Spa interior deteriorating?

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Thanks! I just ordered my test kits and TFKITS and went to pinch-a-penny and picked up a bottle of their ultimate metal control (which from what I can decypher is as close to the "Blue Stuff" as they have). I will add it tonight.

BTW, you'll get a laugh out of this. Ran a test today:
FC 12.5
CC .5
pH 6.8
TA 20
CYA 30
CH 475

The pool store tests (from literally five minutes difference):
FC 5.0
CC 0
pH 7.6
TA 80
CYA 100
CH 300
Sequestrant 6 (should be 10 to 12)

I swear...they are worse than weathermen.

(and yes, FC is high because I just did a SLAM last night due to noticing CC jump to 1.5). pH is high because the guys who fixed the spa dumped in a bunch of acid and failed to rebalance....trying to aerate as much as possible yesterday and today to get the pH up)
 
Okay...School me brother. What is HDEP? It's made by Jack's and here is the Back label:
0f346f365adc7398329b1fd14aec3702.jpg



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pooldv said:
Use soda ash to raise PH and TA at the same time.

Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

- - - Updated - - -

That is good. More about HEDP and phosphonic acid being the right stuff here, Pool School - Metals in the Water and Metal Stains
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. That is only the fifth time I've read it and remembered the phosphoric acid...but didn't remember HDEP. I'm a slow learner (BTW, I can hear you guys saying "Clearly") ;)

Yep, I have some Borax I'll add when I get home if it's not in line. I'll bring up pH, but I think I want the TA low due to the high CH, right?

I was hoping it would raise yesterday and today with the extra aeration, but it seems as though when I want it to raise it doesn't...and when I do...it does. This thing is like a teenager at this point. hahaha
 
Actually no. Phosphonic acid and HEDP are not the same thing. The chemical for HEDP is 1-Hydroxyethlidene-1,1-diphosphonic acid (or 1-hydroxyethane 1,1-diphosphonic acid or Etidronic acid). HEDP is like two phosphonic acids bonded to a common carbon alcohol. It is having these two in a particular position that results in sequestering metal. It looks like the following:

Etidronic_acid.svg


Phosphonic acid is the same as orthophosphorous acid and looks like the following:

mfcd00137258-large.png


It's possible that they just didn't label the bottle properly, but I couldn't find an MSDS for this product. For Jack's Magic products, the Pink Stuff, the Blue Stuff, and the Purple Stuff are all HEDP while the Magenta Stuff is not (acrylic copolymer). This Suncoast product you are using is made by Jack's Magic but is either different or is mislabeled.
 
ITR said:
Thanks for the link. That is only the fifth time I've read it and remembered the phosphoric acid...but didn't remember HDEP. I'm a slow learner (BTW, I can hear you guys saying "Clearly") ;)
Click to expand...

LOL! Not at all! I had to read all this stuff 30 or 40 times to get it and I still look stuff up sometimes.
 
Well I added it and it is certainly a royal or deep deep navy blue. My guess is Jack's just sells the same product to them and they relabel it. That being said, I did find a local store that carries Jacks....so I'll start using that just in case.

I also added borax to get the pH up. There was no change in pH after a few hours ...then it started raining....so I will test this morning.


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That means your PH was lower than tested and is off the bottom of the scale for the test. Add borax per poolmath, run pump 15-20 min, test and add again until it shows up on the test.
 
I added the Pinch-a-penny Blue Stuff on 7/27. Yesterday I noticed the staining was starting again. I rubbed some vitamin C on it and it removed lightened the stain dramatically. So I added another bottle of Blue Stuff (this time the Jack's official brand) and it looks like I will need to add it weekly. I was hoping to get away from the extra $350 a year, but I guess not. Thanks for the help guys.

BTW, vitamin C in capsule form is a real pain (that's what I had in the house)...note to self: buy tablet form next time. :)

Enjoy your weekend! And Go Steelers!!
 
Metal sequestrants have to be added weekly since they break down from chlorine. If you want to physically remove the metal, you need to either use a product that tries to coagulate/precipitate them to the filter such as Metal Magic (though I'm not sure it does this for copper the way it does for iron) or that bind metals in a bag such as the CuLator (removes both iron and copper and other heavy metals).
 
Does the CuLator really work? I read some review where people said it didn't and when they opened it up it was just three marbles in a bag. BTW, this is what Jack's does in about two hours:

Before:
971b4721b29755acdee3024fea891939.jpg


After:
45497c7ed635b57cdc3d90968da4b538.jpg



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Thanks! I'll check it out. That link you sent me with the thread was way over my head for this early in the morning. I'll read through it again tonight and hopefully process it better.

Oddly enough I went out the pool this morning and found this...wondering if this is just the color it shows in the shade. Now I'm feeling pretty stupid...

d9cc9183c93ad21e3cb6219890aedc78.jpg



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