Newbie - Stain removal via ascorbic acid

[herb396]

Janet,,thanks again. I began lowering my Chlorine beginning of last week and Thursday was the 1st day it was at zero. Saturday was when I did my first ascorbic acid treatment. I began adding bleach back yesterday. So it was at zero from say Wednesday evening to Saturday. Prior to all this the water had a very heavy dose of hTh algaecide (so much that you could still smell it in the water) (don't ask,,but that's a whole other story)....again the muriatic acid was added Saturday evening and it was cloudy early the next morning

I have a few questions from Ben's directions:

My current conditions as of noon today are:

Tot Chlorine .5
PH 7.1
Tot Alkalinity 130
Adj. Total Alk 122
Copper .2

And to date I have added: two quarts of muriatic acid on Saturday evening, and slowly added about 130 oz of bleach over a 24 hr prior.

1) when do I apply the Metal Free?,,,after a few days of holding these levels or now?
2) how soon after applying the Metal Free do I start using the trichlor pucks?

[aylad]

Go ahead and use the metal free--remember to deduct any metal sequestrant you may have already used from the doseage that Ben prescribed. After you add the metal free, then go ahead and start using the trichlor. The trichlor will provide chlorine for the pool, and will continue to drop your pH--so test for it before you add any more acid. If you are still using bleach, stop using it at this point because you're using the trichlor pucks for chlorination. Pouring bleach into a skimmer that has trichlor in it is a VERY bad and dangerous idea.

Janet

[herb396]

Thank you Janet

[herb396]

OK,,so Monday night I put in the Metal Free and dropped in a one of the new tabs into the skimmer,,pump is still running 24/7 and were brushing ,,alot.

Water is still cloudy white so it's hard to tell for sure,,but the stain does seem to be fadding.

Were backwashing once a day. Again hard to see for sure what's coming out with the water being so cloudy. (odd note here is that my pressure never seems to go up on the filter?)

Current readings as on noon yesterday:
Tot Chlorine = 0
Free Chlorine = 0
Ph = 7.2
Alkalinity = 130

I added another tap to the skimmer due to the flat 0 on the CL

[aylad]

Your pump pressure probably won't go up if you're backwashing daily--it never gets enough "stuff" in it to cause a rise.

Janet

[herb396]

Current readings /conditions as of 10:00 am today:

Tot Chlorine = .7
Free Chlorine = 0
PH = 7.4
Total Alkalinity = 190
Adjusted Alkalinity = 164

Water is still very cloudy/white (can not see bottom) even at shallow end.

Guees I'll add more muriatic acid to lower the pH

[PoolDoc]

Just to echo what Janet said -- don't backwash daily. That does NOT help things, when you have a sand filter. The way they work, the dirt become part of the filter, and big dirt pieces end up helping to filter little dirt pieces. But, if you backwash daily, that can never happen.

So, wait till you see a pressure rise before you backwash.

I'm not sure adding the muriatic acid had anything to do with the cloudiness. You've had really low chlorine . . . and I'm guessing the pool is still in use. If so, continued use with low chlorine will cause a build up of something that will cause a pool to go cloudy or even almost milky. If your pool has been used a lot, the cause may be the people goo, and not have anything to do with muriatic acid.

You need to keep your chlorine low BUT you need to add it often enough so that you ALWAYS have at least a little chlorine present. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALYWAYS . . . or else you've gotta stop using it.

And . . . you need to go back to lowering the pH.

Ben