brown/tan stains= calcium scale?

[caliking]

Had the water retested (kit still on the way):

My numbers from repeat testing at Leslie's:
FC 6
CH 240
CYA 100
TA 90
pH 7.4
Phosphates 100 (previously 0)
I was surprised to find that the CYA only decreased to 100. The FC also bumped, but that's after a gallon of bleach. I would have thought that the CYA would be much lower given that I drained ~70% of the water volume. Oh well. Once the test kit arrives, I will test before draining and refilling again.

I also picked up a Jack's Magic Stain Test kit. Will try that to figure out which Jack's magic product I need. I need to get the Polyquat 60 and CUlator bags first so I will first work on getting the balance right then tackle the stains.

Thanks again, Warren!

 

[caliking]

OK... so I have not posted for a while - life got in the way and I was taking care of other pool issues(lreplacing bulbs in the pool lights, fixing a leaky light, partial drain and refill x 2 to correct CYA, stockpiling bleach, returning $800+ worth of trichlor to Costco, etc).

Pool numbers look much better. Followed the stellar advice available on here for shocking and getting the numbers in line after the refill. Numbers now are:

FC 14
CC 0
CYA 35
pH 7.8
TA 130
CH 240 (this is the only value from the pool store. All other values are from the TF-100 kit)

Going to get the things I need to start the stain removal process after the FC level passes the OCLT. I need to get ascorbic acid, muriatic acid, sequestrant and the CUlator bags, before I start. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for all the generous help so far!

 

[dmatullos]

I will keep this real short. I had the same problem in my 30,000 gal liner pool. I used a vit. c tablet and it took the stain away. So I ordered 2lbs of ascorbic acid. The pool store told me to treat for Phosphates which I did at $70.00. That did not work. So I lowered my Ph to 7.2 and raised my calcium hardness from 32 to about 125. Woke up today and the stains are gone now I have a brown dust on the bottom of the pool. Will now vacuum the dust to waste and hope the cloudiness goes away. Hope this may help someone in the future. Sorry you had to drain and refill.

 

[BigIslandPoolService]

Aloha Caliking and others...

CuLator has a new product (Ultra) that has great applicability to a stain treatment, especially if you have "whole pool" stains from metal(s). It handles nearly 3 times as much metal in one pack, and comes in a plastic egg-shaped "protector cage" so you can put it right into the pump leaf strainer basket, where it will have all the pumped water pass by it, not just the skimmer water. That feature makes it potentially faster at absorbing the metals. The faster the better. Stain treatments can be a long haul before you get things back to normal.

And the faster you get the metal out, the sooner you can get back to using shock and not worrying about algae or keeping a low pH.

Just one more tool in our arsenal...

Aloha!