Liner staining from metal when filling pool....

[Gracie]

10,000 gallon inground pool, vinyl liner, use bleach

Background: Our well water is filled with metals and I always use "Metal Free" to sequester the metals at the beginning of the season with a few smaller doses through the year if I have to add water. If I don't use a sequester agent, the water will turn green/brown instantly when I shock.

-Our pool is closed. Our bottom drain is leaking which is making me put 1 inch of water in a week now.

-Problem: I haven't added any sequester agent and now it looks like my liner is turning brown. (Stupid on my part. I just didn't think the chlorine level was high enough to cause a problem.) I did just add a bunch of the sequester agent.

-Question: Can I just let it go and treat the stained liner with ascorbic acid powder at the beginning of the year. (I think yes.) OR, should I drop in some ascorbic acid now and let it go. (My water is drained below the jets and I have no way to circulate the water.) Will the ascorbic acid hurt the liner by sitting on it for 5 more months?

Thanks for any help. I use to be on the old poolforum site years ago when I converted from baquacil to bleach and I recognize a few name from there.

 

[The Mermaid Queen]

Hi, Gracie,

Without any way to circulate, I would probably just let it wait until opening. Although, how did you circ your metal-out?

 

[Gracie]

I didn't circulate it. I just poured it in where I had the hose running.

I'm just going to let it go and keep the water where it needs to be. We're hoping for no damage from the leaking.

 

[budster]

Boy, I hope the Chem Geek looks at this, because generally speaking, the longer a stain "sits", the more difficult it will be to remove. I'd also not be one to recommend adding ascorbic acid in powder form to sit on the liner for 5 months!

 

[chem geek]

Well, it looks like it might already be too late for some of the stains that I have since they are 5 years old now. There aren't very many spots and it's a reminder of what can happen when Trichlor in a floating feeder parks itself near stainless steel bars that then rust from the high acidity (before I learned pool water chemistry and switched to using chlorinating liquid). I will do a more direct "spot" treatment with ascorbic acid in the spring after the water warms up and we'll see what happens.

 

[Gracie]

This is my old post from 6 months ago. I finally opened the pool today. Oh my, what a mess. The whole pool was stained. I scrubbed it all with my pool brush several times and it didn't really help.

My usual routine for opening:
-I add a sequestering agent when I fill the pool up for the season, then when I take the cover off I always shock it, then the water turns green immediately from the metals and it takes 2 days for the filter to filter it all out. (I add some floc into the skimmer to help the filter.) When I backwash, the water that comes out is brown like coffee. I never have a problem with liner staining.

This year I've been adding water like crazy all winter due to our bottom drain leak. When I pulled the cover off the whole pool was stained. I went ahead and shocked (which turns the water green) and added more sequestering agent than I normally do. I was really nervous because the liner looked BAD. I pulled out the ascorbic acid I bought this winter and put in 1 pound (10,000 gallon pool). 30 minutes later and my pool is beautiful blue. Unfreaking believable. My PH was 6.8 and my chlorine was 9ppm. The instructions I read here was get the chlorine very low. I had already shocked it a hour before and I was afraid to wait so I went ahead and did the treatment anyway. I wish I had taken some pictures.

My normal routine works for me because shocking the water brings out the metal and the filter then removes it all. (You can tell by the coffee colored backwash water.) Now I'm not sure what to expect this year. All I know is the stains are sooooooooo gone. LOL I might look into a new sequestering agent.

 

[reindeerboy]

I use Robarb Metal Master. Has worked great for the copper and iron that we have here from out city water. I too have to add this to keep the metals at bay and so far it has worked great for us. We get it from the pool store and they recommended us using the Robarb brands. Not sure if that helps but maybe you can google it online? I have not done that, but maybe I will just to see where you can purchase it. Just dawned on me that maybe I can buy it cheaper online than at our pool store! mmmmmm, interesting.