Iron Stains

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Mimipell521

Mimipell521

Bronze Supporter
Jul 12, 2016
67
Holden, Maine
I've been looking around the forum and have found the directions for a full pool AA treatment, but I'm wondering if this is necessary for my pool?

Background: last year we filled our AGP from empty with pond water and slammed it to TFP clear. This year, when we opened, we filled it back up (about 6 inches) with well water in order to avoid having to SLAM again. Our pool has been beautifully clear so far all summer. However, yesterday when I was vacuuming the pool and had my goggles on, I noticed multiple small brown stains on the floor of the pool. They do not scrub off, and are about the size of a pencil eraser. There's probably 10-15 of them or so. These were NOT there last year. I had my husband test our well water today (he has a Plumbing/heating company) and confirmed that our well water does have iron.

I'm going to try a vitamin C tab on one of the stains first to verify that it's iron (though I'm pretty sure it is), but should I just treat each individual stain, or should I be treating the whole pool to prevent further staining? Could 6 inches of well water have been enough to cause this??

I use the Taylor 2006 test kit and liquid chlorine 12.5%. These are my most recent readings (yesterday)

FC: 8
CC: 0
pH: 7.6
TA: 60
CYA: 50 (it's between 40 and 50 so I've been treating it as 50)
CH was 90 a month ago, don't regularly check that one due to having a vinyl liner

Ideas? Treat each stain individually, or do a full pool treatment? Below is a pic of how clear my pool is and an attempt to show what the stains look like....
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Nice pool!

Some members have recently been experimenting with Proteam Metal Magic and have found that it will lift iron stains and also sequester them. Many other sequestrant don't seem to let it stains, only sequester iron. So, maybe there is some magic in there. :)

It is totally fine, and maybe preferable, to treat stains individually rather than a full AA treatment. Other issues often arise with full AA treatment like cloudy water, algae blooms from very low FC, etc. But, with large scale staining there often isn't a choice.

Iron typically begins to stain when levels rise above 0.3 ppm. The issue often is that iron stays in the water and slowly builds up over time as you top off with well water and add a little more iron each time. So, rain water, softened water or well filtered water can help avoid that. Also, putting some polyfill pillow stuffing in a mesh laundry bag in your skimmer can sometimes filter out iron from the water. It will turn brown if it is working. This works especially well if the water ever turns brown.

Iron tends to stain less when pH is held at 7.2-7.4. More here, Pool School - Pool Stains
 
Hi Mimi. I just wanted to let you know I've had good success loading a dishwasher sponge wand with a 50/50 mix of water and AA for spot treatments. You could tie that kind of wand to a pool brush and just hit those wee spots. Be sure to add a bit of sequestrant right after.
 
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