Would a water softener remove iron and metals?

[mbar]

Hi and welcome to the forum. To be honest, I don't have any experience with a water softener or a resin bed. It would seem that it would work since it is supposed to remove metals. My advice would be to use the ascorbic acid to lift the stains, but instead of using the sequestering agent (which holds them in suspension) you can use the resin bed to remove the metals. I don't see how it would hurt your water balance. It would be a wondreful experiment! You would just follow the ascorbic acid instructions in the sticky except for the sequestering agent.

It would seem to me that if you didn't do anything different this year, and you have no idea where the metals are coming from-it may be that the gel coat on the fiberglass is getting old. While doing research on why fiberglass gets staining, i was told that some pool manufacturers use a second grade of gelcoat, which is more susceptible to stains. He named some companies to me, which mine was one of. I don't know if this is true, but it makes sense to me. Your pool was probably from one that used the high quality gel, buy after 10 years may be degrading a little. It would be a great experiment to see if the resin bed would work for you. You would be able to use the ascorbic acid to lift the metals off the surface of the pool, then remove them instead of keeping them in suspension. I am not a scientist, I just have been dealing with staining for 13 years, and have come up with some solutions through trial and error. If you are willing to try the resin bed it could add add another solution to getting rid of those dreaded stains! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, and keep us informed. This is what is great about the forum, we can share ideas and learn from each other!

[waterbear]

The water softener will remove the iron but the resin will be quickly depleted if you are trying to fill a pool. Normally a separate 'green sand' filter is used either alone or in conjunction with a water softener to remove iron. Green sand is a special filter medium (manganese green sand) used in water treatment to remove iron, manganese, and hydrogen sulfide from well water and is usually in a whole house filter canister.