Ascorbic Acid Treatment Issue

[Neworldjef]

Hi All,

I had some staining and used a vitamin C tab to test and it came right off. So, I read all the articles here about ascorbic acid treatments of stains and followed closely. Worked so fast and amazingly well. Really impressive.

I kept PH at 7.2 and slowly raised chlorine over a couple of days. Chlorine was very slow to come up as expected and I'm closing pool today for winter (U.S./NJ). Yesterday chlorine was still creeping toward 1 and then going back to zero. Since I'm closing today, yesterday morning I put a gallon of 10% liquid chlorine and afternoon it was still zero so I put another gallon. By evening it was about 6 ppm.

This morning I wake up and a lot of yellow on walls, waterline and by floor returns and intakes. Pretty significant and disappointing.

Do you think this is because I put so much chlorine yesterday? PH remained 7.2. I also added sequestrant after the ascorbic acid a couple of days ago. I need to finish closing today as planned. What do you think happened and can I rectify next spring when I open? Is a complete change of water in pool only real solution?

My town is doing work on water pipes and I never had staining before (20 years). My neighbor in town also had staining for first time.

Thanks for any thoughts on this!

Jeff

 

[Texas Splash]

Do you think this is because I put so much chlorine yesterday?

That would be my concern. The abundance of chlorine added so quickly resulted in that reaction. The only thing you can do at this point is try to add more sequestrant to see if it helps. If not, perhaps add some AA to try and remove the fresh stains. Of course this will drive your FC down again which you don't want either. Either way, be prepared to have plenty of Polyquat 60 on-hand and circulate it for about 24 hrs before closing. In your situation with a low FC, the Poly is probably much needed.

 

[Neworldjef]

That would be my concern. The abundance of chlorine added so quickly resulted in that reaction. The only thing you can do at this point is try to add more sequestrant to see if it helps. If not, perhaps add some AA to try and remove the fresh stains. Of course this will drive your FC down again which you don't want either. Either way, be prepared to have plenty of Polyquat 60 on-hand and circulate it for about 24 hrs before closing. In your situation with a low FC, the Poly is probably much needed.

Thanks Texas! What if I close as is and deal with it in spring? I have my sons home to help today in a few hours and am travelling next week - do not want to wait until Oct with leaves falling here. Is there a likelihood of more permanent stains if I leave them for 7 months? I'd also consider changing out water in spring and refilling with hose-end filter.

 

[Texas Splash]

What if I close as is and deal with it in spring?

Do what you have to. Timing is everything. Hard to pass-up the help of fresh young backs when they are around. You can always do another AA early in the spring before water temps go up to try and avoid algae. But if your water temp is still hoovering around 60 or above now, it may be green anyways. But I would add the Poly 60. If you are able to gain access to the water over the course of the winter, carefule small additions of chlorine might be helpful as well. Good luck!

 

[Neworldjef]

Do what you have to. Timing is everything. Hard to pass-up the help of fresh young backs when they are around. You can always do another AA early in the spring before water temps go up to try and avoid algae. But if your water temp is still hoovering around 60 or above now, it may be green anyways. But I would add the Poly 60. If you are able to gain access to the water over the course of the winter, carefule small additions of chlorine might be helpful as well. Good luck!

Thanks again Texas. Strong backs indeed! Actually, no algae problems and it has been 70's and even low 80's. Early spring will be high 50's when open and zero chlorine so glad I bought 8 lbs AA! Still have at least 4-5 lbs left! Looks like I'll get back to it early spring and go for small increments of chlorine over time and more sequestrant. I'll stick with sequestrant weekly and see if I can manage. If not, I'll test water from my home for metals and if that is source get a hose-end screw-on filter and change out entire pool. Hopefully process of AA in spring and weekly sequestrant will do me right! LOL

 

[markayash]

The best AA treatment I did was when my water was still cold in the spring. That way you don’t have to worry about bringing FC up as much. Plus my CL is already low
Plan in doing another one in early 2022

 

[Neworldjef]

The best AA treatment I did was when my water was still cold in the spring. That way you don’t have to worry about bringing FC up as much. Plus my CL is already low
Plan in doing another one in early 2022

Indeed! I'm planning on it. Love your pic from The Cars!!!