Stain on the ENTIRE shallow end!

[Yeeper]

Struggling this year. Never use anything other than liquid bleach 12.5%. No additives.

This year I opened the pool (2 weeks ago) and there’s the typical blanket of algae. That’s never been a problem before. I’ve sparkled up the darkest of algae blooms in the spring (thanks to TFP).

But this year when I went to scrub it or brush it nothing happens. It’s like a stain. But everywhere. Maybe a little bit comes off but it’s still a nice green colored stain along the floor and walls. Never happened before.

Shock clears up the water but the stain persists.

I’m going to do some test later to get the numbers, but I wanted to poll the audience first.

Again, thus isn’t a few spots on an otherwise clean vinyl liner. This is like someone took a paint roller with green/yellow paint along the floor and walls. Will also get a pic later.

TIA

 

[JamesW]

Probably iron.

Put a vitamin C tablet on a spot.

 

[Yeeper]

Probably iron.

Put a vitamin C tablet on a spot.

Will try and report back. What would it come from?

Struggling this year. Never use anything other than liquid bleach 12.5%. No additives.

This year I opened the pool (2 weeks ago) and there’s the typical blanket of algae. That’s never been a problem before. I’ve sparkled up the darkest of algae blooms in the spring (thanks to TFP).

But this year when I went to scrub it or brush it nothing happens. It’s like a stain. But everywhere. Maybe a little bit comes off but it’s still a nice green colored stain along the floor and walls. Never happened before.

Shock clears up the water but the stain persists.

I’m going to do some test later to get the numbers, but I wanted to poll the audience first.

Again, thus isn’t a few spots on an otherwise clean vinyl liner. This is like someone took a paint roller with green/yellow paint along the floor and walls. Will also get a pic later.

TIA

 

[JamesW]

Wow, that is pretty bad.

All pools have some iron.

Well water can have a lot of iron.

Some heaters have cast iron headers.

Some city water can periodically have increased levels of iron due to maintenance procedures.

Can you show the system?

 

[JamesW]

The steps are very yellow.

Try a vitamin C tablet on the steps.

Did you use well water?

 

[Yeeper]

The steps are very yellow.

Try a vitamin C tablet on the steps.

Did you use well water?

We have town water. And our heater doesn’t get used. Haven’t had to in years. Trying to think but I didn’t do anything new last year.

I’ll have my wife try the Vit C tablet.

Appreciate the responses!

If it is iron, what’s the fix here?

 

[Yeeper]

The steps are very yellow.

Try a vitamin C tablet on the steps.

Did you use well water?

Close up of steps. And that won’t scrub off. Haven’t tried bleach on it yet. Just noteworthy that it won’t scrub off like normal algae.

Im obviously happy to use bleach to clean the steps but if that works then using it to scrub the entire problem area is unrealistic.

 

[Yeeper]

We have town water. And our heater doesn’t get used. Haven’t had to in years. Trying to think but I didn’t do anything new last year.

I’ll have my wife try the Vit C tablet.

Appreciate the responses!

If it is iron, what’s the fix here?

I see there are answers to “how to” using Vit C as a fix if this indeed is iron. I’ll look them up first.

 

[Mdragger88]

Try the vitamin c on the steps too.
let us know how it goes.

 

[JamesW]

Pictures of the heater?

 

[Yeeper]

Pictures of the heater?

 

[Yeeper]

Try the vitamin c on the steps too.
let us know how it goes.

Ok so Vitamin C dissolved and worked like a charm in that spot. So I’m assuming this is an Iron issue. But Dang it’s a big one! I just tried scrubbing the stairs and the floor again and not a bit came off. Only clear spot is where the tablet was.

 

[Mdragger88]

We’re gonna need those test results…

 

[JamesW]

That is probably iron.

The heater does not have cast iron, so I don't know where all of the iron would have come from.

What filter do you have?

What is the multiport model number?

Can you show the multiport?

Can you take the filter apart and show the grids before and after cleaning them?

You can do an ascorbic acid treatment, but you would then have to do something to remove the iron or it will just stain again.

 

[Yeeper]

That is probably iron.

The heater does not have cast iron, so I don't know where all of the iron would have come from.

What filter do you have?

What is the multiport model number?

Can you show the multiport?

Can you take the filter apart and show the grids before and after cleaning them?

You can do an ascorbic acid treatment, but you would then have to do something to remove the iron or it will just stain again.

We have a DE grid filter. It’s getting dark and we’re having bad storms right now. I’ll be able to get more pictures tomorrow.

What would you be looking for inside the filter and multiport?

I got a water sample and will test shortly.

I was reading up on treating this and I know I will need a sequestering agent for the iron removal.

I’m just baffled at how this happened. I tried walking around and seeing if anything was left in there over winter but didn’t see anything.

 

[JamesW]

The grids can catch some types of metals, so it can be a helpful diagnostic to see the grids.

I am pretty sure that it is a lot of iron.

Sometimes the city will do certain maintenance procedures to flush out the lines which can temporarily increase the iron levels for a few days.

Did you recently add a lot of water?

Maybe ask the city if there was any reason for elevated iron levels.

Do you have well water?

Maybe you accidentally used well water?

 

[Yeeper]

We’re gonna need those test results…

Aaand more head scratching.

C -0
CYA -0
TA 140
Ph 7.8-8.2

I have no idea why CYA is so low. Each year we deal with draining a bit for winter then it rains and snow melts and I pump some out and then top off as needed. Maybe it’s just one of those years where enough water changes happened and it diluted it.

I don’t have any specific tests for metals. The TF - 100 won’t do that right?

 

[Yeeper]

The grids can catch some types of metals, so it can be a helpful diagnostic to see the grids.

I am pretty sure that it is a lot of iron.

Sometimes the city will do certain maintenance procedures to flush out the lines which can temporarily increase the iron levels for a few days.

Did you recently add a lot of water?

Maybe ask the city if there was any reason for elevated iron levels.

Do you have well water?

Maybe you accidentally used well water?

I can contact the town tomorrow. Or ask in our local social media group.

We do not have well. Only snow melt and topping off from the hose/spigot like I always do.
Understood re the filter/grids. Will have to do that Thursday. Tomorrow is my long day at work and we have storms all week also.

This staining issue has been like this since I started to uncover it about a month ago. I noticed it would scrub off but wasn’t in the state of mine to attack the pool yet. And that was before I started to top anything off with our supplied water.

I posted my TF-100 results.

 

[Mdragger88]

Welp, You have to deal with the algae that’s a given.
you said you opened 2 weeks ago, have you added any cya or cya containg products? You mentioned “shock”, did you mean liquid chlorine?

 

[Yeeper]

Welp, You have to deal with the algae that’s a given.
you said you opened 2 weeks ago, have you added any cya or cya containg products? You mentioned “shock”, did you mean liquid chlorine?

Oh yea for sure.

We only use liquid chlorine. No more solids. So nothing that adds CYA. I’ll just go grab some liquid stabilizer and call it a day (after testing it again).

Our Active 20 also sh*t the bed so I’ll have to upgrade that asap. Tons of fun!