New pool, staining, chlorine loss

Macpool11 · Feb 27, 2022

Pool completed in December. We’ve been maintaining it ourselves. After the 30 day startup, they added half the necessary salt, and said we are on our own to get a pool guy. (That’s me!) we added the remaining salt needed. The pool had some stains after startup that the pool builder addressed. After which, I had trouble maintaining chlorine. We attributed it to an underpowered swg, they had installed the ichlor15, which has since been swapped to the 30.
Now we have staining again, and the pool builder again tried to fix the stains. This time I was there when they added Natural chemistry stainfree ascorbic acid. That was all they added, and didn’t say a word to me about anything else that should be done. This was about a week and a half ago, and my chlorine is struggling. I now realize that the ascorbic acid is the reason, (I’m learning here) but also, they didn’t follow the directions on the bottle. So, the pool wasn’t balanced accordingly, prior to adding the stainfree, and it hasn’t worked to lift the stain.

So now, I am not sure what to do. Do I need some sort of sequestering agent to help this stain removal process? Do I just start to get my pool back in balance and go from there? It’s looking slightly cloudy and there is a little green algae on some tiles.

FC 1.5
CC 0
PH 7.4
TA 80
CH 300
CYA 60

Texas Splash · Feb 27, 2022

Welcome!

So now you have two issues - stains and algae. In most cases, the algae must be addressed first via the SLAM Process because it requires an elevated FC level which is only going to make the staining potentially worse. The exception to this would be if you are able to confirm why you have staining. I suspect it's iron, either from a well or local water source. If so, you want to decide if you have a different water source with little to no iron present. So first try to confirm why there is staining.

Once you confirm the source of staining and decide whether or not a partial water replacement is necessary, you can do the SLAM. Once you pass all 3 SLAM criteria to kill the algae, then you can balance all the chemicals. If iron staining (assuming that's it) is going to part of your pool life, you'll probably need to use a good sequestrant to keep the iron in solution to prevent staining. It's an ongoing process. Not ideal, but some have to go that route.

Texas Splash · Feb 27, 2022

With the exception of a low FC level, your numbers above look good. But it sounds as though the AA treatment(s) have left the FC low too long resulting in the onset of algae.

Macpool11 · Feb 27, 2022

Texas Splash said:
Welcome! So now you have two issues - stains and algae. In most cases, the algae must be addressed first via the SLAM Process because it requires an elevated FC level which is only going to make the staining potentially worse. The exception to this would be if you are able to confirm why you have staining. I suspect it's iron, either from a well or local water source. If so, you want to decide if you have a different water source with little to no iron present. So first try to confirm why there is staining.

Once you confirm the source of staining and decide whether or not a partial water replacement is necessary, you can do the SLAM. Once you pass all 3 SLAM criteria to kill the algae, then you can balance all the chemicals. If iron staining (assuming that's it) is going to part of your pool life, you'll probably need to use a good sequestrant to keep the iron in solution to prevent staining. It's an ongoing process. Not ideal, but some have to go that route.

Thanks, so step one is to confirm cause of staining. Why would I replace water? What effect should that have?

Texas Splash · Feb 27, 2022

Macpool11 said:
Why would I replace water?

We can assume iron is confirmed due to the previous AA treatments. Once metals are in the water they don't go away unless you change some/all of the water. If the iron level is low, you might get lucky with careful management of your pH and FC levels (not too high). Some owners chose the sequestrant route adding it every couple weeks or so as needed. But in some cases the iron level is so high it doesn't matter. Just about any slightly elevated chlorine (or pH) level aggravates the iron. While not a perfect test, you can take a sample to the local pool store. Let them run their tests and say thank you. Don't let them rope you into snake oils. Just take the printout and leave. Tell us the iron level detected. Pool store testing is often flawed, even with the iron test, but it might help tell us how serious the iron content is. But if the iron level is indeed high enough to react with low levels of FC or pH, you'll want to consider exchanging some of the water from a non-iron fill source if possible.

TampaKathy · Feb 27, 2022

If you take the water to a pool store, you may need to specifically ask for them to test for iron. At least at the Pinch A Penny that I go to, that is not a "standard" test. Or you could buy a test at a big box store if you want to check it yourself.

Macpool11 · Feb 27, 2022

Pinch a penny doesn’t have an iron test today, but they did test my water. They used all of it, so I can’t check the other location. CH is higher than my test. I did add a liter of chlorine after my testing this morning.

TampaKathy · Feb 27, 2022

Last week when I had Pinch A Penny test my water...they did the CH test twice and came up with 325 both times...but every time I test my water it is 225...for the other tests, we are in agreement.

Search

New pool, staining, chlorine loss

Macpool11

Active member

Texas Splash

Texas Splash

Macpool11

Active member

Texas Splash

TampaKathy

Macpool11

Active member

TampaKathy

Similar threads