What is going on here? Stains returned after treatment

[racharoow]

This spring I've been trying to tackle an staining issue in my pool. Over the last few years we noticed an orange stain starting/growing, and when I opened the pool this year I hit my breaking point. The water was no longer blue and had no shimmer. After a lot of reading I dug out my StainFree and gave it a shot.

I started by dropping my FC to ~0. pH was lowered to just below 7.2. TA was 70. I added Poly' 60 per the directions on the bottle. I added the StainFree in two different sessions and BOOM the pool was blue again with no staining at all. Even our drains, which had turned a dull brown color, had brightened back to the original glory! I followed up the treatment with two bottles of Jack's Magic Purple (Salt Solution) and figured I was on my way to a stain-free season.... until I noticed a few orange spots start to reappear.

It seems my TA dropped down to around 50 while I wasn't watching. Would this cause the metals to fall out of suspension? pH is still just below 7.2 and FC is 0. The water is still clear with no clouding.

I've just added enough baking soda to get the TA back up to 75-80. I'm hoping this will get me back on the road to clean, but figured I'd ask here to make sure I'm not missing something.

Here's a [pleasing] pic of the pool right after the StainFree treatments. The small stains I have now showed up a day or two after this photo.

 

[duraleigh]

Well, that's a puzzling story and I have no answer. I was about to tell you you added the FC to fast but it looks like you haven't added any.

I would call the Jack's Magic tech folks and follow their suggestions. I can't see where you have done anything incorrect.

Please post back and let us know the outcome.......this is a real puzzler to me, at least.

 

[racharoow]

I'll try that, thanks!

 

[racharoow]

Forgot to report back! The stains lifted as I slowly raised the FC.

Unfortunately, the SWG raised the FC a bit too much (5-6) while we were away on vacation last week and I returned to a lot of staining. The steps were orange and the spots around the liner also reappeared.

I'm currently dropping the FC back down to 1-2 and will try adding a bit more sequestrant.

 

[Swampwoman]

Racha, are you on well? Have you identified where the iron is coming from?

If the sequestrant is wearing off that fast I suspect your iron level is on the high side and may be tough to manage. Management options depend on where the iron is coming from.

It usually comes from well, sometimes comes from municipal water in some areas, can come from rusting equipment, fertilizer that's blown in, or even a bit in the salt used sometimes. Its good o test your pool water and source water for iron before deciding treatment approach.

Another thing to check is to make sure your swg is bonded correctly. If it isn't, I've seen reports where this seems to have exacerbated staining.

Very pretty liner, btw. What is its name?

Ps it is more likely that a high ph cause the stains while away than an FC of 5-6 IMHO...but again, that depends on how much iron is in there.

 

[racharoow]

Racha, are you on well? Have you identified where the iron is coming from?

If the sequestrant is wearing off that fast I suspect your iron level is on the high side and may be tough to manage. Management options depend on where the iron is coming from.

It usually comes from well, sometimes comes from municipal water in some areas, can come from rusting equipment, fertilizer that's blown in, or even a bit in the salt used sometimes. Its good o test your pool water and source water for iron before deciding treatment approach.

Another thing to check is to make sure your swg is bonded correctly. If it isn't, I've seen reports where this seems to have exacerbated staining.

Very pretty liner, btw. What is its name?

Ps it is more likely that a high ph cause the stains while away than an FC of 5-6 IMHO...but again, that depends on how much iron is in there.

We are not on well water, but our town water is notorious for high iron. When we built the house, a lot of our plastic (tupperware, clear cups, etc) started to stain orange.

I just ran a test:

FC: 1
CC: 0
pH: 7.2
TA: 140 (what!?!?!?)
Salt: 3200

My water is super cloudy now. I'm getting depressed and feeling defeated. I've never had this much trouble with the pool water.

I'll check the bonding of the SWG. I still see the wire running to the PVC and it appears to be in good condition.

I'll have to check on the liner name, thanks for the compliment!

 

[Swampwoman]

Ok, orange Tupperware=high municipal iron for sure

Right now, to preserve the effects of the AA, you will need to religiously top up the Jacks every week to at least 6 oz per 10k gallons...more if that doesn't last a week without the orange coming back.

In an effort to ultimately reduce SOME of the iron getting in going forward, you could try the following pre-filtering option:

Buy 1 or 2 (2 will be more effective) big blue filter housings and put a 5 micron and 1 micron filter in each. (I will link you to the products in a min.)

You will then attach this to your use to pre filter the water every time you top up. Here's a link to the housing that is sized to fit hose: Pentek 150469 3/4 Scientific

(Look for the matching filters sold separately.)


You may also wish to consider buying an iron test kit so you know how much you're dealing with (eg Lamotte iron and copper test)If the ppm coming out of a single or dual filter set up is sufficiently lower, you could then do a partial water change to reduce your iron level to a more manageable load.

The magic number is .3 ppm - the cusp of staining -- in terms of easier management IMHO.

Alternately, if you have a home water softener, you can plumb that to the outdoor spigot -- I use a dual tank softener for the house now so that there's always enough capacity to top up the pool. I still get up to .5 ppm iron from my 2 ppm well, but then I pre filter the softened water again to get it down to .2-.3 ppm and use Jacks to maintain the rest.

- - - Updated - - -

Re: Bonding wire - it will be a bare, thick, copper wire that continues from your pump to your panel...but I'm pretty clear here the problem is the volume of the iron load.

 

[racharoow]

That is helpful, thank you. I will start with a iron test kit and see what I'm dealing with.