Quote Originally Posted by mbar
Last year I closed my pool with iron stains. When I opened it they were gone. So I would see if they are gone first. Then I would kill the pink bacteria first if you still have it by overloading chlorine. Once you are sure that the pink algae is gone - then you can work on the iron stains - because you can't keep a high level of chlorine when you are battling iron stains. I would do the bacteria first before I worried about anything else. Once that is gone, then you can lower your chlorine, do the stain treatment, then balance the water. You should be good to go - if you open to no iron stains, you may just have to deal with the algae, if you do - make sure you put in metal free before you do anything else. Keep your filter running 24/7 till you are sure all is clear.
Marie
??? I was going to do the exact opposite since the condition the pool is in presenty (sat for the winter with occasional algaecide and bleach) is IDEAL for getting the metal out. Low pH and low FC.

Once I have the filter hooked up and running, I was going to treat it with Ascorbic or Oxalic Acid (Vitamin C or United Chemical Pool Stain Treat) then immediatedly with Metal Free. Once I hit it with a healthy dose of Metal free, I may modify my plan with some skimmer sticks. This way I the Chlorine forces the metal out of the water it'll stain the filter/plumbing.

If I treat the Pink Bacteria first, I would have to drop the FC to remove the iron and that makes me very nervous. I plan to keep the FC up fairly high and shock 1x/week once I'm sure the metal stains are indeed gone until the weather is warm enough to swim.