Stained skimmer and basket

[westchasepool]

Hello everyone! I just recently purchased a new house with a plaster 10k gallon pool. This is my first time maintaining a pool and it has been a learning experience for sure! Unfortunately the house was unoccupied for a couple of years and from what the neighbors tell me the pool was a swamp for most of it. The people I bought it from did manage to get it cleaned up except for some stains in various areas. The worst staining is around the skimmer and the skimmer basket so I decided to tackle that first.

After doing some research here I thought it might be metal staining so I carefully followed the ascorbic acid treatment instructions. Unfortunately, it had no impact. I'm not sure what to try next. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Well, that is pretty interesting Have you tried just putting a vitamin C tablet directly on the stain and letting it sit there and dissolve for awhile? That would be the best was to determine if it is iron staining.

 

[westchasepool]

I rubbed the acsorbic acid power on it and I didn't notice any changes. I had already bought so I went through the process anyway. I put in about 1 lb of it in the pool, let the pump run for 24 hours and nothing.

 

[westchasepool]

There are other stains in the pool too, but those look different, more like discoloration of the plaster. They are at the bottom and I can't get a good picture of those.

 

[westchasepool]

So I got another clue. It turns out my chlorine readings were way off since I have been using a DPD test kit and it kept showing no FC or TC, but in reality my chlorine level is way higher. I finally realized this today so I diluted the test and looks like my numbers are actually:

FC 10
TC 15
pH 7.6
CYA 38

I suspect the high chlorine could have gotten in the way of the ascorbic acid working. I want to try it again, but I'm not sure what to do about my chlorine situation. Should I let it come down on its own?