Hi all! I just purchased a home and have started my journey of educating myself on poolchem.
I am really grateful for the guides here, especially the Ascorbic Acid guide.... See pics below for how it transformed my 30year old pool that had iron slowly deposit over the years.
Before pic, I noticed the equipment (nozzles) had an orange tint to them, and thought it was odd. I did a little test to see if it was Iron, by using an Emergen-C packet, and pouring it on one of the steps.
You can clearly see the blue circle where the vitamin C cleared the iron off. Mind you, this pools water is perfect, and I had scrubbed it with a brush. We were told by the sellers to get it replastered as "it was due".
Seeing the vitamin C work, I sourced and ordered about 4lhs of it, and using the Ascorbic Acid guide on TFP, I started the process.
At this point, I ran out of Ascorbic acid, and had to order another 4lbs. The iron stains were old and severe. I applied the second bucket, and make the decision to drain and refill after 24hrs instead of using a sequestering agent to contain the iron in solution. So, I drained the pool, rinsed it out, and patched a thin spot or two on the plaster, then refilled it.
When I got home from work yesterday, the pool was nearly filled, and honestly I was completely shocked by how severe the iron contamination was.
After the water filled, I balanced ph, added CYA, Chlorine, and salt. Today I'll check those balances, then add some calcium and call it good.
My next project will be replacing the 35 year old equipment, so I'll be taking some pics and making a thread for advice on that. Fortunately the previous owners kept all the documents for the pool, blueprints, dimensions, pipe sizes etc so that really takes out much of the guessing work. I'm aiming to either replace my SWC or upgrade the whole unit, replace the pump with a variable speed one, and am looking at if I need to replace the filter assembly or not.
Thanks for the guides here!
I am really grateful for the guides here, especially the Ascorbic Acid guide.... See pics below for how it transformed my 30year old pool that had iron slowly deposit over the years.
Before pic, I noticed the equipment (nozzles) had an orange tint to them, and thought it was odd. I did a little test to see if it was Iron, by using an Emergen-C packet, and pouring it on one of the steps.
You can clearly see the blue circle where the vitamin C cleared the iron off. Mind you, this pools water is perfect, and I had scrubbed it with a brush. We were told by the sellers to get it replastered as "it was due".
Seeing the vitamin C work, I sourced and ordered about 4lhs of it, and using the Ascorbic Acid guide on TFP, I started the process.
At this point, I ran out of Ascorbic acid, and had to order another 4lbs. The iron stains were old and severe. I applied the second bucket, and make the decision to drain and refill after 24hrs instead of using a sequestering agent to contain the iron in solution. So, I drained the pool, rinsed it out, and patched a thin spot or two on the plaster, then refilled it.
When I got home from work yesterday, the pool was nearly filled, and honestly I was completely shocked by how severe the iron contamination was.
After the water filled, I balanced ph, added CYA, Chlorine, and salt. Today I'll check those balances, then add some calcium and call it good.
My next project will be replacing the 35 year old equipment, so I'll be taking some pics and making a thread for advice on that. Fortunately the previous owners kept all the documents for the pool, blueprints, dimensions, pipe sizes etc so that really takes out much of the guessing work. I'm aiming to either replace my SWC or upgrade the whole unit, replace the pump with a variable speed one, and am looking at if I need to replace the filter assembly or not.
Thanks for the guides here!
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