Staining on entire liner...want advice before I supershock the pool

Jump to latest Follow Reply
A

ASolomon

0
Bronze Supporter
Jul 5, 2017
8
Monroe, MI
Hello,

Earlier this pool season, I opened the pool to crystal clear water but the usual leaves/worms/debris settled to the bottom of the pool. We had some trouble getting the filter working well enough to vacuum so the debris sat for a few weeks, and even though I shocked the pool per product instructions, I ended up with a huge algae problem. Took water sample to the local pool store where they told me the CyA was off the charts and I needed to get that under control before doing anything else. They told me the pool was in a chlorine lock and the chlorine wouldn't work until I got the CyA down to 40-100 ppm. So, according to their instructions, I drained to the bottom of the skimmer and refilled with the hose many many many many times until the CyA read between 0-40 ppm on the test kit they sold me. After that, I treated the algae with algeacide and got all the other chemicals back in normal range.

My only issue (besides the store telling me to add wayyyyyy too much of whatever chemical to the pool - luckily I only ever add about 1/3, then wait a few hours, then test) remaining is that the vinyl liner was left with an ugly brownish stain on almost the entire surface. Even though the chemicals are in balance, it just looks kind of green!

I've read up on things to try. I believe it's an organic stain. When holding a chlorine tab to the stain, it does loosen and break up. It also loosens and breaks up using lemons or oranges (citric acid.) We had some muriatic acid and that takes the stain away but it's pretty slow going trying to keep the acid on the stain in a filled pool.....

Frustrated, I stopped at the pool store today and they said the only way to remove such a large stain is to add 4x the amount of shock to bring the free chlorine up past 10 ppm, then scrub to remove the stain. In the opinion of all of you, is this correct?

I want to make sure I don't have any better alternatives before I add so many chemicals to the pool. I also want your opinion on how long I will have to maintain that level of 10 ppm, and then once I'm bringing it down, what is the level that it is safe for my kids to swim again?

Thank you in advance!

Current readings from my test kit:
FCl .6
pH 7.3
Alk 249
TH 350
CyA 60
 
+1 to what Woody said, but if you go the CYA down to 40 and you are back at 60 already you have been using a lot of solid chlorine products. 3" tabs and DiChlor shock are both about 50% CYA, so the more of those products you use, the higher your CYA goes.

Chlorine lock,is a misnomer, really what happens is that your pool becomes over stabilized (too much CYA).

For now your pool needs to go on a total liquid chlorine diet.
 
Welcome to TFP! We're here to help you spend as little time and money as possible to achieve and keep your crystal clear, stain free pool! As woodyp mentioned, without doing the tests yourself with a trustworthy test kit that has FAS-DPD, CYA, etc. any advice we'd be giving would be guesses, like the pool store gave you. We don't want to guess with your money, time, and pool. Please make a one time investment in a test kit, I highly suggest the TF-100 from TFTestkits.net, as it uses industry leading Taylor chemicals fresh from the manufacturer and comes with a 1 yr warranty. There are other test kit options, explained here, but TF-100 gives you very smart amounts of the right chems at a great value, currently the best value in my opinion, keeping you from having to order refills and pay more money and more shipping fees.

I commend you on your testing what works on the stain. Since FC and brushing removes the stain, I would avoid using other options. Proper sanitation/chlorination and cleaning going forward will prevent them. In order to know how much bleach/chlorine you can put in without risking damaging your liner, keeping it sanitary, and still being able to swim, you need the FAS-DPD test for FC and a reliable (not pool store) CYA test. It will also be important to make sure your PH/TA/CH are in balance so you don't risk getting calcium scaling on the liner too. The TF-100 covers you on all those too.

Are you willing to make a one time investment for your long term pool happiness and be free of the pool store testing/guessing/selling?
 
I would stop using the tabs and go on liquid chlorine or bleach. Get a real test kit and find out what your real CYA is. You may have to drop it some more. While you are doing that put some vitamin C pills in a sock and try to rub the stain off of the liner and skimmer etc. If that works then you can use a Vitamin C stain remover and then sequester the metals in the water. If that doesn't work then you do have an organic stain that will require high chlorine to remove. You need to quit using Muriatic Acid on a vinyl liner. Order the test kit tonight from TFTestkits.net.
 
Ordering test kit tonight. Thank you for the chart.

- - - Updated - - -

We diluted the muriatic acid & put it in a spray bottle. It worked on the areas it hit, but left us with lots of goofy light & dark spots. We'll stop using - thanks for your input.
 
ASolomon said:
Ordering test kit tonight. Thank you for the chart.
Click to expand...
You are very welcome! Credit for the chart goes to others, but I'm happy to link to it for anyone considering a purchase and wanting some proof why the TF-100 is so highly endorsed by most of us TFP people.
TFTkits is a great company (owner is even a busy poster on TFP!) and customer service is perfect beyond compare. They do everything right as far as I've ever heard.

I love my K2006 (wish I bought the 2006C which has way more chems), but I love my TF-100 a lot more for the value (and will only buy it going forward). The TF-100 was composed really well with really smart amounts of each chemical. Looking back, I have no idea why the K2006 and K2006C have the small size bottles they have, other than to make you buy more sooner...
 
Any other questions on test kit ordering, (TF-100 or otherwise), let us know.

I think TFTkits still has free shipping over $100, so if you need any PSI gauges (they carry ones perfect for pool pumps for like $15 bucks i think), pool brushes, iron/salt/other tests, or if you like feeling like a mad scientist, the speedstir option is pretty cool and can help get even better testing faster (totally optional though). They have other neat pool stuff too, don't remember what else at the moment.

If you order the K2006 or K2006C from Amazon/ebay/other - be sure you're buying from Taylor directly and not a random 3rd party seller which might not have fresh chemicals or have stored it correctly. Last thing you want to do is waste money on an old/expired test kit and have to return it (hopefully).
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Thank you again. I have a test kit here, several years old so I need to figure out if I can order the chemicals again to replace what has expired and use this one, or just start fresh. This was my in law's house I bought after they passed away, so I have all kinds of pool chemicals and testing supplies but I didn't know what anything was at first. I'm learning. As you can imagine I'm bummed about spending any more money on this 'problem pool' but slowly coming around. I also am not too excited/kind of apprehensive about the new test kit because I suppose I liked my brightly colored test strips from the pool store! Burst my bubble to find out they're just not accurate. I also inherited from my father in law an AquaChek TruTest digital strip reader, which seemed pretty darn cool and accurate, being digital and everything. However, I can see how it's no better than comparing colors to the side of the strip bottle - it's just reading the colors for me. ;-( Also, it only gives me chlorine, ph and alkalinity - not enough to tell me what is really going on. Thanks for reading and being understanding; I guess getting educated is sometimes painful! ha ha!
 
TFTestkits.net also has refills. Get the test kit you have and see if it has a model number or something to identify it. If all you need are replacements reagents, they can help you with those.

You have 24000 gallons of water there. Getting a test kit to keep it clean and sanitary at the lowest cost is very important.

Take care.
 
The AquaChek TruTest digital reader is less accurate than the colored strips in my opinion. If someone depended on that thing they would really mess up their pool. I used to play around with one and it was like taking the same water sample to different pool stores and getting different results at each one.
 
My test kit was old and missing too much, so I ordered the TF-100 from Pool Supply World. They had free shipping on that item. It'll be here next week. While I was at it, I ordered a whale brush from Amazon. Since I'll be scrubbing and I didn't have one, I thought I'd get some decent tools for this job. Thank you all again.
 
BattleOfYakima said:
Congratulations on your new test kit and brush! Those are great investments to get you living the TFP life!

How is the water right now? Would you like any suggestions on what to do until your test kit comes?
Click to expand...

Well, sure! My plan until the kit comes is just to keep the chemicals as balanced as I can (knowing my current test kit might not be not really accurate) and keep it vacuumed & clear. Currently the water is clear and the only thing that was showing a little out of whack was high alkalinity. We're still swimming in it and enjoying it, the whole thing just appears dirty/greenish because of the stain.
 
What is your source of FC right now? Floaters? Solid shock (which)? Bleach?

Until you get your test results and know your CYA & CH levels, I suggest using bleach/pool chlorine as your source of chlorination so you don't risk driving either CH or CYA higher.

As for how much bleach/day - this depends if you've got floaters in the pool, in-line chlorination, etc. More info and we can suggest an amount of bleach per day to add, or if you have any kind of test kit, mention which, and perhaps it could help somewhat.
 
If you were excited about the brightly colored test strips just wait until you get your kit!

Color drops and swirling and colors magically changing? Now *that's* fun stuff! lol

But seriously, if you enjoyed the colors of the test strips, you're gonna like the TF-100 even more! :)

Mad scientist stuff. Complete with very well written instructions and there are even some youtube videos of the tests available...and of course there's always people here to help too!

Welcome to the site! I think you're gonna like it here. :-D
 
Hi everyone. I've finally had the time when nobody wanted to swim to SLAM and brush. Put in loads of chlorine on Thursday evening, have been brushing....I would say this is doing NOTHING to the stains.

Per TF-100 today here are my levels:
TC 10+
pH 6.8
CYA 60

Did I do something wrong? maybe the stain isn't organic? Suggestions please.
 
Your shock FC is 24 with a CYA of 60. Why are you reporting TC of 10+?? Use the FAS-DPD test for actual FC.

Your pH test is invalid if your FC is greater than 10, However, it normally reads high. Did you test pH before you started the SLAM?

You can safely swim in a pool with FC level at shock or less, you can see the bottom of the pool, and your pH is between 7.2 and 7.8.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply