Quote Originally Posted by Cookieman View Post
Thank you mbar, watermom, JimK and Ben for the helpful advice from experience. Please check to make sure my summary from all is accurate. Outside of bringing ph/chlorine levels up too high too fast, I did not add enough HEDP, and should not have used to trichor tabs ( in floatie and skimmer opposite of Culator)for chlorine source while using Culator. Stains have continued to darken while I am waiting on another batch of HEDP, Algeacide, and ascorbic acid, so, more questions: Are the skimmer tabs Ben refers to chlorine tabs or tabs for removing metals? The dosage on the KemTek HEDP for my pool is about 2 1/2 quarts per dose. I only ordered 2 doses, but sounds like I need more. How much should I be adding and how often - full dose each time I see stains after AA treatment? Should I buy sequestering test kit to take guesswork out like JimK? Once stabilized, what is the maintenance dose? By the way, how many quarts of HEDP are in a case?! Sounds like I am in same boat as JimK, and need a case or or two on hand for the near future. I also ordered a 4.5 Culator thinking the 1.0 was not enough - should I return it and continue with the 1.0? Not sure if it is working. Is still clean, but last time I cleaned basket, it seemed to have a clear gel on outside of the sack. Thanks for the help.
The Jack's Magic Purple Stuff has 12 quarts in a case. The maintenance dose for this product is 6 oz per 10k gal once a week. As I mentioned, since the bucket test Ben suggested was negative for metals, I've reduced the maintenance dose by half (3oz per 10k gal) and so far no staining has returned. I should be able to stop using it, but at least right now I feel better having that bit of insurance.

I noticed in the information posted about metal staining there is no mention of pool salt (high purity) being a possible source. Was I misinformed when I was told by my pool store that it could be a source of metals?