iron/copper stains

[daisyfrometa]

Hi I have an inground vinyl pool- 28,000 gallons and recently have had issues with brown looking stains in the pool. We had our 5 year old heater replaced this year because the heat exchanger corroded. I am assuming because of metals in the water.

This year when we opened the pool everything looked OK but within days we saw what looked like dirt on the sides of the pool-thought it was sand because we had the sand in our filter changed-pool guy said it was dirt-we vacummed it, set the fileter to waste and all was good except that brown spots starting showing up along the sides not too many but seems like it getting worse.
Husband went to pool store and they said it was iron.
I'm just a bit confused, are iron and copper stains the same. I read about using vitamin c to detect iron will this also detect copper.

Thanks,
Daisy

[mbar]

Iron and copper stains are different. You must get us full set of your chemical numbers so we can help you. You could also have some kind of algae. Vitamin C will remove metal stains, crushed chlorine will remove organic stains.

[daisyfrometa]

Thanks Marie- i will get you some chemical numbers later today when I get home

[daisyfrometa]

ok Marie here goes some numbers- Husband went to Pool Store(Leslie's) and our water tested for mineral they were not very specific as to what mineral-

FAC 5
ph 7.2
TA 90

put some PH down on spot near shallow end it it cleared.

they suggested a stain remover and metal free -haven't done it waiting for a respose.

We have brownish spots not a lot around the liner and noticed last night a ring around the edge of the jacuzzi- also I have a little bit a green hair in the ends, my daughter's friend had blond highlights that turned green, they called her the hulk @ school

HELP!!

[Watermom]

FYI -- Green hair is caused from copper in the water. I had that happen to me when I swam in a hotel pool on my honeymoon! Walking down the beach with my husband, he looks at my long blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail and says to me, "Your hair is green!" He was right. It was really green. I went to a hair salon and she put some kind of red something or another on my hair and it fixed the problem. Don't know what it was, but it took the green out of my hair.

Marie will be around shortly to help you.

[chem geek]

watebear wrote about the products that remove the green tint from copper in this post. The product line is Nexxus Aloe Rid treatment and Aloe Rid Shampoo.

[daisyfrometa]

thanks chem geek i will try the treatment- still waiting for Marie to help with the brown spots and in getting rid of the copper in my pool
Daisy

[mbar]

There are stain removers they sell in pool stores. These usually are some form of citric acid or ascorbic acid. I would suggest you add enough sequestering agent as per bottle (this is a metal out, or metal free chemical). While you ph is not any higher than 7.2 and let it run for a while. Sometimes this will lift the stains. If they don't lighten enough after a couple of days then you can use the ascorbic or citric acid treatment. There is a sticky on the top of this forum that will explain how to do it. Feel free to ask any questions. I usually try the metal out first, cause you need to have it in your water when you do a stain treat anyway!

[daisyfrometa]

Hi I'm back sorry i took so long to reply to mbar's solution had some family issues to take care of out of town- Anyways did what was suggested which was to add metal out but it doesn't seem to have taken care of the copper- Switched to a different pool store to have water tested and here goes the results:

Free Chlorine 0
Total Chlorine 0
Combined chlorine 0
PH 7.5
hardness 30
alkalinity 150
ca 35
copper 2.22
iron 0
nitrate 0

I'm desperate don't know what to do , copper just seems to not want leave - have spent over 200 bucks on metal out liquid with no success- any suggestions would be appreciated.

By the way before pouring in the metal out have done a backwash-could sand filter be causing the metal to come back in ?

Help !!!!

[mbar]

The only way you can get metals out of the water is to drain and refill with water that has no metals. PoolDoc has another way that is very involved:

[QUOTE]"Have wrestled with pools filled with metal contaminated well water many times. There's no perfect solution.

First, with almost no exceptions, pool products for stains and metal control do NOT remove the metals from the water or the pool. They may temporarily make them disappear, but all the metal is still there.

Second, there are only three places metals in your pool water can go: (1) your filter, (2) your water, OR (3) your pool -- as stains. Obviously, #1 is to be preferred, since that's the only way you can get it OUT of your pool.

Third, if you put metals in your pool, you will have stain problems. Period. If it's only a little metal, especially iron, the problem can be small. Otherwise . . .

Fourth, the only way to really avoid problems with metals in your pool, is to not put them in your pool in the first place.

In a situation like yours there are a few things you can do that will help. For example with iron or manganese, shocking your well (how do you do that??) might leave some of the metals in the well.

But to keep metals out of the pool here's what I'd recommend:
Make sure your filter is big enough -- that means bigger than standard for AG pools.
Chlorinate with trichlor via the skimmer -- this will tend to oxidize the iron so it will be filtered out.
Using cal hypo tabs would be even better (not at the same time as trichlor!!), if you could find any, but . . .
Failing that, read this thread: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showpos...2&postcount=27"
[/QUOTE

So the answer to your question about the sand filter is that the metals are not leaving the pool. If you can do a drain and refill with water that has no metal it would solve the problem. If you have to keep the water, then you will have to sequester it, or follow the plan PoolDoc has. Let us know how you do.

Also you may be having algae problems - you need to have a minimum of 3ppms of chlorine in your water with a cya of 35 to have a sanitized pool. To shock it you would have to take the chlorine level up to 15ppms. Hope this helps, feel free to ask any questions you may have.