At wit's end, help! With stains and pool chemicals!

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Katydid

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Jul 23, 2012
11
Hot Springs AR
I've had this problem since opening pool for season in late May, and just now found this forum. Two local pool stores have not corrected my problem. My steps and ladder were covered with yellowish stain, sides and bottom spotty. I cleaned steps and ladder with united chem pool stain treat (oxalic acid, 5 lbs) and it worked. Didn't have time to do the rest of pool so hired pool company to "clean my pool". They dumped 6 lbs of oxalic acid and left me a bigger mess. I had a heavy white residue in the bottom of my pool which took me forever to filter out. I still had the original stains on the liner and they were beginning to come back on my steps. I used another 5 lbs of oxalic acid to work on the stains believing that was the remedy.
Needless to say I have poured the chlorine (trichlor and calcium hypochlorite) and shock, baking soda, calcium, algaecide, superblue, just to try to get my pool in balance, but it never was, and I still have stains. That's when I decided to look on the web for some answers. Last Friday I added 18 lbs of baking soda, and today (Tues) my TA = 28. My other readings are FC = 0.02, TC=0.36 CC=0.34. I quit adding chlorine last Friday when I started reading BBB. pH=7.5. CH=201. CYA=112
I had the pool place run the tests today. They also tested Cu=0.2, Fe=0.1, and Phosphates = 1000. I have added much algaecide?? I don't know what to do. Help, please!?
 
Other important info: my water is clear (transparent) but has a green tint against my blue liner with yellowish stain. I also added two 32 oz. bottles of Bioguard Pool Magnet Plus last Friday at one pool store's recommendation. I have never used pure bleach for chlorine, but no chlorine makes me nervous. Do I need to pour in the bleach? And how much?
 
Your main issue is a high cya level. With a level above 100 it's almost impossible to shock the pool. We would first start by suggesting a drain/refill to lower the cya level to 40. Switch from pucks to bleach, and stay out of the pool store. You're gonna keep going in circles dumping cash into the pool until the CYA level is lowered.

Read pool school for info on the basic pool levels and terms, buy a good test kit (if you haven't already), lower cya to 40 and get ready for a clear pool.
 
Yikes, you've been pool stored. Some of those chemicals I've never heard of. You are at the right place now though. First thing is you need a good test kit. The TF100 is great and is a good price: http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html . Accurate test numbers are needed and pool store accuracy is all over the place. Next is dig into the pool school link on the top right of this page. If your CYA is really that high then you will need to replace a fair amount of water. Lastly, a proper amount of chlorine is all that is needed to keep the yuckies out of your pool. PH and TA is also a big thing but more for balance than killing the organics.

Welcome to TFP!
 
Thanks for replying; I've ordered my testing kit. I guess my yard will get a good watering tomorrow with pool water! Then I am pouring in the bleach. Let me know if this is not right. When do I add phosphate remover, if at all? Do I need to treat for metals? (ProTeam Metal Magic) I get lots of sunlight, 10-12 hours/day. Water 90 degrees. Do I forget about the stain and just balance my water?
 
The "Stain" sounds organic in nature - from your description it sounds like it's growing. I'd say the only thing your pool needs is chlorine and lots of it.

I know you've been adding some chlorine - but the most important thing to appreciate is that chlorine gets used up and algae is an ever growing thing. So if you add enough chlorine to kill half the algae - and then let it grow back - you never get anywhere and the pool feels "stuck"

The shock process described in pool school is designed to do 2 things - 1) Raise chlorine levels to where you are killing algae much faster than it can grow and 2) Create a simple set of criteria to know when that process is complete.

This will involve large quantities of chlorine - probably much more than you are used to. This will run counter to the common advice you get at a pool store. Pool industry numbers almost never take CYA into account to determine proper chlorine numbers. This creates endless trouble for people who try to maintain their own pools.

So - don't worry about phosphates, algecides, conditioners or anything else. Get your CYA to a more manageable level (the drain/refill), get a proper test kit (on order) and get the pool up to shock level and maintain that level until the pool clears.
 
^^^ lightningguy hit it on the nail.

Very nice explanation, succinct and informational.

Your first step is to drain at least 60% of your water and refill. If you do this, forget the numbers your pool store gave you and plan to test and begin anew. After the drain, things will be much easier to manage.

How's Pool School going? Read it again, just for kicks. Your kit will likely be there before you're ready after the drain and refill so you'll want to be prepared, it's just how Duraleigh rolls with the shipping....
 
Don't be shocked if you need to drain your pool more than once. Often the pool store results are WAY off with the CYA, especially over 100. I would HIGHLY suggest waiting until you get your own test kit, and preform a test on your own before draining. If there's any chemicals you currently can return to the pool store, I would also suggest doing so. It sounds like they've tossed you every item they could to clear a problem that was created by bad water chemistry. Stock up on liquid chlorine (bleach) as you're going to use a good bit of it while clearing the pool.
 

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Some people get by with only using a matter of gallons......some people buy stock in Clorox. It's honestly had to answer that question.

How far away from a major store (Wal-Mart, Meijers, ext) are you? If you are close to a Wal-Mart look in the pool section for the cases of 10% (for $6.47) and pick up say 10 cases of that. You may need to purchase more.....you may end up using some in your day to day cleaning. There's just to many outside forces to tell.
 
10-20 gallons of 6% is a reasonable starting place - but a total guess. Anything left over will be useful for the next or 2 so wont go to waste/

If your pool store sells 12.5% chlorine by the case that may be a cheaper/simpler way to go. If they do sell liquid let us know the price and strength - we can help you make the comparison to the cost of 6% bleach.
 
Still waiting on my test kit so I can begin shocking. I got nervous about no chlorine, so I added 1000 oz of bleach. My water is blue not green! I still don't have a reading on my Walmart OTO kit. I have done a lot of checking, and the best I can do on bleach is $8.98/three 182 oz at SAMs. Pool stores don't carry liquid bleach (one told me it has not caught on here).
 
I didn't see where anyone suggested he try the vitamic C test to see if those yellow stains are iron. Before he drains any water I would think he shoud find out if the stain is iron. If so he would want to do the Ascorbic acid treatment first to get the iron off the liner and into the water so when he does drain to lower the CYA he is also removing a lot of the iron. Right?
 
I did do the vitamin C test and yes it took the stain right off just like the oxalic acid did (just where I touched with the acid). I asked the pool store if they sell ascorbic acid/she said she could order it (40 lbs) and it would be expensive. I figured I could order it myself. I guess we are waiting on my test results. I will post them ASAP and will not do anything until I get a consensus from everyone. Thanks to all for your help!
 
Katydid said:
I did do the vitamin C test and yes it took the stain right off just like the oxalic acid did (just where I touched with the acid). I asked the pool store if they sell ascorbic acid/she said she could order it (40 lbs) and it would be expensive. I figured I could order it myself. I guess we are waiting on my test results. I will post them ASAP and will not do anything until I get a consensus from everyone. Thanks to all for your help!
Click to expand...

Ok so you have an iron stain. Before you drain and fill to lower your CYA you should certainly do an ascorbic acid treatment and sequester the metals to get the iron off your liner and into the water so when you drain, you remove a lot of the iron from your pool.

I'm not sure why you would need 40lbs of AA when I believe 2lbs can treat a 10,000 pool. Last time I bought it I paid about $40 for 2lbs. I'm sure you can do better online.
 
I feel your pain. I've been dealing with these stains for a few years now. I can vouch for the pool magnet plus. It works wonders for me. Just need to add it every couple weeks and figure out what dose works for you. That is if it works on your pool.

On a side note, I haven't added any for a month now and I have no stains. One thing I changed was the algaecide. I was using the cheap stuff from lowes but bought some poly 60 off amazon.

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2
 

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