orange/brown stain treatment, how long does it take

[2005phyllis]

A couple of months ago we did the vit C test and there was immediate effect on the stain where the tablet was. We got a bottle of stain gone which I now know was citric acid. It didn't work at all, but I don't think we had the levels right for everything. Then we got busy with other things and have not been able to work on the pool again until now. The pool is 10,400 gallons with exposed aggregate. So we got another bottle of the same stuff .Instructions said to adjust alkalinity to 70 ppm, the calcium hardness to 400ppm and the ph to 7.4. We got the alkalinity to 65, ph to 7.4. , and hardness to 315. We added more calicium per the pool store's calculations. We put the stuff in yesterday evening (I used 1 pound) and nothing happened. Sooooooooooo back to the pool store today and now we have ascorbic acid.We had to readjust the alkalinity as it went to 95 and hardness was 310.These readings were done this afternoon from the pool store. We added 1 1/2 quarts of acid as calculated by the store and circulated the pool. . We tried a little on one pool step. Nothing appears to be happening. I then took a vit C tablet and put that in. That didn't do any thing either.We're a little hesitent to add too much calcium as last fall we had to drain the pool because it was sky high and so was the stabilizer. So now that the vit c didn't work, I'm really confused.

[mbar]

I'm confused too - I don't understand why the vitamin C worked the first time, and not the second. The only other thing I can think of is that it may not be an iron stain. There is a product by "Jack's Magic" that has 3 different tests to tell you what kind of stain it is. Stains can come from copper and magnesium too. I have only dealt with the brown iron stains. I wouldn't raise my calcium any higher if I were you 350 sound good enough. I just don't know - maybe someone else can chime in with some ideas? Don't throw any more chemicals in for now. Ascorbic acid ususally works right away, even if your chemicals aren't perfectly in sync. See if anyone else can come up with some ideas.