HELP - Ascorbic Acid Treatment - Stains came back

[WalterE]

An update. It's been 11 days and the pool water is still clear. Went to the pool store and had them test for metals:

COPPER - 0.6
IRON - 0.0

Looks like I still have some copper in the clear water. IS 0.6 HIGH or LOW. What should I shoot for?

Been trying to keep the chlorine level low - FC- 2-4. Its difficult because my usage is over 2 ppm loss per day. Overnight it's about 0.5 ppm loss.

FC - 3, CC - 0, PH - 7.5, TA - 60, CYA - 30 CH - 80

Just bumped up to max of FC 4.5 today. Very nervous about getting the chlorine too high and the stains coming back as before. Waiting for the magic 14 days that MM has asked for. (Sunday). I'm trying to figure out a way to maintain chlorine without testing and adding chlorine twice per day. Going on Vacation soon my and can only check every other day. Perhaps taking it to 6 and adding dose of 128 oz each time? Thinking about some floating pucks during my absence. The CYA at 30 should be able to take it.


I'm hoping that the copper will filter out over time. Once more, I welcome your comments and suggestions.

 

[timb9]

I feel your pain. Been through it for years- tried everything and stains come back every time I raise Chl regardless of how much sequestrant I have. I’m on municipal water which has tested 0 for iron but not totally sure about Copper or Manganese. May call the town and see what they say. Or I may take the hit and pay a $1,000 to truck in water next spring. Could be the heater, which I should have checked out. Saw my vacuum head was all full of rust around the brushes- that could have something to do with it. I see a lot of people using the polyfill trick on above ground pools on well water- seems like the water has to be brown with oxidized metals to work. Someone needs to come up with an invention!

 

[pabeader]

I feel your pain. Been through it for years- tried everything and stains come back every time I raise Chl regardless of how much sequestrant I have. I’m on municipal water which has tested 0 for iron but not totally sure about Copper or Manganese. May call the town and see what they say. Or I may take the hit and pay a $1,000 to truck in water next spring. Could be the heater, which I should have checked out. Saw my vacuum head was all full of rust around the brushes- that could have something to do with it. I see a lot of people using the polyfill trick on above ground pools on well water- seems like the water has to be brown with oxidized metals to work. Someone needs to come up with an invention!

Odd question from me- What color is the dirt where you live?

 

[Swampwoman]

Water, copper can stain anywhere above .3 ppm. You may wish to consider a partial drain to dilute the concentration.

Oops...semi dead thread.

 

[timb9]

sorry just getting this now- can't seem to set notifications on for this site. Our dirt is sort of a medium brown- more clay based.

 

[timb9]

thanks swampwoman- I've done all that- drained it down as far as possible without risking damage to liner- think I'll do a full drain next year since I'm out of options. Fill water and pool water all test .1 ppm and less for iron and copper. The sequestrants may be contributing to false readings. I see that manganese isn't always tested, which could be a possibility. I should probably identify for sure what it is, but I'm pretty sure its iron. The pool turns green when shocked, and liner and steps turn light brown when it precipitates out. I'm thinking that the metal level in the pool is still there from the water in the deep end that I didn't drain, and there may be a continuous source bleeding into the pool still- run off from dirt and rocks with shrubs around the pool house, or metal parts in the heater. Going to get a small concrete curb put up to contain the dirt around the pool house, and would like to get someone to inspect the heater. Its super frustrating because I take great care of my pool, do everything properly, have the best chemicals to use, and the pool only looks good for a few days. I'm adding Jack's purple and it doesn't seem to last. As soon as the FC hits 2 or above, I see stains.

 

[ned8377]

I've had much the same experience as everyone on here with the stains coming back over the years. I've tried something new this year and seems to be working. I'm using Polyquat 60 so I can keep the chlorine low or just high enough to kill bacteria. Also, using HTH metal and stain defense. So first use AA. Two cups in my pool will remove all the metal in 12 hours. Could probably use a cup and wait longer. The idea is to not mess up your chlorine too much and then have to wait forever for it to come back and start to hold. After stains are gone I add the recommended amount of HTH. I then add maintenance dose of HTH per instructions and maintenance dose of Polyquat 60. I keep my chlorine low and keep PH at around 7.1 which helps the low chlorine to kill bacteria more effectively. I haven't had any problems with algae.

In the past I used only chlorine to keep algae away and had to keep it pretty high especially when the water was 90 degrees. Now I can just keep my FC at the minimum for my CYA and assume that since there is no algae, the chlorine only has to work on bacteria.

 

[timb9]

Thanks for the tips Ned! I've been doing some of the same as what you're saying. My story has a happy twist to it now I'm happy to share. I had the staining issues at the beginning of the summer when I was getting things up and running. Since then, the pool has never been better- pretty much zero staining and the water is amazingly crystal clear like I've never seen- lot of compliments from other pool owners- has made my summer! I'm not sure exactly what to attribute all this to, but I would say a combination of things along with patience, persistence, and trying different things and eliminating possible problems. I give a ton of the credit to this awesome site and all the good advice. Had I just listened to the people at the pool store, it would never have happened and I would have spent a lot more money. Here's a quick rundown- drained the pool this spring down as far as I could (6 in to a ft in the shallow end) and refilled- my town fill water was tested last fall and showed no metals. Much to my disappointment I had to do one or two Absorbic acid treatments after that, which seemed to be brought on by the initial shocking since there was algae in the water. I used minimum AA (don't overdo it- takes forever to bring the Chl levels back) and brought the chlorine back slowly over a week or so using bleach. I was concerned the SWG was contributing to the stains so I left it off and just used bleach. Now that things are better, I'm back to the SWG and monitoring it very closely and keeping Chl levels to the minimum according to the CYA levels (30-40). I know on here they recommend higher CYA for Salt pools, but things are working for me. Keeping SWG setting around 15 at night and 25 during the day. Mine is a Hayward aquarite and I am now reading the digital readout for the chl level - u can't really be accurate using the little black dial what the true reading is. Hit the diag button 4 times and you will get the exact reading. Also, I've been using a skim sock in the skimmer basket, along with a Culator bag and using Jack's Purple stuff for Salt water pools. I used more at the beginning and now using maint doses every week according to the bottle. My latest addition is a zinc annode that I attached to the bottom of the skimmer basket with zip ties. Did some reading and its recommended for salt pools. Not sure if it helps, but it wasn't that expensive and it just sits there. Is supposed to sort of detour corroding from the any metal components in your system, acting as a "sacrificial metal target' that won't corrode and leach into your water. Few other things- got rid of my old vacuum head that had rust around the bristles, and added a concrete curb around my shrubbery so the rain wouldn't wash the dirt and fertilizers, etc into the pool. I was keeping a really close eye on the PH for a while, and if any staining appeared to be coming back, I added more Jacks purple and lowered PH with muriatic acid. I've let the PH drift up to around 7.4 now and seems to be fine. I should also add that I changed the sand in my filter last year, and replaced my beat up pump this year. Those two things are probably why the water is much more clear. If I can keep things as is, I will have no reason to shock the pool, thus avoiding possible staining relapse. The steps would always show the light brown staining first, and a sock with vit C pills works great for cleaning them up. Sorry so long with this, but hope it helps anyone having problems.[

 

[Geojaneo]

I've been battling the stain problem also and finally called Jack's Magic after using 3 1/2 bottles of Purple Magic after an 8 oz AA treatment. Wow - Matt told me that because I have a sand filter - I'm in a vicious circle. DE is not fine enough to remove the metals so he advised I buy cellulose fiber which will aid in filtering out the iron. Four daily doses of the slurry followed by backwashing should do the trick! No where on the forums have I seen anything about using the cellulose fiber! Hope this is helpful to others and don't hesitate to contact Jacks about your specific situation - Matt was extremely helpful!