Iron stains

[HoltPool]

I have iron stains in my pool. At the beginning of the summer I did an absorbic acid treatment which got rid of the majority of the stains. The pool looked great. I added ProTeam Metal Magic throughout the summer and kept pH in check (mostly.) However, throughout the summer I could see the stains reappearing. I just closed the pool today and the stains look terrible. (I blame TFP for this because my water is so clear I can see the stains perfectly!)

I have been racking my brain trying to determine where the iron is coming from (we are on city water.) Finally, someone said perhaps it was from the rocks in my rock wall - one of which is crumbling and needs to be replaced since sediment is falling in the pool. AHHH - yes. Just called the rock guy to get replaced now or early next spring.

Next season, I plan to do another absorbic acid treatment and treat with ProTeam.

Question: Does anyone know if the CuLator (chelating polymer) actually works to get the metals out of the water after I sequester them? I don't mind some maintenance with ProTeam but I don't want to use it constantly every year in large doses just to keep the stains away. I only pump off 4-6 inches each year when closing so it could take years to get the sequestered metals out of the water.

Thanks in advance.

 

[chem geek]

There have been mixed results with CuLator. Works for some and not for others and we don't know why.

 

[Swampwoman]

I am one of those who had mixed results with the culator and my "hunch" was that whether it works or not to some degree depends on how well sequestered your water is. Eg. If I needed another dose of sequestrant...it would start to turn faint brown...but I'd also be starting to get faint staining too...so I'd add more sequestrant, thereby eliminating the faint staining..,at which point the culator would stop collecting iron visibly.

That's my working theory anyway...too little a difference for my purposes. I didn't use one this year. Just metal magic in large doses, which successfully kept stains entirely away.

Now, its possible that my experiments the year prior made a difference this year by reducing my overall concentration of iron...the year prior I did use culator and also experimented with a hydrogen peroxide treatment that in fact may have driven my level down...I just can't quantify it well enough to give meaningful advice

But what I do know is that when I opened, I had visible iron staining. So after doing the "sponge test" I added 5 qts metal magic, which lifted all stains, and then maintained it at a rate of about half a bottle a week. I've not had a single staining episode since, so I think it was a matter of adequate sequestering and controlling the ph. This year I also bought an iron test kit. My rate stays around .5 ppm, fwiw.