This is my third year of pool ownership and I currently have an ionizer system. The system has worked great however when I opened the pool this year the entire pool was stained light brown. The water was clear ph6.3 ta100 ch80 ion level 0.5 to 0.6 which is high. During the first week it was open I adjusted the water to ph7 ta100 ion0.3to0.4 ch160. I have talked to the ionizer people and they have stated because the ions were run to high for closing the pool and the ch being way low this caused the staining. Upon which I ordered a Jacks stain ID kit and tested. I had to lower ph and ta for the test. It now reads ph6.3 ta63 ion 0.4 and ch160. Also the Ionizer has been off since I first opened the pool May 1st. The ID came back copper (of course). The best method that worked was to use their #3packet o2shock then #2 copper packet to remove the stain. Now before I spend a lot of money on their products, I wanted to get all of your advice. I was lucky enough to find this forum searching for answers. My pool is inground with vinyl liner, Heyward sand filter, heyward 1 1/2hp superpump,carefreeclearwater ionizer, and holds roughly 20,000gal. thanks
treating a copper stain on a vinyl pool
- Thread starter mikeinclayton
- Start date
Welcome to TFP.
Don't take the following as harsh or brow beating. We all have to learn lifes lessons.
Jack's is probably going to be your best bet. You could try some vitamin C tablets on it to see if that removes it and if it does you could perform an AA (Ascorbic Acid) treatment. If it doesn't than you'll have to the Jack's and follow the directions precisely.
Copper stains can be very hard to impossible to remove once they're set in. You have described a perfect example of why we don't recommend ionizers. It's likely going to cost you a good chunk of money and a good bit of work to get the stains removed and unless you stop using the ionizer you will have to battle this again.
Don't take the following as harsh or brow beating. We all have to learn lifes lessons.
Jack's is probably going to be your best bet. You could try some vitamin C tablets on it to see if that removes it and if it does you could perform an AA (Ascorbic Acid) treatment. If it doesn't than you'll have to the Jack's and follow the directions precisely.
Copper stains can be very hard to impossible to remove once they're set in. You have described a perfect example of why we don't recommend ionizers. It's likely going to cost you a good chunk of money and a good bit of work to get the stains removed and unless you stop using the ionizer you will have to battle this again.
Thanks Bama. I felt that would be the answer. All in all the ionizer has been great, the problem was me running the ions up to high to close the pool and not fully understanding exactly how all the chemistry works together. I'll try to post results to my problem so maybe it will help someone else with this problem.
mikeinclayton said:
Again, don't take this the wrong way, but the ionizer is adding copper to your pool whether it's run too high or not the end result is copper in your water. If you research here you will see that the proper chlorine level relative to your cya level is all that's needed for keeping your water safe and you won't have to ever worry about staining.