Trying to Swim More and do less work

[szampino]

I was asked to update the post with my progress so here it it is.

My name is szampino and I am a pool owner. I have been crystal clear for the past 3 days and owe this success to my forum sponsors. I know the road ahead will be challenging but I know with the support and guidance from this group, I will remain crystal clear for the rest of the summer. I've read a few posts recently with people batteling their own problems and have one thing to say which is solely based on my own issues. Patience, Patience, Patience, Patience. Make one change at a time and wait, wait, wait, wait. You need a good test kit. You need a forum reccomended test kit. I have been at my breaking point and wanted to dump 4 boxes of Borax just to see a change. It is very hard to take action without seeing immediate results, you need patience. I have the luxury of working from home so I can attend to my pool multiple times a day, this must be very hard for those that work because you have to cram your treatments into small chunks of time.

Water seems so simple, but put it in a confined environment and is becomes a complex beast with attitude. Think of some of the destruction water has done through history. *Have you seen the Grand Canyon Lately. Treat it with respect and you will have a better chance of finding a balance.

[stma]

Appreciate the post, and I'm happy to find that you solved the issue....could you let me know if the metals were the true problem with your water ?....

[szampino]

Metals were 100% the problem.

Here is the issue that I found, and my 'so far' working remedy.

I added Pool Magnet and Metal Control to the water before shocking. Even when I get to the 'Best Guess Chart' Shock FC level. the Sequestering agent does not keep the Metals from falling out. So this is what has happened 2 years ago when I tried and the difference this year.

1. When the Metals fell out 2 years ago, I was going crazy between the forum and the pool store. The water was ugly, I was new to metals so I kept shocking and the water kept being ugly. I was also using Stabalized Chlorine which brought my CYA levels higher and required Higher FC levels. Then I learned about metals so I stopped shocking and began to treat the metals. Because I waited so long to begin treating the metals it took a long time to deal with metals, which means, I had my Chlorine levels very low for a long time, which in return caused Algea, which means I had to raise my FC's again and the viscious cycle began again.

2. This year I decided to conentrate on the water chemical balance and how it looks 2nd (What is on the inside is what counts). Small Adjustments I think is the key, and I still believe that putting the puck in the skimmer caused my metals to fall out the 2nd time, even though others don't agree. (See post).

If things change I'll repost.

[stma]

Sounds familiar as this (I believe) is NOW my identical problem....My FC number now is +30 ppm as i kept adding bleach in hopes to clear the water....

I just bought Natural Chemistry's Metal Free....Do you know if I need to drop my chlorine levels BEFORE i begin this particular treatment...????.....I know i need to drop the levels when I do the Ascorbic treatment via MBar's reccomendation, but i'm not certain wether it needs to be dropped for the metal out ??

Any advice you could lend would be appreciated...

[mbar]

The reason the free chlorine levels need to be low is that the chlorine will attack the metal control and use it up before it can do the job. It won't hurt anything but your wallet . I know it is hard when dealing with metals - because it is frustrating. But szampino is right, most of it is having the patience to let the chemicals do their job. It is easy to try to fix the water by adding more and more things, but it destroys the whole balance. Adding something before what you added first can do it's job will only make clearing the water take a lot more time, and use up a lot more money. Simple is best, less is best. Patience is the least expensive, but the most difficult part of clearing a pool