Ceramic Tiles - Cleaning

[athan01]

I have an outdoor inground ceramic tile pool with SWG.

I had an algae problem so (during SLAMing) I used the pool brush to brush it well (bottom and sides) but now I noticed that I might have caused some damage in the material that sits between the tiles. ( my pool is built with the small white tiles (see at http://www.waxmanceramics.co.uk/details ... -white.htm) but the lines between the tiles look dark, as if there is dirt accumulated.

Its a 2 yr old pool and I had it built from a reputable pool shop where they used good quality materials. I am not sure if my brush is too hard or if I brushed too hard or if this what happens after a while anyway. I did make an effort not to brush too hard, since I wanted to avoid possible damage, so I would be really surprised if this material is so sensitive.

Any experiences with this kind of materials? Emptying the pool to fix it is not high in my list of options at this point, for a few reasons:

1. If it happened once, it will probably happen again but I dont know if there are special materials that are harder.
2. its a 15ft x 30ft, 17.000 gallon pool, which is a lot of water to waste so it will be expensive to refill
3. Its summer time and i want to use it

Thanks
Andreas

 

[Bama Rambler]

Were you using a metal bristled brush or a plastic bristled one?

Take a trichlor tablet and hold on it a little while and see if it lightens a spot. If it does then raising your FC to high normal for your FC and holding it there should lighten it.

If that doesn't work hold a vitamin C tablet on a spot and see if that lightens it. If it does then it's metals in the water that's staining the grout.

 

[athan01]

I used a plastic bristled brush. These spots are at the bottom of the pool. Not sure how I will manage to hold the trichlor or vitamin C tablets over it

In any case, if chlorine tablet or a vitamin C would lighten it up, it means that its an external substance attached to it which also means that I would also be able to brush it off if i tried harder..

 

[Bama Rambler]

If either of the above items lighten them, it's probably stains and they won't brush off. You'll have to chemically remove them.