jcmac said:
I used one for 10 years. We lived and so did the pool and plaster. You have to like some mustard algae. We have a different pool now and just had it re-plastered. Pretty much going liquid chlorine .. hand dose for now supplemented with vacation pucks. We will see if I can hold up to this.
I am not by any means advocating use of ionization. I'm a recent convert to BBB method, as of last year after, summer 2009, using ionization for about 20 years and will NEVER go back.
Having said that, as long as the ionizer is adequately sized and there are enough metal ions going into the pool one shouldn't have mustard algae. I used the commercial Nature 2 canisters for years but ran my pump virtually round the clock. I replaced the cartridges 3-4 times a year. FC was never at what it should have been except for a few days after throwing in weekly "shock". Yes, I now know it is a process. :lol: Never had mustard algae. I say canisters because they were especially prone to freeze cracking even with water moving through them, so I had to replace several.
Up until last summer I had been using the Floatron (solar powered) for three years. I kept the "cell" and coils really clean so it produced maximum that it could and it is pretty sunny here year round. No mustard algae.
The only time I had mustard algae was when a friend and I, both, tried the Express. Stopped using that after one summer battling mustard algae and purchased the Floatron. It just wasn't capable of keeping enough ions going into the water.
The major copper staining occurred, when the pool was stagnant over the winter (major leak that couldn't be located) and became a literal frog pond and remained so for months into the next summer, until the frogs matured and escaped. The 2008 acid washing only lightened the copper staining so that it is somewhat bearable to look at. It bothers me the most. But keeping sparkling water does allow one to see the staining better. We went heavy on the acid, during the wash; so much so that I'm surprised the aging plaster held up to the "abuse". The staining is almost entirely limited to below the water line when the pool level was down to the bottom of light niche for the winter and into summer. There are a few streaks above that water line in the deep end where the Floatron spent much of the time.(The leak was where the cord light cord went through the wall. Sure wish I had know about TFP because I wouldn't have had to use >$1000 that summer to keep the water level up.)
It is slowly, very slow lightening but may never totally release. I have to keep sequestrates in the pool all the time to avoid iron staining from our silt/sand/dust that is constantly blown in and silt/sand dragged in by the dogs, so that is helping, a little, to lighten the copper/what ever else stains.
BTW.... the iron is especially attracted to the calcium scaling but the copper adheres better [sic] to plaster so it is hard to release it with acid without damaging the plaster too much.
I really don't like looking at the copper "veil" on my still very nice blue plaster but have no recourse other than a re-plaster which I'm not going to do.
Interesting Fact: I'm natural light blond. When I was growing up all of my friends, who got blond during summer from sun bleaching, would get green tint swimming in some pools, especially the huge public pool. I never got any.
I never got any green tinting all those years using Nature 2 and Floatron but it certainly did a number on my plaster.
gg=alice