Hope you're there Marie ??

[Watermom]

A very BIG Thank You to you and Lisa for mentioning metal in the first place....I never would have assumed that was the issue

I had a feeling it might be a metals issue. I'm gonna let Marie answer your question about shocking. She is our metals expert. Glad it is looking better.

[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.