Hope you're there Marie ??

[stma]

Thanks WaterMom...as irony would have it, the water is absolutely crystal....but it smells of chlorine in a big way...CC is at 1.5, and FC is not holding at all...now the fun egins !!!

[szampino]

STMA,

I'm feeling real confident with what I've accomplished with my 'Metal infected' pool so I'm going to chime in, I've been 'Clean' for about 1 week now. I'm not sure if you are still looking for suggestions on your next steps but this is what I would reccomend.

1. Post your chemistry numbers.
2. Make sure you've got enough Metal Sequesterant on hand.

If you are going to try and tackle the FC not holding by getting to shock, I would suggest the following:
1. get your PH to 7.0
2. Let your FC drop to about 1.0
3. Add a maintenance dose of the Sequesterant (I say maintenance dose because you've already added it within a few days).
4. Let it circulate for a few hours.
5. Gradually bring your FC up to reccomended Shock Level, while maintaining a 7.0 PH.
6. Keep it there till it holds overnight, **I would even keep it one more day if possible.

***This is where my Metals fell out again and I was really bummed, but I stayed with the plan.

7. (After you FC holds) - Go to step 13 if you didn't stain.
8. Let your FC drop to the 1.0., keep PH at 7.0

***At this point I noticed that many of my stains began to dissappear automatically, must have been the Sequesterant in the water.

9. Vaccum if you have bottom staining.
10. Clean your filter or backwash.
11. Add another maintenance dose of the Sequesterant
12. Let is circulate till the staining is gone. (hopefully it is by this point)
13. Bring your FC gradually up to sanitizer level.
14. Keep you PH at 7.2-7.3 tops

Hope this helps.

[KirstenHW]

How does the ascorbic acid treatment work if you have a DE filter with no receirculate option? I have rust stains around mt light and my two skimmers that I'd like to remove with vit c but I can't recirculate my water.

[mbar]

szampino, great answer! You are right, you will get the hang of how to shock when needed. It is just understanding how your pool works, and using the metal out and ph to get rid of the stains. The most important is that when you raise your chlorine level, you want the ph low. High ph along with high chlorine levels cause metals to fall out. Once the chlorine goes back to normal, and the ph is low, new stains will lighten up if there is enough sequestering agent in the water, if the stains don't lighten up add more sequestering agent.

If you don't have a recirculate on your filter, just keep the filter running. However, ascorbic acid usually does not remove rust stains. Try a magic eraser if you have a vinyl liner, or if you have a fiberglass pool, a very fine sandpaper. If you have a plaster pool a pumice stone. Let us know how you do, and ask any other questions you may have

[stma]

Great posts' as always !! FC is not holding at all...received my CYA reagent yesterday and saw that I had NO CYA in the water (that's assuming the sequesterant wasn't eating it)..nonetheless, I added enough stabilizer to achieve a 40PPM rate...I'll re-check tomorrow...

It's been sunny and HOT here in the Poconos so I'm finding it difficult to get any reading of CL..Being my impatient self, i added a gallon of 6% into 7600 gallons....an hour later, FC was 6 BUT I had a 1 on the CC side :< 3 hours later, FC was 0 and CC was.5......PH was 7.2...(and I did start to see the dreaded very light green tint to the water....which now has disappeared)..

Szambino, Is it THAT critical that the PH hold AT 7.0 ??

Marie, again, what can I say.....Thanks so much..

[mbar]

When adding chlorine you need to keep the ph low. You will need to keep adding the chlorine slowly at first, keeping it at about 3ppms for your low cya. It is ok to add some more sequestering agent if the stains keep returning. Don't add anymore cya, it can take up to a week to show up in your water.

[stma]

Wow...this is a delicate dance between FC and green !!!...As of this morning, Water is finally holding FC overnite, but the metals fell out again...The ONLY thing I did different was to shut down the filter last nite.....Does pool water with metal issues need to be pumped 24/7 ?? I turned the pump back on and i'll see if the stains dissipate

Numbers:
FC: 3
CC: 0
PH: 7.2
Alk: 90
CYA:30
temp: 81

[Skillset]

I am having similar issues with metals. My FG pool was stained upon opening and I used the Ascorbic acid treatment (followed by Metal Magic) which removed every sigle stain. But, when Cl was raised accidentally, stains came back w/a vengeance and 60% of the pool was covered! Used Metal Magic again, which unbelievably cleared the entire pool. I was impressed. But, stains started forming again just 3 days later, despite a lower cl and lower ph. I'm scratching my head.

I'm in the process now of figuring out what works. Marie and Waterbear suggested some Calcium in the pool, which I did. Marie was also using Metal Out from Waterwarehouse, which I bought.

I've been using Extra Strength Metal Out for a few days now and it has not removed the stains - it lightened some stains but did not remove them. So, for the stains that I have, I think the Metal Magic works better. I'm out of the stuff right now and have ordered more this week. Pool is stained right now - I'd say 20%.

I also had some stain problems last year, but not as bad as this. I probaly used about 3-4 quarts of Metal Magic all season. Again, the Metal Magic is clearing the pool - but I don't want to be burning through a quart of this stuff every week! My CYA was 30 and I am in process of bringing it up to 50. The CYA level is is the only difference really from how I kept the pool last year.

I'd love to be able to have a stain-free pool and use a weekly maintenance dose, but I really find I have to use a lot of product to get rid of the stains.

Perhaps running at a higher CYA and a higher Cl, it will help. My ph is pretty consistent at 7.2. I know higher Cl has been stated to bring stains out, but perhaps with CYA, maybe less so. I only say this from my experience last year.

[mbar]

I know how frustrating it is A couple of seasons ago, I kept the stain dance going. Last year I hardly had any stains. This year I had a lot of stains at the beginning, but now I haven't had any bad ones since putting in some ascorbic acid. I do find that using pucks or calhypo seem to add to stains. I have my cya at around 60 now. I am still not sure why sometimes the sequestering agent works, and sometimes the stains keep coming back no matter how much is in there. Every time I see some stain start, I take my ph back down, add some sequestering agent and they go away. I try to keep my chlorine at the level of the best guess chart. It is a balancing act, and sometimes the stains don't come off with the sequestering agent. I then just add some ascorbic acid around the perimeter of the pool and they disappear without taking the water out of balance (just lowers the ph a bit). I do keep my filter running 24/7, I think it may help with staining, but not much. I wish I could be of more help, but it is just not an exact science. I will keep trying to find out what works, and if everyone with stains posts what works for them we can learn from each other.

[stma]

As the day wore on (cloudy but warm), the CL dissipated as expected ALONG WITH the green tint !!!...once the green disappeared, I check the CL which read 1.5-2...

just dumped a qt of 6% which should raise it to just above 4ppm...i'll see what happens...