I started a thread about this over in the Chemistry section of the forum but I've changed my course of action after doing some reading here. I was going to do the AA treatment, but noticed a few people have had some success with just using ProTeam Metal Magic and the process seemed a lot easier, so I thought I'd give it a try. I wanted to share my day to day progress so that those who have done this might want to chime in with some encouragement or even advice.
4 days prior to adding the MM, I started lowering my FC to about 3.0 and raising my pH to around 7.6-7.7 per the instructions. I also added a quart of poly60 since I knew I would have times where FC would drop below the minimum for my CYA(60-70).
On Sunday of this week, I performed the MM sponge test and determined that the stains around the sponge were lifted in about 15 minutes, so my plan was to following the prescription as outlined on the MM instructions (1qt of MM per 5K gallons of water)
On Monday of this week (Day1), pH was 7.7 and FC was 3.0 and water was crystal clear. So I added the 5 quarts of MM in the morning and went to work. Monday evening I returned home to a milky white pool. pH had dropped to 7.0 and FC was down to 1.5. Filter pressure had risen from 12 to about 16. I added a little bleach to bring FC back up to about 3.0 and let the filter run overnight.
Tuesday (Day 2) - That's today. I woke up around 5:30 and the filter pressure had risen to about 18. So I decided to change clean the DE filter cartridge and add more DE. This brought the pressure back down to 11 (normal for my pool). pH was down to about 6.8 so I added enough Borax to bring it up to about 7.1. I also added a little more bleach as it is going to be a sunny day. The water is still milky white (can barely see the main drain in the deep end). Also noticed lots of white powdery stuff along the bottom of the pool. Could this be the so called crystals forming from the treatment? Also, the DE filter cartridge was coated with flaky white pieces (probably the same stuff). Not sure if it looked like calcium or crystallized metals.
Results so far....from what I can see, the stains are mostly gone although there is still a faint outline of a stubborn stain that has been there for a couple of years now. It's really hard to see since the water is so milky, but i can say for sure that it's better.
Wanting to know if others who have tried this method (swampwoman, for one), kept adding small amounts of bleach/borax in the days following the treatment. I am added bleach and Borax in small doses to try to keep FC around 3.0 and pH around 7.0-7.2. Or would it be better to just leave things alone until the water clears up? Also, have others seen a dramatic clouding of the water? The ProTeam instructions do say to expect this, but I'm wondering how long it will take to clear it up.
Any insights would be much appreciated.
4 days prior to adding the MM, I started lowering my FC to about 3.0 and raising my pH to around 7.6-7.7 per the instructions. I also added a quart of poly60 since I knew I would have times where FC would drop below the minimum for my CYA(60-70).
On Sunday of this week, I performed the MM sponge test and determined that the stains around the sponge were lifted in about 15 minutes, so my plan was to following the prescription as outlined on the MM instructions (1qt of MM per 5K gallons of water)
On Monday of this week (Day1), pH was 7.7 and FC was 3.0 and water was crystal clear. So I added the 5 quarts of MM in the morning and went to work. Monday evening I returned home to a milky white pool. pH had dropped to 7.0 and FC was down to 1.5. Filter pressure had risen from 12 to about 16. I added a little bleach to bring FC back up to about 3.0 and let the filter run overnight.
Tuesday (Day 2) - That's today. I woke up around 5:30 and the filter pressure had risen to about 18. So I decided to change clean the DE filter cartridge and add more DE. This brought the pressure back down to 11 (normal for my pool). pH was down to about 6.8 so I added enough Borax to bring it up to about 7.1. I also added a little more bleach as it is going to be a sunny day. The water is still milky white (can barely see the main drain in the deep end). Also noticed lots of white powdery stuff along the bottom of the pool. Could this be the so called crystals forming from the treatment? Also, the DE filter cartridge was coated with flaky white pieces (probably the same stuff). Not sure if it looked like calcium or crystallized metals.
Results so far....from what I can see, the stains are mostly gone although there is still a faint outline of a stubborn stain that has been there for a couple of years now. It's really hard to see since the water is so milky, but i can say for sure that it's better.
Wanting to know if others who have tried this method (swampwoman, for one), kept adding small amounts of bleach/borax in the days following the treatment. I am added bleach and Borax in small doses to try to keep FC around 3.0 and pH around 7.0-7.2. Or would it be better to just leave things alone until the water clears up? Also, have others seen a dramatic clouding of the water? The ProTeam instructions do say to expect this, but I'm wondering how long it will take to clear it up.
Any insights would be much appreciated.
Why not give proteam a call about the ph drop and ask them...I don't recall mine dropping as much, but that doesn't mean anything.