HELP - Ascorbic Acid treatment - I have a problem

[gerri]

Help please... Marie, I wish I knew your number...and I'm sure you're glad right now that i don't have it..

Anyway, I put my pump on recirculate after dropping the ascorbic acid treatment in and my pump is losing water out the drain hose, where water comes out when I backwash! I was losing a lot of water so I have the hose in the skimmer now. I put some metal treat in too.

I turned the pump off and came in to see if I can get some help as to what to do. My pump also has a setting that says "close" - would that work?

I can see where I dropped the AA down the sides of the pool.. it does work like magic. What a time to discover a problem with my filter!!!!!!

[AndyT86]

If your valve is a Hayward, then CLOSE simply shuts all the pipes. That won't work. Sounds like you have a leaky gasket in the valve. Have you ever replaced it? I typically replace mine at startup every year. (They are under $10).

If you have a way to divert your WASTE hose to your pool, that will keep you from losing so much water. But putting the hose in the skimmer basket is recirculating that water from the basket to the pump to the basket without mixing it much in the pool. Place the hose farther away from the basket to allow the recirc'd water to mix with the pool water.

[gerri]

I have never replaced the gasket... I don't know how to do that yet.

I do have a pool guy coming to look at the lights at 6, I will see if he has a gasket with him or something.

Great idea about moving the drain hose to the pool and using Waste. I will try that! The stains are lighter and the sidewalls are streaky right now with the pump off. I'm hoping by getting some circulation going that these stains will disappear.

Thanks for your help.

[gerri]

Ok the pool guy came.. he wasn't much help at all.

It seems I do have a bad gasket so I can't recirculate. Putting the drain hose in the pool was an option but I tried it and busted the clamp which holds the hose on so that's not an option now either.

Can I run it on filter? Or should we get in and stir it around?

Now I am at a complete loss and quite heartbroken about the whole thing.

Pool guy didn't fix my light either. There is water and gunk in the dome.

[waterbear]

Run the filter...it will work fine that way. I have a cartridge filter so I don't have the option of recirculate and I have used ascorbic acid sucessfully.

BTW, sounds like you need to find a different pool guy!

[gerri]

Thanks.

I finally got a new clamp for the waste hose and it's been zig-zagging all around the pool for over an hour now. I still have stains.

My staining is streaky and lighter but on the one part that was the darkest stain it doesn't look like the ascorbic has touched it

Marie had said there was more that could be done but she didnt' say what.

[waterbear]

Did you drop your FC to about 1 ppm and your pH to about 7.0-7.2 before putting in the ascorbic acid? Also, did you put a seqesterant in the water after you put in the ascorbic acid? IF not that could be why some staining still remains. If your pH is high I would try dropping it down and see if that helps. Filter for about 24 hours. If you has high chlorine levels when you put it in you burned some of it up before it got a chance to work on the stains. You might need to get the chlorine and pH down and repeat the treatment in that case.

[gerri]

I dropped my FC down to 0 before starting. My Ph may have been around 7.6 though. I thought the AA would just pull it down... I did put a sequesterant in actually both before and after because I added water before I started and so I added sequesterant with the water, then treated again after I put in the AA.

So, I'm not sure now other than the Ph. Should I check the Ph and drop it now? Do you think that would make a difference at this stage in the game?

I'm going to order another dose of AA. In any case I'm sure i will have to try again.

[waterbear]

Drop the pH. If your pool is vinyl don't go below 7.2. If it is plaster or filberglass drop it to about 7.0 and then filter for 24 hours to see if the stains get lighter or disappear. You might also want to test the darkest stains with a vitimin C to see if they lighten. If they do then another dose of ascorbic acid will help. IF they don't post back and we can try some other things.

[gerri]

Thanks for helping me. I am going to go out and test the Ph and lower it if it needs it. My pool is 8500ig fiberglass.