Use of Oxalic acid

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rcsong01

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Jun 28, 2010
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Hi,
I have read all of the posts regarding the use of Oxalic acid you have posted. Thanks to you all for the information. I have a simular problem and have been using OA to combat a brown stain in my pool as well. The OA works great in my 20k gal pool 4 lbs and it is perfect. Problem, even after adding the proper sequestrian agents to filter and backwash the metals. My stain occurs over again slowly after about a week or two. Perhaps Iron cannot be pulled out completely? Is it ok to treat with OA that often? I will check my steps and plumbing for any signs of corroding metal, other than that not sure where it comes from. Perhaps when I add water to the pool?
I use Bromine, and I keep it low and rise very slowly to stop from oxidation. I also have a heat pump, but I do not think the stain is copper. Would copper make this light brown stain?
PH, Akalinity, hardness all fine.

Any ideas or help here would be welcome.
Thanks
Richard
 
Welcome to TFP!

Sequestrant doesn't remove metals from the pool, it binds to the metals and holds them in solution so they can't cause stains. Unfortunately, sequestrant breaks down over time, so you need to be constantly adding more, otherwise the stains will just come back, as you have seen.

Light brown stains are almost always iron.
 
(I know this question was posted last year, but I came across it when searching for more info on oxalic acid, and i thought it might be helpful to add this.)
I bought a bottle of the pool metal stain treatment and it contained oxalic acid. Unfortunately, I threw it out already, but I think it might have been united chemicals pool stain treat. My bottle said if you have a heater, it has copper in it (all heaters?) and you shouldn't use the product because it will eat copper. So, I'm not a pool or chemical expert, and the bottle didn't list any other ingredients other than oxalic acid, but I've read that oxalic acid isn't a metal sequestering agent, but the product removed, chelated, and sequestered, so maybe it had more than just oxalic acid (or the Internet info i read was wrong?), but if you have a pool heater, with copper, maybe before using it, check to make sure it won't eat through your heater just in case. (or is it possible to bypass a heater?)
 
Welcome to TFP! :wave:

I don't think it is the oxalic acid they were worried about with regard to copper in the heat exchanger. It might be the low pH of the treatment overall that is of concern (oxalic acid is low in pH, but there are other chemicals that can also lower the pH). As we've already noted, oxalic acid isn't a good bulk treatment since it precipitates with the calcium in the pool. As a spot treatment, it may be OK.
 
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