I am unable to adequately sequester metal in the pool. Since May, I have added 9 bottles of Metal Free and tried 3 other brands adding a quart or more weekly, yet when I add chlorine to the pool, staining happens immediately. I have seldom added water to the pool and I have no heater. Alk Ph and CY are nearly acceptable ranges. Need a solution to the staining and discoloration
Metal in pool
- Thread starter SounderShawn
- Start date
Hi, welcome to TFP! Please post a complete set of test results, it will help us troubleshoot your problem. Do you have well water?
I do have well water and it is high in iron. Well water is low PH and high alkalinity but I have got them to acceptable levels. sorry I don't have exact numbers as I use the tests strips, but they usually coincide with what the pool store comes up with when i bring it in.
What would cause the metal to continue to oxidize? I have put in what seems an obscene amount of metal free this year and as i said, I am not adding water.
What would cause the metal to continue to oxidize? I have put in what seems an obscene amount of metal free this year and as i said, I am not adding water.
I'm dealing with the same thing. I also keep going through cycles of the ascorbic acid treatment. But a couple weeks later, the stains return. I'm probably not adding enough sequestrant, but I'm sick of dropping $20 on a bottle every week.
Heres what what happened this last weekend though. I got so sick of dumping in more sequestrant, I stopped. And this weekend, not only did I have the staining, but the water turned yellow as well. So I stuffed the skimmer with paper towels, and within a few hours, the paper towels turned nasty orange / yellow. So I thought I might be onto something. So I ran the pump continuously 24 hours a day and kept switching out paper towels. After about 3 days of this, my water is back to blue / clear (and the paper towels are no longer turning yellow. I still have staining, but I'm hoping I caught the majority of the metals in the water by doing this process. I'm going to do one more ascorbic acid / sequestrant treatment, and I'm hoping it holds much better / longer this time.
In short, I'm wondering if the way to approach metals in the pool is by driving up ph, dumping a bunch of chlorine in so that the water turns as yellow / orange as possible. Then catch those metals with paper towels in the skimmer. Then ascorbic acid to clear any stains off the pool walls.
may have to repeat this a couple times, but hopefully it's a more effective and cheaper long term solution.
Heres what what happened this last weekend though. I got so sick of dumping in more sequestrant, I stopped. And this weekend, not only did I have the staining, but the water turned yellow as well. So I stuffed the skimmer with paper towels, and within a few hours, the paper towels turned nasty orange / yellow. So I thought I might be onto something. So I ran the pump continuously 24 hours a day and kept switching out paper towels. After about 3 days of this, my water is back to blue / clear (and the paper towels are no longer turning yellow. I still have staining, but I'm hoping I caught the majority of the metals in the water by doing this process. I'm going to do one more ascorbic acid / sequestrant treatment, and I'm hoping it holds much better / longer this time.
In short, I'm wondering if the way to approach metals in the pool is by driving up ph, dumping a bunch of chlorine in so that the water turns as yellow / orange as possible. Then catch those metals with paper towels in the skimmer. Then ascorbic acid to clear any stains off the pool walls.
may have to repeat this a couple times, but hopefully it's a more effective and cheaper long term solution.
I have high iron well water and never used the sequestrant. My water is TFP sparkly clear! I just hit it hard with liquid chlorine during the first fill, to get the iron to separate or whatever you call it, and filter non stop. It was clear quick.. My cartridge filter actually filtered better than the intex sand filter I had with my intex pool. When I had the crappy intex filter it took a couple weeks, using old rags om the inlet and rinsing the cartridge constantly. Sand filter took a a couple days to completely clear.
^ Exactly....My pool was filled from a tanker, and the source was very high iron content. I raised my FC to Slam levels of 12ppm, and so much iron precipitated out it covered the floor in rust. I vacuumed for two days, and then ran my sand filter w/ some DE for a week solid, along with my pool robot, changing the filters many times a day (Full of rust). After a week the pool was clear. After two weeks the greenish tint was gone from even the deep end. Sequestering it is an endless process and only a temporary fix. Either drain and refill from a non-iron source, or raise your FC to SLAM levels, let all the iron precipitate out, and vacuum and filter like a mad man.