2nd metal treatment with Metal Magic

[gdinda]

I am starting a new thread because the first time failed. Over the summer I vacuum the pool only to have sediment it appears from iron settle at seams or indentations in the vinyl liner. Not a severe metal problem or staining but the sediment is annoying especially as it accumulates a day or two after vacuuming. I tried an Absorbic Acid treatment and Proteam MM treatment roughly 2-3 weeks ago and I panicked with the chlorine that low. So I wanted to try it again.

I started Wednesday at 3pm and used some AA(not a lot) and got the FC level to 0 and PH to 7.5 and added the MM. The FC remained at 0 until Thursday night(30 hours after starting) when it read less than .5 and it is still less than .5 Friday morning coming up on 48 hours. I will keep it under 1 ppm(where it works best) into Friday night.

I had a good amount of sediment after 24 hours and vacuumed it up and also have had polyfill jammed into the skimmers to try to help the filter which is a cartridge. I have read where ALL pool filters can't handle this very fine sediment. Are my attempts worth it? Is there a way to get the particles out? Is there something else I should be doing? Is a DE filter better at filtering these particles? I am starting to think I need new cartridges but they are 6 years old.

Maybe it is working now and I won't blame myself if it doesn't. I have followed the directions to a T and will continue to vacuum to see if the sediment disappears but I am not holding my breath. I have sediment this morning after vacuuming last night but of course when vacuuming you may push some with the vac back to floating around.

I usually keep my levels at:
FC 5-7
CYA 40-45
PH 7.4-7.6
TA 70-80
CH 200-250

 

[calinb]

It's been 1 week since I treated with Metal Magic at the highest dosage recommended by the Pro Team sponge test. There's still so much cloudiness and sediment that I can't tell if it helped with the stains. After treating with a bottle of Drop Out, I let the sediment settle for 24 hours and vacuumed a lot of it to waste, but it stirs up so easily that I think at least half of it still remains in the pool and vacuuming to waste is probably a diminishing returns effort, requiring many vacuuming sessions. I don't think the Drop Out helped the super fine white particles to settle at all (made them larger or settle faster). I have limited spring water so none of the solutions that work are very attractive (vacuum to waste or add DE and back flush about once per hour over and over. I'm beginning to wish that I'd never attempted to remove the stains with MM!

 

[gdinda]

Today I have a little cloudiness and the FC was still under 2 so I am going
to get that up to 3-4 hopefully today. The sediment seems less but I would
hold judgement. I also found some sediment in the blocked off outlets in the bottom of the skimmer
housing that I vacuumed out. Don’t remember seeing that much. I really didn’t see crystals but when rinsing the cartridge the was whitish water that came off in spots. I didn’t have what I would call a serious issue but the sediment was driving me nuts. I had what I would call light staining and
worse in some corners and at seams. In my opinion MM isn’t good at removing stains. But Absorbic Acid is. I will update but between this and water change over over the winter I am hoping I don’t have the issue next spring.

 

[calinb]

In my opinion MM isn’t good at removing stains. But Absorbic Acid is. I will update but between this and water change over over the winter I am hoping I don’t have the issue next spring.

I went with Metal Magic instead of ascorbic acid because swampwoman reports having both treatments work initially but the stains came back for her when she used ascorbic acid. Plus I've read several threads here that report extreme and difficult to remove cloudiness after using ascorbic acid too. Without a source of cheap and readily available water for backwashing and vacuuming water replacement, I'm not so sure that any method is acceptable!

 

[gdinda]

After 4 days the water was cloudy with all tests ok. I didn't think at first it was algae but after going in and feeling the bottom it was. Been SLAMMING since Sunday night. I think this morning I should be good. Hoping the metals don't return but did shock after 4 days against the directions. Anyway, time to close in the next week and a half. I think I would try to catch it very early next time(I did this time really) and not use AA because it is harder to keep 1 ppm of chlorine level in the pool. I do think the polyfill helped with removing the brownish red sediment that seemed to always return after a vacuuming, not to say I won't have brand new sediment return to the pool. If it returns I may just try to vacuum that out(with polyfill) and determine if it really does work. I guess we really never know if the metals have been removed until some time passes. Of course I am hoping the water changeover in winter helps with everything.

Heres a question:

How low can I go below the skimmer or the above the flow with water removal for the winter? I always have to remove water in the spring and I can change more over by removing more now. I know I've read 6 inches below the skimmer.