Staining in Pool having trouble please help

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southernazpool

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May 17, 2011
16
Hi guys and gals,

This is my 1st post on here, I bought my 1st house last year and I have been learning all I can about pool maintainance.

I am having a problem with staining in my pool, in the past the PH has been on the high side, prob because i have a SWG.

The water is currently balanced except for being a little high on alkalinity.

I have brownish stains on the floor and walls of my pool, please see pics.

I cam trying to determine if these are metal stains or organic stains, I shocked the pool yesterday and did a super chlorinate to get the chlorine levels up to fight the stains, assuming they are organic, however i dont believe they are now, because after yesterday there is no change in the appearance of the stains.

I have also tried to put vitamin C against he stains and did not really see any improvement or reaction, so Im a bit puzzled.

I thinking the next move will be the ascorbic acid treatment and see what happens, the other option is that I bought 2 bottles of HTH metal control from walmart, it says to add the 2 bottles 64 ounces to treat the stains.

I dont know what it causing these stains/ scale and they really make my pool look ugly, I dont want to have to drain the pool and do any acid washes if not totally neccessary.


I live in tucson and we have very hard water here, may contain minerals in it, i dont know for sure.

Im hoping you guys can recommend some way to test the stains to determine what the best action is.



Please help!!!!

The stains are now spreading to most of the pool floor.

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Welcome to TFP!

If you have tried a vitamin C tablet and it didn't help, then doing an AA treatment won't help either.

Could you post a full set of water test results? That will help us make suggestions about what you can try next.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply :)

These are the results tonight

TH = 200
PH = 7.3
FC = 0.5
TA = 130
CYA = 50

The chlorine is low, because i was bringing it down, in anticipation of the AA treatment.

However, for a long time , the Ph has been high and the salt level very high, due to the house being short sold and not maintained,
so this history is important to know.
 
I was thinking my next plan was to add the HTC metal control, the two bottles, then if that didnt work the jacks magic copper control, but im still not sure if its a copper or metal stain, but from what i can tell its not organic, so i assume thats the only other thing it could be...

Thanks
 
A prime principle of BBB is not to toss stuff into the pool hoping something will work. There is a very good chance the stain can be identified first and then treated without using unrelated chemicals.

How did you test TH?

I would also suggest bringing your Cl back up until you identify the issue.

Prolonged high pH frequently results in calcium scale.

Organic stains seldom disappear in 24 hours.....nor does a shock level of chlorine unless you have organics in the pool.

If it was my pool, I would simply hold FC levels up very high (around 10ppm) with clorox (not your swg) and watch to see what happens for the next week. I would not be surprised if you find you are consuming a lot of chlorine and the stains, are indeed, organic.

Even if not, there is no harm in this treatment, it's cheap, and it will give you time to perform an iron test to see if there is any validity to doing an AA treatment.
 
Hi again,

i appreciate the responses so far, this a great forum, and im relieved to have help from people who really know what they are doing :)

I have tried the chlorine puck, and did not really see any difference, how long do I need to leave it on the stain?

i left it for about 5 mins before and tried to scrub it on the stain, and didnt see any real difference, I can leave it for longer if this may give us some information.

The Ph was high for a prolonged amount of time, and there is a good chance this has something to do with the stains and scaling on the bottom of the pool.
I did have a large amount of calcium deposits on the pool tile at the water level that i had to clean off, with a lot of elbow grease.

i dont know if this would casue the brownish scale/ stains on the walls and floor?

i can try the vit c again and the chlorine puck and see if anything happens, this is probobly why im so frustrated, because I cant seem to ID the cause of the stains and therefor find a remedy.
 
Also, i hope you guys can see the 3 photos I posted, In the 1st one you can see the scale/ brown stains on the floor and walls pretty well, this is what i want to get rid of, and this is starting to appear in more on the pool floor in the deep end now.

When i put the chlorine puck on the stain, do i just drop it in on top of the stain?
What should happen? Will i see an outline of the puck and clear plaster underneath it when i remove it, while the surrounding are will still have the stain?

I will try this and take before and after pictures to see if it is working
 
The Ph was high for a prolonged amount of time, and there is a good chance this has something to do with the stains and scaling on the bottom of the pool. I did have a large amount of calcium deposits on the pool tile at the water level that i had to clean off, with a lot of elbow grease.
Click to expand...
I think that's a clue right there. It's possibly calcium scale with organic stains embedded. Hold the puck on it a little longer and see what happens.
 
I left the chlorine puck on top of the stain for 4 hrs, and when i removed it there was not much change, the stain seemed a little lighter. Not sure what im supposed to see or how long to leave it, others on these posts have said that the chlorine puck was like "an eraser" on the stain, thats not whats happenning to me :( maybe i need more patience, in the meantime i guess i should get my chlorine levels up, if im not doing the AA treatment
 

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Jack's has stain identifier kits or if you talk with them on the phone they can help you identify the stain and suggest an appropriate stain removal product. However, I wasn't clear on whether you tried using ascorbic acid / vitamin C tablet on the stain -- I did see that you wrote that a Trichlor puck didn't fade it. The AA will more readily remove iron stains though can somewhat help copper as well.
 
You could use a length of pvc long enough to reach one of the stained areas and pour about a cup of muriatic acid on the stain. If the stained area goes away then you are dealing with calcium scale.

It looks like your posted test results came from a strip, is this correct? If so take a water sample to a pool store and have them test the water. Be sure they test for calcium and not just total hardness. Also ask them to check for metals if possible. Post the results here.

The best way to take control of your pool is to have a high quality test kit such as the Taylor K2006 or the TF 100. With a high quality test kit you will be able to run accurate tests as frequently as needed in order to balance the pool correctly.
 
Hi Guys,

quick update, since raising my chlorine levels and applying the chlorine puck for an extended period of time on the stains, they seem to have faded somewhat.
This must be an indication that they are in fact organic and or dirt stains, with calcium embedded as someone mentioned before.\
I will post pics of the current view of the stains shortly.

Do you guys have any advice for the best plan to remove these stains once and for all?

Thanks
 
I think I'm dealing with the same issue as the original poster -- those photos look very similar to my situation (see my thread scaling-t35405.html)

I left a chlorine puck on some affected areas for about 4 hours and noticed considerable improvement. But, now I'm not sure how to attack the overall pool now that I think I'm dealing with a somewhat embedded organic stain (note in my original tread, brushing aggressively with a wire brush was not successful).

Thanks
 
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