iron/copper stains

[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.