Closed pool with Iron Stains + Pink Algae... Now What?

[leejp]

Last year I was fighting iron stains (yellowish stains that disappear when a vitamin c tablet is placed on them) and "pink algae" (actually bacteria?) when I ran out of time and closed the pool in early September. Now it's that time of the season again I need to deal with these problems.

I am hoping that shocking the pool when I closed it and shocking it again along with vigilant brushing of the walls/floor once the cover is off will take care of the pink bacteria. However I have some concerns since I'll have to let the free Cl drop (or keep it low to start) to get the metal stains out.

To get the metal stains out, I understand that one needs to lower the Cl and pH, add asorbic (vitamin C) or oxalic acid to the pool to remove the stain from the liner and suspend them in the water, apply a 2-3x dose of a metal sequestering agent (metal free?) to "gather them up" then slowly bring up the Cl and pH.

Perhaps startup is the ideal time to do this since Cl and pH are likely to be low to begin with but I'm a bit worried that the pink bacteria may come back if I leave the Cl level low while I'm removing the iron stain..

Oh... and to complicate matters a bit I plan to switch to the 3 Bs (Bleach, Borax, Baking powder) this year. So I'll need to adjust CYA prior to sanitizing with the bleach as well. So many steps I'm a bit overwhemed. Here's the order I think I'm going to approach this.

day 1
test water
start up pump/filter (cover on) run continously
adjust Alkalinity
add polyquat
add asorbix/oxalic acid

day 2
add metal free

day 3
backwash filter
adjust pH
adjust CYA
put pump/filter on timer

day 3~10
adjust Cl up slowly
keep eye on CYA

day xx
remove cover

Anyone have suggestions for my approach?