Hello Everyone! A couple of years ago I was having fits with iron stains, until you folks told me about the Ascorbic Acid treatment! I just opened up my pool, and did the usual routine: SLAMMED it to clear up the algae (which of course caused the iron to fall out of suspension and stain my liner), balanced the water, waited for the chlorine to drop off and then added 1 pound of AA and a quart of Metal Free, and PRESTO! Overnight my pool looked beautiful. Now comes the hard part: trying to gradually raise the chlorine level enough to keep the water clear, WITHOUT causing the iron to fall out of suspension, all the while keeping my ph between 7.0 and 7.2. If any of you out there are doing this same dance, you know it can be a workout. BUT I just thought of something last week! My local pool supply company has converted a lot of pools in this area to Baquacil, and I was wondering if that would HELP keep my iron in suspension, by completely taking chlorine out of the water. Baquacil is chlorine free, and I believe if I did get some iron staining, I could immediately use AA without having to wait around for the chlorine to fall below 1.0 ppm. This should also keep my water from clouding up from letting the chlorine level drop off to use AA. Am I thinking straight here? Am I missing something? Since chlorine is one of the main factors that can cause iron staining, it seems logical that if I take it out of the equation altogether, using Baquicil, then it would just be a matter of keeping a good sequestrant in the water and maintaining my ph level? Does anyone out there have any thoughts or advice? Thank you!
Would converting to Baquicil help prevent iron stains?
- Thread starter doug9105
- Start date
- May 23, 2015
- 24,455
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
The Baquacil System uses peroxide at concentrations of 30-50ppm (at least that's what you're supposed to maintain) for oxidation of bather waste. Peroxide is an oxidizer just like chlorine and it will cause iron to be oxidized in exactly the same way. So you gain no benefit from converting to Baquacil but you will incur a HUGE cost as the baquacil chemicals are very expensive and very difficult to get right if you just use the test strips. There is a biguanide/peroxide test kit (Taylor K-1725) for Baquacil pools but it runs about $130.
They are doing their clients no favor, but they are helping their bank account.
Read down through this forum Baquacil - Use and Conversion
You will see that Baqua works fine for a while then int's hard to get the Baqua monkey off your back....
If that company has suggested this to you, as Matt points out it won't work. it shows you the quality of their advice.
Rather than attempting that work-around, why not eliminate the source of iron with a whole house water softener? Complications with baquacil are well-documented on this forum over the last 10 years and I would never consider using it.
Wow, that is really a shame. Makes sense for the pool supply company, can't get baqua products at Walmart now can you. Guaranteed customers and when it stops working right, well that is when the cash really starts rolling in. There are so many extras to Baqua that work for a season or so until it stops and they get to sell another one to them. It's a great racket.
Meanwhile, I went to a seminar recently with a bunch of pool store owners. The presenter got to the biguanide slide and asked if anybody sold or recommended Baqua. It was silent until someone finally spoke up with a "Heck* no!" We all laughed and then moved on without talking much about it. I gained just a little respect that day, for they may offer some questionable advice to keep people coming back it is good to know they have their limits.
*Only he didn't say heck
Two quick questions,
1. As you do the AA treatment, are you using an algaecide??
2. Is there water delivery services in the area that could deliver iron free water? It’s likely you could get fresh water delivered for less $$$ than you wluld spend trying to maintain a Baqua pool.
1. As you do the AA treatment, are you using an algaecide??
2. Is there water delivery services in the area that could deliver iron free water? It’s likely you could get fresh water delivered for less $$$ than you wluld spend trying to maintain a Baqua pool.