Issues with stains

[pharpe]

I had a stain issue with my pool light last spring when I used a non stainless screw that rusted. I replaced the light and did an AA treatment. It lightened the big stain but several other smaller stains came up. Not wanting to spend the money on chemicals to do another I decided to live with it. Over the summer we have been getting what looks like dirt buildup (brown film) on the steps and sides near the bottom. This has been getting much worse as of late and big dark spots are forming. Here is a picture

I have been keeping my levels in range all summer and CC has been 0 or less than 0.5. Tests this morning show

Temp 84F
FC 5 (before adding chlorine today)
pH 7.9 (this has been creeping up. Added 20 oz of MA to get it back down to 7.6)
TA 80
CYA 30

I tried scrubbing them with no luck. After scrubbing them I placed a sock of Ascorbic acid in one area and a triclor tab on another. After 30 minutes there was no change to the area with the triclor but the AA was noticeably better. The brown film was gone all around the sock and the dark sports much smaller but still noticeable.

I think I have narrowed it down to metals but I don't know where to go from there.

 

[JVTrain]

Have a look at this article from Pool School: Metal Staining What you have is metals/iron staining. There is a link in that article to a thread detailing how to do a whole pool ascorbic acid treatment Ascorbic Treatment to rid Pool...

 

[pharpe]

Thanks. I just ordered the Taylor copper and iron test kits. I'm going to test my pool water and fill water. From what I see there are three possible scenarios:

1. Pool water has metals but my fill water does not. Solution: Drain pool, acid wash, refill. Should not have metal staining issues going forward
2. Pool water has metals and my fill water also has metals - Solution: AA treatment to remove current stains. Will have to add sequestrates to keep stains from coming back in perpetuity.
3. Pool water does not have metals Solution: Drop back and punt because I have no idea what to do.