It's seems to be a never-ending battle with these pool stains. Marie (MBAR) - maybe you can comment here?
I have a 10K IG FG pool.
Opened to a pretty stained pool a few weeks ago and tried 32oz of Metal Magic (MM). It cleared the stains mostly, but all re-appeared in a few days. So, I decided to try the ascorbic acid treatment.
So...After swimming was done on Labor Day, added 1lb of the Leslie's Stain treatment (ascorbic acid). Cl was .5. Added another 32oz of MM. Ran filter 24/7 for 2 days. All stains gone - pool looked great! Good news. Rebalanced Alk and Ph on Wed with Borax and Baking Soda and pool remained pretty good until today...
Today, I tested the water and the Ph was low (6.8). Added some borax (I sprinked it all in front of the return jets). After swimming in the pool a few hours I noticed the stains were back in a large area where I dumped the borax. The Cl was low today, 3.0, (CYA is 30). I know high Cl and high Ph can bring out the stains, but the Cl was low and so was the Ph, but perhaps adding about 3lbs of borax in one concentrated area made the stains come out? I'm wondering why the MM I put in the water on Monday is not doing its job - it's only been 6 days !! For the heck of it, I dumped a maintenance dose of MM in the water this evening, so I'll see if the stains retreat overnight.
Some other details - but I think they are not material: I want to raise my CYA, so I returned to using pucks early last week. But, if adding borax is going to bring my stains out, I'll go back to bleach, since the pucks are acidic and bring the Ph down. I hate using the pucks anyway because you can't measure exactly what's going into the pool, like bleach. But, I had leftover from last season (before BBB) and am trying to use them up.
OK - so I don't want to have to keep dumping MM in my water at $15/quart and buying A-Acid. Is there some truth to what I am thinking - that adding Borax to one area of the pool can increase the Ph of the water substantially in that section (at least for awhile), which would cause the stains to come re-appear (even in low Cl)?
Sure wish someone would invent something to remove metals from the water! The claim of MM that it does this is utter nonsense - but it does sequester the metal, at least for awhile. This seems to be the one drawback of a FG pool !
Thoughts / Suggestions?
I have a 10K IG FG pool.
Opened to a pretty stained pool a few weeks ago and tried 32oz of Metal Magic (MM). It cleared the stains mostly, but all re-appeared in a few days. So, I decided to try the ascorbic acid treatment.
So...After swimming was done on Labor Day, added 1lb of the Leslie's Stain treatment (ascorbic acid). Cl was .5. Added another 32oz of MM. Ran filter 24/7 for 2 days. All stains gone - pool looked great! Good news. Rebalanced Alk and Ph on Wed with Borax and Baking Soda and pool remained pretty good until today...
Today, I tested the water and the Ph was low (6.8). Added some borax (I sprinked it all in front of the return jets). After swimming in the pool a few hours I noticed the stains were back in a large area where I dumped the borax. The Cl was low today, 3.0, (CYA is 30). I know high Cl and high Ph can bring out the stains, but the Cl was low and so was the Ph, but perhaps adding about 3lbs of borax in one concentrated area made the stains come out? I'm wondering why the MM I put in the water on Monday is not doing its job - it's only been 6 days !! For the heck of it, I dumped a maintenance dose of MM in the water this evening, so I'll see if the stains retreat overnight.
Some other details - but I think they are not material: I want to raise my CYA, so I returned to using pucks early last week. But, if adding borax is going to bring my stains out, I'll go back to bleach, since the pucks are acidic and bring the Ph down. I hate using the pucks anyway because you can't measure exactly what's going into the pool, like bleach. But, I had leftover from last season (before BBB) and am trying to use them up.
OK - so I don't want to have to keep dumping MM in my water at $15/quart and buying A-Acid. Is there some truth to what I am thinking - that adding Borax to one area of the pool can increase the Ph of the water substantially in that section (at least for awhile), which would cause the stains to come re-appear (even in low Cl)?
Sure wish someone would invent something to remove metals from the water! The claim of MM that it does this is utter nonsense - but it does sequester the metal, at least for awhile. This seems to be the one drawback of a FG pool !
Thoughts / Suggestions?