muriatic acid last night, filter is on 24/7. As of this morning the pool went from crystal clear to now cloudy white (can't see the bottom). And my current readings are:

FAC: 0
TAC: 0
pH: 7.2
Alk: 110

In hind-sight prior after a full 24 hrs. of my initial 5 lbs. of the ascorbic acid, the over all stain was reduced by about 50%...meaning not as dark. I'm wondering if I should have just did another ascorbic acid treatment?

[Watermom]

You need to get some chlorine in there or its gonna be cloudy AND green!

[herb396]

I've added 182 oz of bleach over the last 24 hours but still showing 0 on my chlorine. I also put in some a little polyquat 60.

Right now I wanna get balanced and clear ,,,then I think I'll do another 5 lbs. of the ascorbic acid treatment.

What a tangled circle this all is.