Stain Identification help

[Janemba]

Hi all,

First post! Turning to you guys for some much needed help. Hopefully I am in the right forum.

I have a vinyl above ground pool.

According to my 4 test strip my pool is well balanced PH etc are all spot on. After a very long and heavy weak of rain some dark greyish stains started appearing on the bottom of the liner. Brushing didn't help, shocking didn't seem to help.

I tried to ID the stain but it didn't seem to fit into any category I could find so I tried both Organic and Metal stain remover. Neither seemed to help.

Wondering if someone could guide me in the proper way to get this resolved.

Pictures attached but it doesn't come through very well although the color looks accurate on my screen.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

Does the stained area feel rough? While low Calcium doesn't bother vinyl lined pools, high Calcium can still form scale. And Calcium scale doesn't always looks like a movie star's teeth, either. Grey or tan are more common.

Have you ever used any metal ion systems? Pool frog, Nature2, anything like that that promises no algae and low chlorine? Have you ever used any copper-based algaecides? Any of those can leave metal stains.

The stain treatments you tried -- were they something you set right on it or some liquid you poured in? They may just not have had enough time to work.

Try a Vitamin C tablet on one of the stains. Pool School - Metals in the Water and Metal Stains If it's metal, you'll see a rapid change. Check out the picture in this thread.
Yellow Stains

 

[Janemba]

Hi thanks for your reply!

The stain does not have a texture feels smooth like the rest of the liner. I did have to use a copper based algaecide last year but nothing this year. I haven't used any kind of low chlorine systems.

I tried the vitamin C tablet on one of the stains it didn't seem to have any effect. I also tried a chlorine tablet on the stain still no result. I figured it must have been some kind of metal stain so I ordered a stain ID kit for both copper and iron stains which was like a heavy powder. I tried to apply it but with the depth of my pool it was hard to target so its entirely possible it never made it where it was suppose to go. I didn't notice a difference however.

So I was kind of stumped.