From what I know oxalic acid is more toxic than ascorbic acid (if you read the caution statements on the bottle of oxalic acid product that are absent from the ascorbic acid product you will see what I mean) but works in much the same way. It is extremely effective on iron and to the best of my knowledge is the only thing that really works on cobalt staining in fiberglass pools. (Someone please correct me if I am wrong on that!)