Print the article out and follow the steps. Link--> Ascorbic Acid Treatment - Further Reading

Before AA Treatment

1. Take your chlorine down to 0 and PH down to 7.2; if there is chlorine in the water, it won't hurt; it will just eat up the ascorbic acid, so you will need more to get rid of the stains. Let it decline naturally. Remove tablets, stop adding liquid chlorine, or turn off the SWG.
2. You can add Polyquat 60 per directions on the bottle to avoid getting algae while the chlorine is low.
3. You will need about a half to one pound of ascorbic acid per 10,000 gal. Go lighter on it and see if all the stains lift off before adding more.
4. Put the filter on RECIRCULATE if you have a Multi-Purpose Valve(MPV) on your filter. If you have a cartridge filter, then remove the cartridges.
5. Use a cup, go around the pool's perimeter, and drop it down the sides.
6. Let the ascorbic acid circulate for 1/2 hour. You will be amazed how the stain disappears before your eyes.
7. If the stain is not all gone, leave the filter in CIRCULATE and add more ascorbic acid close to where you still see the stain.
8. Leave it in CIRCULATE until all of the stain is gone. (add more ascorbic acid if it circulates for 1/2 hour and there are still stains)
9. When the stain is gone, add enough sequestering agent for the volume of your pool - more is better than not enough.
10. Put the filter back on FILTER if you changed it on your MPV, or replace your filter cartridges and leave it on 24/7.

The ascorbic acid will bring your ph down, and sometimes the alkalinity.

After 24 hours, you can start to rebalance the water.

After AA Treatment

• Bring up your pH and alkalinity - use Arm and Hammer Washing Soda first; it will raise both pH and alkalinity.
• Make sure you test in between because you don't want your pH to exceed 7.2.
• If your alkalinity is in range, and you still need to raise your pH, use Borax to take it up to no higher than 7.2.
• You can start to bring up your chlorine. You want to do this slowly. It will take a lot of chlorine - preferably using liquid chlorine only at this time, and try to take it up to your minimum chlorine for your cya according to the Chlorine/CYA Chart.
• As you slowly raise the chlorine, watch for stains starting to form.
• If you see stains, ensure the pH is no higher than 7.2, and add more sequestering agent. You should see the stain lift in a couple of hours.
• Do not raise to SLAM FC levels! Do not do a SLAM for at least 2 weeks!
• Make sure you keep your pH low (7.2) for a week or two - it won't be hard because the ascorbic acid and sequestering agent will help it stay low.
• Once your chlorine starts to hold, it means that you have used up the ascorbic acid in the water, and it will be easy to rebalance the pool back to recommended levels.

Here are two important notes:

• High pH and chlorine will precipitate metals not sequestered out of the water and onto the pool's surface again. If this happens, reduce the pH to 7 or 7.2 and add more sequestering agent. This should lift the stain off.
• You can add Polyquat 60 to the water before starting the stain treatment to avoid getting algae while the chlorine is low.

I'm bringing a few of these threads back from the dead. New guy here and I've been having similiar issues across multiple threads here. The bot powers on, attempts a self test (goes in reverse), then powers off. I did have hairs tangled on the fan impeller, cleaned those off, flipped upside down to run a self test, self test worked. It cleaned properly for about a week, then same issue came back. I disassembled the fan motor and found the bearing slightly seized. I bought replacement bearings for under $3, replaced, reassembled and voila, works perfect. Check the fan motor bearings!

Plaster may develop shrinkage cracks while curing, which are normal.

Where is the water level drained down to when the pool is winterized?

If the water level is at the shelf, the shelf could develop cracks due to spalling and freeze/thaw in the winter.

The water level needs to be below any horizontal surfaces or at least an inch above them so that water does not freeze on the plaster.

CYA = 40
Salt level = 3100

I didn't do the CH test this morning, but I can do that tomorrow morning.

I measured FC using the FAS-DPD Chlorine Test in the kit, exactly as written in the instructions. It took 12 drops to clear the water.
Chlorine test I was trying to differentiate between the color 3 and 5 on the tube. The yellow looked darker than the 3 but just a little lighter color than 5.

Sorry, I had hand surgery and voice to text is not working. My question is I added the algicide? I am on my way to get the sequestrant. I will put in the Ekic acid, but then can I immediately put in the sequestrant after that I should let it run for 24 hours and then vacuum the pool to waste and then slowly bring up the pH and chlorine.

I am on my way to get the right sequestrant. My next question is I put in the other side I will put in the ascorbic acid and then I can immediately add the sequestrant filter and the recirculation.

jobondur said:

• North is roughly to the left side of the 2D layout. The body of water is the Lynnhaven River, which is connected to the Chesapeake Bay. Since you're in the NC area and may be familiar - this is inland of the Shore Drive Virginia Beach Area.

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Very nice area! With that direction being north, the seating area under the pavillion will be in full sun from mid-afternoon on. So, possibly a sunscreen of some type on the house side that could retract? When looking at the TV in the spring and fall, with lower sun angles, sun will be coming in from behind your TV to either side, possibly being annoying while watching fall college football or NFL.

jobondur said:

• It will be our full-time residence and the house is currently being built (new construction). Neighbors on the right (kitchen) side will be closer than I would like, which is why we put the kitchen on that side, to partially screen them. Neighbors to the left are very well screened by trees and other vegetation.

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I like the thought process.

jobondur said:

• Since this is on the Chesapeake Bay, we have to go through a very lengthy approval process to do anything within a certain distance from the waterway. We have already gotten approval for the basic footprint laid out in the drawings and that needs to roughly stay the same - specifically, the square footage can't increase.

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Do they allow any option for raised decking (verus concrete/stone decking), meaning if you wanted to expand out the left side for chaise, could a bump out be of a composite decking raised above the surface? Not sure what your elevation is there.

jobondur said:

• I've asked for a profile of the pool so I can see how the shallow to deep transitions look and so far haven't gotten one. I'll ask for another one. Right now the pool effectively has about 31' of length when you subtract out the tanning ledge. Is that not enough? If not we will have to decide whether we want to remove the tanning ledge or the diving board. Or we could even make the pool a little longer (but not wider) so that it came closer to the house a couple feet.

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31' in length for the main pool seems short for a diving pool to me. I'd hope to get some feedback from folks with similar length diving pools for their experiences. Also doing some web searching on that topic could yield some further insight. Any couple feet you could gain in length would be a positive for the topic.

jobondur said:

• Our current house has a pool that is a little larger than this one, so we're familiar with the floats and other stuff. We honestly just drag them out of the pool up onto the concrete right now and don't really worry about it. However, eventually I may build a small storage area somewhere off the pool area.

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Always good to have your own prior experience to base your decisions on.

jobondur said:

• We haven't gotten to the audio and lighting selection stage yet. For audio, I'll likely keep it pretty minimal for now and just use a bluetooth speaker, but may add more in the future. For the lighting, not sure right now.

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I've used a single bluetooth speaker for the 12 years with our current pool. Works pretty well, and simplification shouldn't be underestimated. My current lighting is three post lights, which work well, and also cafe lights under the pavillion. Though I'd certainly have wired some can lights if it was all happening new now.

jobondur said:

• We had an outdoor shower at my current house and never used it so I just got rid of it. I will have water at the dock, so we will be able to rinse sand off before coming up. That really should be all I need for this. We also have a half bathroom that we specifically designed into the house so that there is an outside door that goes right to it from the pool area. It's the regular sized door you see in the pictures of the back of the house.

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Great on the bathroom and dock water. Only other thought is about a spigot in the pool equipment area for sure. It gets used for many things.

jobondur said:

• Deck surface material will depend on price. I would love to have large white/light colored pavers but I have a feeling they will be too costly. If that's the case, we will likely just go with brushed concrete, but I'm certainly open to suggestions.

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If pavers, I love travertine. We have stamped surface and carved grout line concrete, which was originally water based stained to look like stone. I subsequently acid stained the deck. However, for brushed concrete, I love the look of "brushing" in stone-look grout lines. An example of this style is what @PoolGate did. The following link is to his profile. Any of his posts have his signature which include a link to a Google Photos page with many pictures of his pool deck. PoolGate

Rancho Cost-a-Lotta said:

If it was my pool...

I would try to prime while running booster pump. If it makes no difference, cap it off.

Last resort, I would try running a hard line from the pump directly to poolside. It sounds like it would only take about two 10 ft sections of pipe and a few fittings to make it work. This would rule out or confirm a leak between the skimmer and pump.

If my ideas get vetoed by the experts, no hard feelings.

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Thank you for the help here. The booster pump did not make much of a difference, however it did help provide a little additional flow which turned on the Pentair Intellichlor Salt Cell (when trying to prime, the pump does not produce enough flow to turn on the salt cell).

That is a great idea on running a hard line, and thank you @BillyMac96 for the video - both are very helpful. I am going to try this, both from the pool to the pump, and then remove and try from the filter back to the pool. I tried this morning and didn't realize I needed the special Hayward union fitting to attach to the pump, so that should be here this weekend.

oakridge said:

After much back and forth, they agree to not charge me for the pebble upgrade. Looking back, I should have asked for more. I did try for a full chip out and replaster, but they did not react well to that.

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Does this mean that they added pebble tech over plaster? My question about pictures was to understand what the landscape is like and is there a slope away from the pool or whether the pool might be sinking down into the slope.

Plaster pricing is very regional. You need to start getting some bids from companies.

With plaster already delaminating, you should insist on a full chipout of all plaster using flat chisels, not pointed.

Just closing the loop on this for anyone who may stumble across it. There was GFI just before the iAqualink panel that was tripped. Lights working now.. thanks for everyone’s help!

For the latest update:

The replacement for the replacement has arrived! Now I need to go out there and swap it out again. I ended up contacting them through every method I could find (even LinkedIn) and when they called me back I was told a new one would be shipped out. It's now here so we'll give this another try.

Print the instructions out. Follow them exactly.
There is no mention of flocculant. Sequestrant and Floc are not the same.
There is a link in the article to the sequestrant you need.
You should add according to the label. A bit more than label is ok.

The top sequestrants are:

• ProTeam's Metal Magic
• Jack's Magic The Pink Stuff (regular)
• The Blue Stuff (fresh plaster)
• The Purple Stuff (salt)

The directions said a sequestrant- I googled and found it stated a sequester at and a floculant were the same? I read the directions and I did t see anything about amount to use except how much AA to use

It sounds as if you may have the traditional setup where the spa spillway is always on in pool mode thru a makeup line.
Your easytouch should have a spillway setting which opens pool suction and spa return. If you disable the makeup line and enable spillway mode to come on for 20-30m a couple times a day, this will keep the spa sanitized while preventing the cold water inrush at the end of your 30m spa egg timer.
In my case disabling the makeup line was as easy as replacing the check valve inards with standard valve innards.

What T cell do you have? Post a picture of the label on the cell.

swimmy22 said:

If I can't put 4 pounds of stabilizer in a single sock, could I put 2 pounds in 1 sock in front of a deep end return and put 2 pounds in another sock and put it in the skimmer?

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Just tie them tightly with some string. You can probably get 1.5lbs per sock. If it takes a couple rounds of filling the sock, so what? After about 30 minutes, start squeezing. It will dissolve.