Stain Treatment and SC1000

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D

dtarantino

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Jul 15, 2016
55
Florida
We have iron staining from the previous owner using well water in our pool. Our pool guy gave me instructions to use absorbic acid, SC1000 metal control, and a culator. I know first to bring my chlorine down to zero and pH to 7.2. Our pool is currently around 60F, but the SC1000 says to use above 65. Does anyone know what will happen if I do it now anyway and just keep my chlorine at zero until it warms up? Also, is there written instructions on this method? I’ve found plenty on the absorbic acid but have not seen the SC1000 mentioned. Thanks.
 
The previous owner used well water. Do you have a different water source to fill up the pool? If not, you are also going to be putting in well water and therefore iron. I have iron from the city water, pumped from a well, and will just use sequestrant whenever I have a big pool party which I want it looking as blue as possible. The AA is going to release the stains back into the water and the sequestrant will help delay the iron from coming back but the iron is still in the water.

The culator pack isn't going to do much if you have a lot of staining and many others, including myself, have had more success using Polyfil to remove some iron. Sequestrant is going to get very expensive if you plan to use it all the time to prevent staining. Iron free water is the only way to prevent iron and capturing rain water to help fill the pool is some iron-free water. Read below link for more. I have a dry well with a sump pump in a low area of my yard which helps me capture a lot of rain water in the winter and during spring storms. That helps but I still have to use the hose during summer and fall.

iron staining on vinyl liner how to prevent long term?

Ive been a pool owner for 5 years now, and feel like I've got a good handle on things, but I've reading a lot of posts here talking about iron staining on vinyl liners, from iron. Each time I have had my water tested at the local pool store, the iron levels have shown zero. My Pool ; 36,000...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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Sorry for the delay. Thanks for replies. I’m on city water now which doesn’t have iron issues. I’ve got my pool up to 70F now, so I think we’re good. I did the AA treatment this weekend. Dropped pH down to 7.0 and chlorine to 0. Added SC1000. Started adding AA 1lb at a time premixed with pool water around the edge. Didn’t notice any difference at 3lbs so I went to 4lbs and now 5lbs. I’m at a loss if I should be adding more or it’s just not going to work for me. The staining did lift with Vitamin C tablets let on the stains, but it did take over night. Should I add more AA or just give up?
 
You should wait and give it time. AA can often take up to 24 hours before the stains will lift. Make sure you are brushing and getting the water to mix and move.
 
How are you putting the AA in the water? Is the pump off with the water completely still? Whenever I do an AA treatment, I will leave the pump off for a couple hours and then sprinkle the AA powder around the perimeter of the pool to allow it to slowly make its way down the walls onto the floor. I will also do a backwash of my sand filter after AA to release any stains in the filter/sand as the iron will precipitate on the PVC pipes and the sand. I will use a small submersible pump attached to a hose to circulate the water while I bring the FC back up to eliminate the AA in the water so it doesn't release any more iron from inside my plumbing.

I would not premix the AA in water but just sprinkle it in. I can normally get away with just over a pound of AA by letting it slowly sink down into the water.
 
I was told to pre mix it by my pool guy but now after some research it sounds like I should have shut the pump off and just sprinkled it in. Should I do another round with that method? I’m not sure if it makes a difference but the stains seem pretty well set in on the pebble surface. They are probably 10+ years old. For the vitamin C test, it took overnight of direct contact for them to do anything. Thanks for your help.
 
Well, hopefully I didn’t just make things worse. To see if I just needed more AA I threw about 20 vitamin C tablets in on a heavier stained area and let it sit for about 6hrs. Now when I brushed the pool, there are black stains where each tablet sat. This is odd, because the last time I did the vitamin C the staining went away overnight. I welcome any suggestions of what may be going on here. I don’t think it’s copper because the stain testing I did for that didn’t seem to do anything.
 
Thankfully this morning when I woke up, the stains have disappeared after running the pump all night. I’m going to keep it on recirculate until all treatment is complete. Can anyone tell me if a full dose of polyquat 60 is okay to get rid of the algae cloudiness now? It’s getting difficult to see the deep end to evaluate the stain removal. I believe the answer is yes. Thanks.
 

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dtarantino said:
. Can anyone tell me if a full dose of polyquat 60 is okay to get rid of the algae cloudiness now? It’s getting difficult to see the deep end to evaluate the stain removal. I believe the answer is yes.
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No.

Algaecide like PQ60 helps prevent algae. Once you have algae an Algaecide will do little.

It takes chlorine and the SLAM Process to kill the algae once it is replicating in the water.
 
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The polyquat should have been added in the beginning of the process as you allowed fc to drop as outlined in the AA article. Its merely a preventative as @ajw22 mentioned.
Do you plan on exchanging the iron laden water with iron free water? (recommended)
If so, then complete your water exchange before doing the SLAM Process to eradicate the algae. Otherwise you may end back up at square one as the elevated fc levels required for slam will bring the iron back out & possibly stain more than before.
 
Thanks. I did add it in the beginning but only a maintenance dose. I guess that wasn’t enough. I don’t have visible green when brushing but just cloudiness. I am using a metal sequestrate and culator but after further reading it looks like I should just dump the water and refill. Therefore, I agree, just leave it for now and slam once new water is in.
 
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Sometimes alot of sequestrant can cause cloudiness as well.
Definitely your best bet for solving all the issues though is to get rid of the iron laden water while the metals are sequestered after you have lifted the most stains then after refilling proceed with the slam process if necessary.
 
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Yeah … polyquat 60 algaecide has a positively charged amine group (part of what makes it deadly to algae) and metal sequestrants typically have negatively charged sides groups (phosphonate, sulfate, and carboxylate groups). (+) + (-) means the two chemical compounds can sometimes be attracted to one another and for a suspended precipitate that is cloudy of the concentrations are high enough …

Just be warned that your filter pressure could spike if it either algae or precipitate.
 
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Thanks. Good information.

did one more round of AA treatment and have gotten good results but now the cloudiness hasn’t gotten so bad that I can’t see the bottom anymore to assess. The water makes my hands smell like pennies now, so I’m guessing the treatment worked and the water is laden with iron. Time to drain and refill with fresh water. Once drained, does anyone have any recommendations for getting spots I missed before refilling ? I’d prefer not to have to go the acid wash route. Thank you.
 
Thanks. Is the recommendation for the exchange method just for fear of the pool lifting up or some other reason? Even though we’re in FL, we live up on a sandy bluff with the water table 20+ft below. I was thinking if draining about 3/4 of it and then to start exchanging it. That’s what I did a few years back as well when our CYA was super high from the previous owner.
 

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