I'm getting ready to use citric acid to remove what is probably some manganese stains in my pool. In the past I have used an effective stain removal chemical from my pool store guy that he said was sodium erythorbate. However, I've never seen any reference to sodium erythorbate in any stain removal discussions. Does anyone know if this is correct or have any experience with sodium erythorbate as a stain removal chemical. One source indicated that "sodium erythorbate are chemical isomers of ascorbates". Ascorbates are apparently a salt of ascorbic acid. I think this one needs a chemist involvement.

I would be a little hesitant to use citric acid if you have calcium in your pool. It can form calcium citrate which is insoluble in water and I'm not sure if it would scale up or just fall out of solution. I don't have any experience with sodium erythorbate so can't help you there.

A lot of people have used citric acid without problems at this point. If calcium citrate is a problem, it certainly isn't very common.

I don't know anything about sodium erythorbate except that it appears to be a reducing agent so it is plausible that it could work.

I recently tried to use sodium erythorbate under the advice of a pool professional to remove organic stains created by a large accumulation of crepe myrtle flowers & seeds. Unfortunately it did not solve my problem.

dsm,

Chlorine is almost always effective against organic stains. It may take more than amonth in some cases but higher than normal levels of chlorine would be my first attempt to remove anything organic.