Am I ready for the Ascorbic Acid treatment?

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D

dolemite77

0
Jun 19, 2007
33
Charleston, SC
From what I've read here, i think i'm about ready to make my pool walls white again. I already did the vitamin C test and it seemed to work. I bought a 3lb. container of Ascorbic Acid. However, I don't yet have a sequesterant. Here are my readings as of last night:

FC: 0
CC: 0
pH: 7.6

TA: >100 ? (I put the two blue drops in, and then keep adding the clear drops, but it never really changes back from a light blue...?)

CH: didn't test
CYA: ~100

So does it look like i'm ready to go ahead w/ the treatment? Will the three lbs be enough? My pool is roughly 8-10k gallons (still need to figure that one out). What sequesterant do i need, and does that go in before or after the acid? Thanks! I hope to take some before and after pics!
 
There are good directions for the ascorbic acid treatment in the Stickies section of this site. Look for "Ascorbic Acid Treatment" after following The Stickies link in the sub-heading of each page. mabr recommends adding sequesterant after the stains are gone.

There are many different brands of sequesterant. I like Jack's Magic brand (Purple for a salt pool, Blue with new plaster, Pink otherwise) or ProTeam Metal Magic but many others are available and some of them are noticably cheaper.
 
Seems like your PH may still be a little high, but follow the stain treatment and you should get fantastic results. We have a salt pool, so I use Jack's purple. I've noticed that the stains will start to return if my PH creeps too high (above 7.6). When I start to see them return, I lower the PH (less than 7.4) and add a couple of ounces of Jack's. No ascorbic acid needed. Viola! They're gone the next day.

Chris
 
Cool, thanks for the tips Mom!

I went to the local pool store and everything in there seems very overpriced... I picked up a bottle of Jack's Magic The Blue Stuff Metal Solution Too... It was 27 bucks. Did i get robbed? Is that even what I want for this purpose? I looked online and the HTH Metal Control was $60 or more. Geeez....
 
What type of Jack's you need depends on what type of pool you have. As JasonLion said, purple for SWG, blue for new plaster and pink for others. I pay about $24.00 for a bottle at Leslies. After the initial ascorbic acid treatment, you'll only need to add a few ounces (depending on pool size) every few weeks to keep the stains away. Just watch your PH drift. Also, be especially vigilant about your chlorine level and PH for the first couple of weeks after the treatment. If they drift too high, the stains will reappear.

Good luck!

Chris
 
Your ph will go down with the ascorbic acid treatment . I use a pound per 10,000 gals , depending on how much staining there is. Don't worry if the water gets cloudy - sometimes it does after adding the sequestering agent if there is a lot of stain. The pink stuff is good. You follow the directions on the back of the bottle. Just be sure when you start to raise your chlorine, you do it slowly. If you see some stains coming back, add more sequestering agent. Keep your ph low - 7 - 7.2. Good luck, and let us know how you do :)
 
I ended up using all 3 lbs of the ascorbic acid. Hope that wasn't a mistake! When i first started, i just used half the container. Waited an hour w/ the filter on recirculate. I did notice a change on the steps, but the walls were still stained. So I used the rest of the ascorbic acid. Came back after another hour and still no significant change. At this point i was pretty depressed and worried that i had a much larger issue at at that may require a pool drain and acid wash of some sort. It was also getting dark, so I poured in Jacks Magic as instructed (about half of the 32oz. bottle) and called it a night. I tell you what, those pool walls are white now! I'm beginning to wonder if i even needed that $30 bottle of ascorbic acid, but no worries. Mission accomplished and I am now starting to bring my chlorine back up slowly. The water is looking pretty cloudy though, and there is some mild algae forming on the walls, but I'm not too worried about it. Thanks for everyone's help!
 

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