Under Water Vinyl Wall Stains

[CelticDaddio]

What is a sequestering agent?
Ed

No, you don't have to drain the pool! Small pool dad did a different stain treatment. I will print the ascorbic acid treatment - ascorbic acid is vitamin C. The fact that the vitamin C took the stain off makes me believe that the stain is from metals. The stuff you were able to take off with a sponge was either algae, or metals that fell out of solution into more of a solid that was able to be washed off. You may have algae, because you need a minimum of 8ppms of chlorine in your pool at all times when you have a cya of 100 in order to have a really sanitized pool. Here is a copy of the best guess chart:

Ben's 'best guess' FC/Stabilizer table for algae free operation of OUTDOOR pools -- as of July 2003 --

Use the info in this chart to help you figure out what levels of chlorine you need to maintain in your pool based on the amount of CYA (cyanuric acid, also called stabilizer) that you have in your pool. (FC = free chlorine)

Stabilizer . . . . . . Min. FC . . . . Max FC . . . 'Shock' FC
=> 0 ppm . . . . . . . 1 ppm . . . . . 3 ppm . . . . 10 ppm
=> 10 - 20 ppm . . . . 2 ppm . . . . . 5 ppm . . . . 12 ppm
=> 30 - 50 ppm . . . . 3 ppm . . . . . 6 ppm . . . . 15 ppm
=> 60 - 90 ppm . . . . 5 ppm . . . . . 10 ppm . . .. 20 ppm
=> 100 - 200 ppm . . . 8 ppm . . . . . 15 ppm . . .. 25 ppm

Here are two links you can get ascorbic acid. The link from the "chemistry store" gets you the ascorbic acid faster, but the other link lets you get a smaller amount.:

http://www.chemistrystore.com/Ascorbic_Acid.htm

http://www.msm-msm.com/store/agora.c...scorbic%20Acid

Here is the ascorbic acid treatment:

Here is the ascorbic treatment:
You will need about a half to one pound of ascorbic acid per 10,000 gal. I like to go lighter on it and see if all the

Put the filter on circulate.
Use a cup and go around the perimeter of the pool and drop it down the sides as you go.
Let the ascorbic acid circulate for 1/2 hour. You will be amazed how the stain just disappears before your eyes.

If the stain is not all gone, leave the filter in circulate and add more ascorbic acid close to where you still see stain. Leave it in circulate until all of the stain is gone. (add more ascorbic acid if it circulates for 1/2 hour and there is still stain)

When the stain is gone, add enough sequestering agent for the volume of your pool - more is better than not enough.

Put the filter back on filter and leave it on 24/7.

The ascorbic acid will bring your ph down, after 24 hours you can start to bring up your ph and alkalinity - use baking soda first, it will raise both ph and alk. Make sure you test in between, because you don't wantyour ph to go any higher than 7.2. If your alkalinity is in range, and you still need to raise your ph, use Borax to take it up to no higher than 7.2. After 48 hours you can start to bring up your chlorine. You want to do this slowly. It will take a lot of chlorine - I prefer to use bleach only at this time, and try to take it up to your minimum chlorine for your cya according to the "best guess chart" Do not shock! Do not shock for at least 2 weeks! Make sure you keep your ph low for (7.2) for a week or two - it won't be hard because the ascorbic acid will help it stay low. Once your chlorine starts to hold, it means that you have used up the ascorbic acid in the water and it will be easy to rebalance the pool back to your regular parameters.

If you plan to close your pool soon, I would suggest you wait till the spring to do the stain treatment. I have already closed with stains and opened to a stain free pool, so you may just want to enjoy your pool till you close and deal with it next year when you open.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask

[mbar]

A sequestering agent is a chemical that binds with the metals in the water to keep them in suspension so that they don't precipitate out and land on the surface of the pool making an ugly stain. There are many on the market - Jack's Magic, ProTeam, Metal Free, look for something that says it controls metals in the water, and it should say it is a sequestering agent. These are a few that I have tried, and they work. You need a sequestering agent in the water if you are getting rid of stains so that the metal that is lifted off the surface of the pool will not just precipitate out again. It is really hard to get rid of metals in the water completely, so just keeping them in suspension by having them bind with a sequestering agent is good. Let me know if you have any other questions