Hello all,
I have owned a pool for 7 or 8 years now, and it's the worst experience I have ever had. I hope someone can ease the pain, so to speak. But first, a little background.
My pool is 30,000 gallons, plaster, sand filter, mineral cartridge sanitation system. My problems began with a flood a few years ago - we flooded and while rebuilding the house to be liveable, we ingored the pool (priorities). When the pool turned green and started stinking, we gave it some attention. Long story short, we drained about half the water, scooped out a dozen wheelbarrow loads of mud, leaves, sticks, fish, etc, refilled, and had a pool professional come and get the chemicals balanced. Ever since then we have been fighting algae. If I turn my head for just a moment - green fuzz starts growng on the walls of the pool.
Had pool professionals come back last year and they determined we had high phosphates, so we started that routine testing and treatmetn and things got a little better. Pool still not as "stable" as when it was new. We have just lived with the algae battle - lots of shock/chlorine tabs, sweeping, etc.
This year, we decided to do something about all the ugly stains left behind from the flood. A vitamin C tab confirmed the stains are metal, so I set out to find some ascorbic acid. I also bought me one of those handy dandy test kit with the strips that test for 6 different things, including CYA. My CYA reads around 100, which I have learned can only be cured with a drain/refill, and the high CYA inhibits the chlorine from doing its job. All this time I though I had my chlorine where it should be........I guess that explains to some degree the algae. I guess the high CYA come from all the shock /tabs I've dumped in address the algae.
After getting my ph to 7.2, and chlorine to 0, I dumped 3 lbs of ascorbic acid in the pool and let it circulate. An hour later there were no visual improvements. I dumped the remaining 2 lbs in, and we will see what it looks like at the end of the day.
So.....here's my question for the pool experts:
1) If the ascorbic acid doesn't do the trick, (I have to drain much of the pool anyway for CYA), what can I use on the dry surface to remove the metal? I will drain the entire pool if needed. I recognize the stains are heavy and old.
2) Because of my algae difficulties, and the fact I have to do a drain, should I wash the pool surface with highly concentrated bleach to kill the algae, and flush the filter and plumbing lines with bleach?
3) What would you do if this were your headache?
I have removed the mineral cartridge, and probaly will not use another. I guess I will up the cholrine.
Thanks in advance for the help.
I have owned a pool for 7 or 8 years now, and it's the worst experience I have ever had. I hope someone can ease the pain, so to speak. But first, a little background.
My pool is 30,000 gallons, plaster, sand filter, mineral cartridge sanitation system. My problems began with a flood a few years ago - we flooded and while rebuilding the house to be liveable, we ingored the pool (priorities). When the pool turned green and started stinking, we gave it some attention. Long story short, we drained about half the water, scooped out a dozen wheelbarrow loads of mud, leaves, sticks, fish, etc, refilled, and had a pool professional come and get the chemicals balanced. Ever since then we have been fighting algae. If I turn my head for just a moment - green fuzz starts growng on the walls of the pool.
Had pool professionals come back last year and they determined we had high phosphates, so we started that routine testing and treatmetn and things got a little better. Pool still not as "stable" as when it was new. We have just lived with the algae battle - lots of shock/chlorine tabs, sweeping, etc.
This year, we decided to do something about all the ugly stains left behind from the flood. A vitamin C tab confirmed the stains are metal, so I set out to find some ascorbic acid. I also bought me one of those handy dandy test kit with the strips that test for 6 different things, including CYA. My CYA reads around 100, which I have learned can only be cured with a drain/refill, and the high CYA inhibits the chlorine from doing its job. All this time I though I had my chlorine where it should be........I guess that explains to some degree the algae. I guess the high CYA come from all the shock /tabs I've dumped in address the algae.
After getting my ph to 7.2, and chlorine to 0, I dumped 3 lbs of ascorbic acid in the pool and let it circulate. An hour later there were no visual improvements. I dumped the remaining 2 lbs in, and we will see what it looks like at the end of the day.
So.....here's my question for the pool experts:
1) If the ascorbic acid doesn't do the trick, (I have to drain much of the pool anyway for CYA), what can I use on the dry surface to remove the metal? I will drain the entire pool if needed. I recognize the stains are heavy and old.
2) Because of my algae difficulties, and the fact I have to do a drain, should I wash the pool surface with highly concentrated bleach to kill the algae, and flush the filter and plumbing lines with bleach?
3) What would you do if this were your headache?
I have removed the mineral cartridge, and probaly will not use another. I guess I will up the cholrine.
Thanks in advance for the help.
