Help with clearing up Cl Puck Etching

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VoR

VoR

0
Jun 30, 2009
41
San Diego, CA
Howdy!

Been reading here off and on for the last year and I wish I'd taken the BBB route now that I have a CYA problem and am planning a drain and fill here in the next day or so. I've been adding Cl via an automatic chlorinater and 3" pucks. I've been battling algae and discovered there's too much CYA to let the chlorine do its job well. I tested it at 130 and took some water to Leslies to confirm.

There's also a lot of residuals and we have high calcium in our water so they agreed with the drain and fill, I'll be going to the BBB method and using the pucks only for when I'm going to be on vacation etc.

Anywho, we bought the house about a year ago out of foreclosure and it has some puck etching stains I'd like to clear up since I will have the water out for the drain. The spots aren't real noticable unless the chemistry is off and then its the first place algae will reveal itself. I've searched and can't find much on it so any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
I have a few of these in my pool too. Someone had thrown several pucks into the water, and they left circular rust colored stains where they settled. They are slowly fading, but if there is a quicker fix I'd like to know as well.
 
Welcome!

Be sure you have no water table issues before doing a complete drain - pools can be damaged from sitting empty. An acid wash is usually not a DIY job.... Is the entire pool surface discolored from algae? And the puck bleached out an area? It may just take a few months of adequate FC levels and the whole surface will lighten and the spot won't be as noticible. Just a thought.

Pics....we want pics! :mrgreen:
 
No Water Table issues here. The house is near the top of a hill and it slopes off quickly to where 30 ft behind the pool the ground level is lower than the deep end of the pool. And here in San Diego we don't get much rain past April.

The etchings are slight discolorations in the plaster under normal conditions, but when things get out of control its one of the first places algae will show up too. The high concentration of Chlorine from just sitting on the surface seems to have etched it. The areas are not much bigger than the 3" tablets, sort of a tail off them leading to the deep end.

Since they are not huge can I acid wash a small area like that or will it discolor the surface more? There's also a couple of small rust stains from where a metal clip fell in unbeknownced. I am planning on just rubbing some Vitamin C on that.

I'll try to get some pics tonight, I just started gravity draining to the orange trees below last night and its going slow.
 
Well I finally got the pool emptied late yesterday evening and went ahead with some spot cleaning of stains. A few small rust stains were taken out with some Vitamin C tablets pretty easily with a second cleaning of diluted Muriatic Acid and 2-3 scrubbings with Muriatic acid was used on the 3" puck spots. Worked pretty well and while not erasing them completely they are definitely less noticeable. I was doing all this in the dark last night with just some outside lights on and this AM after it was about 3/4 full again I noticed I missed one of the puck spots.

Is there any good technique for using the acid wash under water? Its not the end of the world.

Since its going to be full with fresh water this evening what's my first step? Get the FC up or do a full test first?
 
Reebok is saying go ahead and test the other parameters (CH, pH, and TA) but you will have zero FC and CYA at startup so no need to test those.

I would suggest putting a small jug of Clorox in the pool each evening for the first three or four evenings....this will keep the pool sanitary.

Secondly, I would suggest immediately adding enough CYA to get to 40ppm. You can test for it in a few days but it may not show in the tests for up to a week.

Then, simply add enough chlorine daily to stay between 3-5ppm and you should have a troublefreepool.
 

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There is a technique for acid wash under the water. Something about using a pvc pipe (for direction) and muriatic acid.

Try some google-ing (lower/bottom left of page) or maybe someone who has done it will chime in :wink:

Can we have some pix? :-D
 
Is this correct? I was playing around with the pool calculator and (besides the obvious varying amounts of stabilizer in differing brands of TriChlor) is appears that for a pool my size (~9k Gallons) it only takes about 10-12 of the 3" pucks to raise my CYA up and over 50? :rant:

PS I finally took some pics last night but haven't d/l from the camera yet.
 
X-PertPool said:
Have you tried using Pool Stain Treat Spotting Bags? They are cheap.
Click to expand...
They are oxalic acid which is toxic. Ascorbic acid is a bit safer. Either one is effective against iron and manganese but neither will work on acid damage (etching) caused by a trichlor tab sitting on the pool floor. Acid washing might help even out the damage if there is enough plaster left but in bad cases only a replaster will get rid of them.
 
frustratedpoolmom said:
The tablets will take too long to raise the CYA. You should buy it separately or use Dichlor, via separate additions to raise the FC, which will also raise the CYA.
Click to expand...

Oh I realize that, I was just commenting on how fast you can raise you CYA without knowing it. Had no idea the trichlor was doing that :shock:

MA worked well on the others, I just missed one trying to finish quick at 10:30 at night so I could fill it up again and not have it empty long.

Thanks
 
Your pool looks really pretty and refreshing.

I found this product doing a google search. http://www.puritypool.com/stainremovers.html Basically it gives you the idea, of what Butterfly was talking about with the pvc pipe. This may be a little easier than trying to rig up something with a pipe, depending on the location of the spot on your pool floor.

Edited to add another tool I found to do a mini acid wash. http://www.recreonics.com/stain_remover.htm
 
Thanks for the Links :-D

The pool is really looking good, I did not realize how bad the Calcium saturation was, but it appears it was locking in a green tinge to the whole pool. I just assumed it was part of the plaster, but its turned into more of a blue color since the drain and fill. Even the pump basket is white now after have a green calcium build up on it. I just thought it was a natural thing with all the minerals in the water but now its deposit free :mrgreen:

Now I am just working on getting the TA down so I can add the borates, the last stain isn't even as noticeable now with the water in it so I may just live with it and see what happens with a properly balancing ;)
 

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