Sequestering agent after as Ascorbic Acid use?

Jump to latest Follow Reply
B

BB_Sacramento

Well-known member
Aug 14, 2015
126
sacramento/CA
I treated my unground pool with ascorbic acid and I am thrilled with the outcome of bright white plaster - like a new pool again. I'm slowly adding chlorine and the other levels are good, and I've added some algaecide - so far I see no signs of algae, but the water is a little cloudy. I cleaned the filters and baskets, etc. I'm wondering if the particles making the water cloudy will eventually filter out or do I need a sequestering agent? I have never used that before (I don't think!)
Also, is it safe to swim in the pool or not?
 
Re: Sequestering agent after as orbit acid use?

Which algaecide did you use? I hope not one with copper!

I would give it a bit o time to filter out.

Were the stains new or old? Have you replaced water ever? Are you *sure* you *still* have metals in the pool?
 
Re: Sequestering agent after as orbit acid use?

If you did an AA treatment to remove metal stains then you absolutely need to add a sequestrant to the water BEFORE bringing the chlorine up or else the metal will just stain again. The purpose of the AA is help dissolve the metal stains from their solid state (stain) back into solution as a metal ion. If you do not add a sequestrant to the water to help bind up the metal ions (typically an HEDP based sequestrant is good), then they will eventually re-stain your plaster.
 
Re: Sequestering agent after as orbit acid use?

Stupid auto-correct! I'm so embarrassed it auto corrected the title of this post - it should have read Ascorbic Acid, not "orbit acid"! Sorry everyone! Anyway, my pool is about 13 years old and the stains are lime and they've been building up all those years - I've never tried to remove them before and they built up very gradually. My water has never been drained completely, only once about halfway. A pool repair person said I do need to drain it when I can but we're having a bad drought and now is not the time to drain - maybe during a winter rain storm. No, I have no way of knowing if there are metals in the pool, I only know the water is not crystal clear now - a little cloudy. The kind of algaecide I used is "HTH Super Algae Guard" 30%. Given that information, do you recommend I get a sequestering agent? I'm using a paper type filter system (not sand). Should I keep cleaning the filters - once a day or two? Or do I definitely need a sequestering agent??
 
Re: Sequestering agent after as orbit acid use?

BB_Sacramento said:
Stupid auto-correct! I'm so embarrassed it auto corrected the title of this post - it should have read Ascorbic Acid, not "orbit acid"! Sorry everyone! Anyway, my pool is about 13 years old and the stains are lime and they've been building up all those years - I've never tried to remove them before and they built up very gradually. My water has never been drained completely, only once about halfway. A pool repair person said I do need to drain it when I can but we're having a bad drought and now is not the time to drain - maybe during a winter rain storm. No, I have no way of knowing if there are metals in the pool, I only know the water is not crystal clear now - a little cloudy. The kind of algaecide I used is "HTH Super Algae Guard" 30%. Given that information, do you recommend I get a sequestering agent? I'm using a paper type filter system (not sand). Should I keep cleaning the filters - once a day or two? Or do I definitely need a sequestering agent??
Click to expand...

Let's start from the very beginning.

DO you have one of the Recommended Test Kits and do you test your own water chemistry? If so, can you please post your latest test results?

As for stains, how did you identify them as "lime" stains? If they were truly calcium scale, then ascorbic acid really won't do much for that. AA is typically used to treat metal stains, mostly iron and copper (if the Cu stain is fresh).

What fill water do you use, well or municipal? As for metal testing, most folks don't own their own metal test kits because they are expensive and used infrequently (if you have no metals, then there's no point in regularly testing). In this case, you can go to a pool store and ask them to test your water for metals. I wouldn't trust them to do a good job (because they rarely get testing right) but they might get you a good starting result. Thing to do would be to take samples to two or three pool stoppers and get a comparison.
 
Re: Sequestering agent after as orbit acid use?

Yes, I have the taylor K2006 test kit. I'm sorry - I misspoke. The stains were iron, not lime. They were pretty dark and my plaster is now bright white so the ascorbic acid worked really well. I use municipal water. I'm on my way now to the pool store to have my water tested - I'll ask them to test for metals. I don't trust them at all but it's my only choice. I'll post my water test results after I get back from the pool store. Thank you!!
 
Re: Sequestering agent after as orbit acid use?

Can you confirm that you added sequestrant to the water AFTER the ascorbic acid? That is the process - you redissolve the metal into solution using ascorbic acid and then you add sequestrant to make sure it stays in solution as you bring the chlorine back up (SLOWLY).

Also, your cloudy water could possibly be the result of the algaecide. You used the HTH stuff which are cheap, linear quat type algaecides. Under certain circumstances those types of algaecides can cause foaming and cloudiness in the water. The better option is to use Polyquat-60 algaecide which is much more effective and does not cause foaming in the water.
 
Re: Sequestering agent after as orbit acid use?

I went to the pool store with water sample. I have no metals in the water. They think my staining may not have been a metal at all but since it looked greenish it may have been from leaves or something like that. I did use the algaecide after the ascorbic acid and I only used a total of about 3 ounces. All my chemistry is ok except the chlorine,and I'm adding the granular kind recommended for salt chlorinated pools. Also instead of adding more algaecide I am adding something to get rid of phosphates (a preventative instead of algaecide). I hope my plaster remains as white as it is now! And it makes sense to me that the stains in the pool floor could be from leaves over time.
 
Salt pools don't require granular chlorine. Liquid is just fine and doesn't come with the extra ingredients that cause folks so much trouble (CYA or Calcium).

What type of algaecide did you use?

The TFP method is based on only putting in your pool the chemicals you *know* by testing it needs, not those that just sound hopeful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply