yellowing in our above ground pool.

[OhAllWet]

For the first year ever (out of 5 years in total), we are experiencing yellowing on all interior plastic skimmer areas from water level to skimmer bottom, on plastic water return (underwater), and beginning on the liner bottom closest to the return.

Any ideas - stains of some sort? - on plastic pieces when vinyl liner walls look perfect? How should I treat? Could this be rust/corrosion from heater coils or a chemical issue?

Things unchanged: 24' above ground with 24/7 D.E. filter and pump running,
froger with chlorine and mineral reservor, SeaKlear 90-day algae treatment, GLB PH UP used to try to keep ph ok since we have a Ray-Pak heater constantly in the loop.

Things changed: started using Leslie's fresh and clear shock weekly replacing GLB product,
switched from GLB Sequa-Sol to 6 oz of Natural Chemistry metal-free (for 13,500 gallons).

Our water has always been crystal clear with no discoloration. Chlorine never over 3 ppm for the season and ph never recorded below 6.5 ever. Always brought pool back into perfect specs within a two week period.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

Try holding a vitamin C tablet against one of the yellow areas. If the yellow goes away right where you help the vitamin C tablet then your problem is iron in the water and is probably related to your switch to Metal Free.

 

[OhAllWet]

Will do. Now assuming it is iron, will a switch back to the GLB Sequa-Sol prevent it from getting worse? And if so, how should I clean the iron up? I will post again as soon as I get some pure vitamin-C tablets (not in my pool chemical kit currently :-D ).

 

[OhAllWet]

It should be noted that I added Leslie's Conditioner liquid (about a gallon?) mixed with water through the skimmer at pool opening. That was a change from using GLB granules to handle the acid component. Ironically, I switched since I was warned that exposing the granules directly to the liner could cause issues.

Should I be sticking with either GLB Sequa-Sol sequestering agent and/or GLB granules for acid control as opposed to the Natural Chemistry / Leslie's chemical solutions?

I do not care about individual personal preferences, but do want to be aware of real-world negatives from having switched these chemicals, based on others' experiences.

Then again, this could just be what my local store says it is - normal yellowing that will occur on these areas of the pool surfaces. I do not want to over-react. I would have considered the liner yellowing to possibly be fading of some sort from the sun (since the return area of the pool is the first to get sun when the solar cover is off - only when the pool is in use). The other area of staining is around the pump basket where the skimmer input hose is attached to the pump. The majority of the pump basket is like new plastic white except for that area of the basket around the skimmer hose opening at the pump. This one little area of the basket has the same yellowing as the return plastic and the skimmer plastic. Yet the baskets themselves on the filter and pump are like-new white for the most part. Thanks again for your patience.

 

[Sportsman]

Have you considered switching to BBB next season? When I found this sight, I'd already bought my first round of expensive chem's form the pool store. Decided on BBB and so far so good except for expensive pool chem's sitting my garage making me angry at what I could have done with that $200!

 

[OhAllWet]

I noticed also a hint of rust at the skimmer return where it looks like the pool metal is exposed and rusting. Duh! I know there are skimmer gaskets, but is there anything that folds over the pool metal in cases like this to form a lip that will not rust?

I will be totally honest. the SeaKlear 90-day algae treatment should tell you all you need to know... I am lazy (I know, the worst enemy of pool maintenance). I can always find time to do other things with the 6 and 8 year olds rather than adjust the chemicals (again, excuses). I quite honestly never considered doing the BBB method until I just saw this site (although I have recently switched to Baking Soda once I got educated to that - never knew about the Borax though)! The last 4 years of Sunday evening pool maintenance with GLB chemicals and the frogger (expensive as they are) fit me like a glove. Now, I have my first problem and I now see all the other "stuff" in the water (that I thought was helping) now makes things seemingly so much more complicated. The bottom line is I will need to try to figure out what the staining is and try to clean that up first. Hopefully it can be cleaned. I do not know if this might be irreversable or not. I am not going to lie to myself and say I will follow the BBB method if I truly will not be consistent with it. That would just lead to problems of a whole other sort.

 

[flyboy320]

I am having a yellowing issue with my liner, at the water line, and just above it (see this post here). I don't know if it's the same yellowing your experiencing. I have tried the Jack's Magic stain identification kit and none of the tests removed the stain.

Hope we can found out what the staining is from.... :?

 

[OhAllWet]

JasonLion, Thanks for your help! The Vitamin-C tablet took the stain (Iron!) completely out! Good as new!

I am debating between buying some CuLator Metal Remover (so timely mentioned in another thread) versus just going back to my tried and true GLB Sequa-Sol.

I think I will go with Sequa-Sol for closing and then worry about any scrubbing/cleanup during closing and then figure out how I want to handle next year. Natural Chemistry's Metal Free may not be the exact problem, but I think I will try a different approach for next year. One local pool store reports more staining this year in particular in the area. I do worry about the heater factoring into this all as well.

I was thinking of using the CuLator Metal Remover product for the last month of our Ohio season but the CuLator website has a closeup of the package directions which talk about using a stain cleanser product first prior to using the CuLator.

My pool store was thinking about combining my GLB Sequa-Sol with GLB "Stain Magnet" (contains Sodium Erythrobate and Sodium Sulfite). I am looking at Natural chemistry's Stain Free (ascorbic acid product) also. Pros and Cons to either? Anything I need to worry about here? Hopefully not wasting my time on minor stains but would like to get rid of them completely. Do I have to drain the pool to get the minor stain off the bottom of the liner by the return inlet?

THANKS MUCH!