First test readings of season

[michael3]

While I wait on the DE to help clear the cloud, and it is slowly. When I tried rubbing the vitamin c on my liner and nothing happened, does that eliminate metals completely or could I have metal in the water but no stains? I'm just wondering if I wanted to add something to my water to maybe help get rid of the green would a sequestrant work or how about polyquat 60

[stma]

I thought that maybe you needed to crush the Vitamin C tablet thinking it may have a "coating" on it's shell...However, I just checked my pool with the tablet alone and the stain came right off..... Sorry Michael !! thought that may have been your issue.... Things are looking a bit better for you, so I have been reading ?? Mine is now on auto-pilot, and the dramatic changes I saw over the weekend have now subsided....it's better for sure, but definitely not what I'm accustomed to seeing...

[michael3]

Same here, I know Ben and everyone said it didn't get this way overnight and it's going to take time. The DE is working, I can see about halfway down but that's still 2' to go. It takes the whole day to build enough pressure to have to backwash, so either it's getting better or the particles are to small for even DE. I want to try either a sequestrant or polyquat not sure which would help better. Lime green wont go away.

[PoolDoc]

You can try to commonly available products to test for metals: Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and Iron-Out (sodium sulfite + sodium hydrosulfite). If neither one lightens the stains, it probably is NOT a metal stain.

Unfortunately some non-metallic stains can be very chlorine resistant. But, using a sequestrant, chelant, or reducing agent (sodium hydrosulfite -- dissolves metal salts or stains) will have NO effect on a non-metallic stain.

[michael3]

Thanks Ben, I guess what I'm wondering is can I have metal in my water, it would have come from copper shock, but not stain the liner? In effect can metals in the water give the green color but not stained the liner? If so what approach would I take

[PoolDoc]

Please complete this form for me:

Pool Chart Entry Form

[stma]

@Ben: While I am making strides with the DE as Michael is, I did add a dose of Natural Chemistry's Metal Free into the water.. ( this is one of very few items I buy from the pool store)... it has worked like a charm the past 4-5 years....This years dose (which was yesterday) has yielded no results... I dropped FC to near -0- and PH in the 7.0 range..... (( Alk is 110 )) Any idea why this didnt take this time around... ? (the stains DO disappear with the Vit C powder)

[michael3]

Chart completed Ben

[PoolDoc]

@Ben: I did add a dose of Natural Chemistry's Metal Free into the water..) (the stains DO disappear with the Vit C powder)

Citric acid is incompatible with chlorine; if you have adequate chlorine in the pool, the citric acid will be destroyed almost instantly. This is also true of ascorbic acid (V. C) but it is a better stain remover than citric acid. However, to use either one, you have to operate with low / no chlorine, which is why we recommend dropping the chlorine and adding polyquat, when lifting (dissolving) metal stains, then adding HEDP (somewhat chlorine stable) to KEEP the metals in the water, THEN rechlorinating.

If you use the *old* Metal Free, it was EDTA based, which would still work for a little while in the presence of chlorine. Natural Chemistry reformulated that product on a no-notice basis.

[michael3]

Ben any chance you had time to look over the chart I filled out?