Post Stain Treatment cloudiness cure?

[BigIslandPoolService]

Aloha all!

I have a customer who is getting impatient with the cloudiness in his pool. It is a 25,000 gallon in-ground vinyl liner that I removed iron stains from...and the liner looks awesome, but I think we have a bit too much of the sequestrant or too much algaecide in the pool.

When we turned on his SWCG system, the stain returned in 3 splotchy areas (2' x 3' each) that I think align with his returns. We added another pound of citric acid and burshed, and they went away, but the water now has a white cloudiness throughout. Doesn't seem like we have any algae problem, I really believe the cloudiness is the sequestrant or the algaecide.

Does anyone have any ideas about the BEST way to return the pool to normal? I have told him we have to burn the citric acid off gradually, but he is impatient. Go figure.

My experience has been that the SWCG is not gradual enough to return things to normal in a successful way.

Thanks & aloha!

 

[smallpooldad]

A few years ago I had a similar issue in my pool using Jack's Magic Purple Stuff as the sequestrant, in a pool with heavy iron staining.

The reasons it happened were as follows:

1. I did not backwash the filter the next day, therefore not removing the iron that had been turned into small brownish-white crystals in the sand filter (note not all iron becomes part of these crystals some still stays in solution but in my case quite a bit did crystallize).

2. I did not test the amount of sequestrant in the pool the next morning after the stains were lifted with Jack's Magic Sequestrant Test Kit to make sure I had at least 12-14 ppm of the Purple sequestrant left in the pool (personally I now use 20 ppm in Hawaii due to our red dirt aka iron/ferric oxide issues).

As there was not enough sequestrant in the pool and I did not backwash out the iron it went out of solution and stained the steps, which I removed with additional Ascorbic Acid. Then of course I checked my ppm with the test kit finding I had only about 4 ppm of sequestrant.

After that I brought the pH up to 7.3 (no higher) to keep what iron does still remain in the pool in solution. I also backwashed again a day later just for safety's sake.

Your case might be different but this was my personal experience. If you did the two above steps and it still occured I am afraid I cannot be of any further help. Although I have done a number of no drain in-pool Iron Stain Removals, I still believe that although obviously more expensive a complete drain is preferable, although I just did two no drain in-pool treatments a few weeks ago.

If you do drain you need to make sure that the pool will not pop out of the ground, your pool contractor should be able to tell you this. If the pool is anywhere near beach level this contractor check is a must, or wet ground such as land bordering a marshy wetland as is the case in Kailua, on Oahu.

Hope this helps.

 

[holubec37]

BigIslandPoolService,

I am having the same issue as the customer that you mentioned in your post. My water turned cloudy after adding the metal sequestrant. I fought the water trying to get it clear for a Father's Day pool party. I tried two strong fall out treatments with little results; while some stuff settled out, the water remained cloudy. Long story short, I decided (after research in a bunch of different forums) that I would just let the natural chemistry and sand filter take care of the cloudiness. This morning I saw the drain for the first time in a week.

On another note, the stain treatment and chlorine will "fight against" each other, making it necessary to stay on top of the chlorine levels in the pool. The loss of chlorine will slow down as the absorbic acid "works itself out" of the water.

Hope some of my recent experience helps a little.

 

[smallpooldad]

Just remembered this.

If you put in Algaecide 60, which many people do prior to an iron stain treatment in order that they do not get an algae problem when the chlorine drops to zero, and then add Jack's Magic Magenta Stuff you will get very cloudy water. This was mentioned by "Chem Geek", and has happened to me. The water will clear up after a few days and some backwashing as it deposits a lot of whiteish stuff in the filter.

I spoke with Jack's Magic tech about this and they stated it will also occur with some other companies sequestrants as well, but apart from the cloudiness it is not a major concern. They stated it can be avoided by either adding the sequestrant or the Algaecide 60 three days before and then adding the other item, a little cloudiness will develop but will disperse quickly. If you want to also use the Magenta Stuff you can always add it three or four days after the pool is back to normal, and only a little cloudiness will occur for a short time.

Ideally it would be better not to use the Magenta Stuff and rather use the Purple Stuff, when doing the Iron Treatment, as cloudiness will not then occur when also using Algaecide 60.

Hope this helps.

 

[smallpooldad]

Another possiblity for the staining might be, and I could be very wrong here and hopefully ChemGeek will step in, is that by turning on the SWG at a high percentage one was superchlorinating the poolwater coming out of the jets causing the staining on the steps. These days I just add liquid chlorine to bring it up to maintenance level and then turn on the SWG once at that level say FC 4 to 6 depending on your CyA level of say 60 to 80.

In my personal experience backwashing after 12 hours is a good safety measure.

Hope this helps and as written I am not sure if turning on the SWG immediately is a good or bad idea, but for safety's sake I add liquid chlorine to get it up to maintenance level quickly.

 

[JasonLion]

Cloudiness after an AA/citric acid treatment is completely normal and can't usually be avoided. You can do some things, such as what smallpooldad suggests, to reduce the odds of cloudiness, but there is not sure way to avoid it. The cloudiness will clear up on it's own after a couple of days, assuming you don't get algae.

The SWG is gradual enough in the sense that it doesn't add chlorine too quickly. But the problem is that it doesn't stop adding chlorine. You want to not add any chlorine for 24 hours, and after that make sure that you don't raise the FC level by more than 2 ppm/day, i.e. no higher than 2 on the second day, 4 on the third day, and so on. If you are clever about reprogramming the SWG percentage you can take care of it that way, but it is easy to make a mistake.

 

[smallpooldad]

BigIslandPoolService ,

What is the current FC and CC readings of the pool?