Bleach during filter cleaning?

[CTFocusST]

Last time I cleaned my cartridge filter I soaked it in dishwasher detergent and then rinsed off and let dry. I didn't soak in Muriatic acid. While rinsing off it was fairly white but after drying it now looks like the picture. Can I add a little bleach during dishwashing detergent soak to help with this? Did I do any permanent damage to the filter?

I know adding bleach to MA soak would be real bad idea

 

[mknauss]

Bleach is not necessary.

I suspect what you see may be iron. An MA soak may help that. Or Ascorbic Acid should do the same thing.

 

[CTFocusST]

Bleach is not necessary.

I suspect what you see may be iron. An MA soak may help that. Or Ascorbic Acid should do the same thing.

Where could the iron be coming from? I thought that was usually a problem for those on wells and I am on city water

Closing pool today and plan on doing a MA soak so hopefully that will fix it

 

[mknauss]

Small amounts of iron can be in any water system. Be sure you soak them in TSP or dishwasher detergent prior to the MA.

 

[CTFocusST]

Will do. Thanks for the help

 

[CTFocusST]

A followup question. Soaked my filters in MA and they are pretty much all white now so that definitely helped. The instructions said to leave in until bubbles stop but I never saw bubbles start so I just left each in for a few minutes. Is that unusual even though they did clean up from where they started?

I also did not see any bubbling when I added Borax (didn't have enough baking soda on hand) to neutralize the water.

 

[mknauss]

Most likely no calcium scale on the filters. The staining was iron that was cleaned up by the MA.

Not certain why you did not see any reaction when adding borax to the acid water. You would have had to add quite a bit to neutralize it depending on what acid to water ratio you used.

 

[CTFocusST]

I used 10 gallons of water to ~1/2 gallon of Klean-strip green Muriatic acid

 

[mknauss]

OK -- not that concentrated. Be careful disposing of the water.

 

[CTFocusST]

I added a bunch of Borax and tested until I got a pH of 7 and then dumped it. Was that safe?

 

[mknauss]

Where did you dump it? I would not have put near any plants, etc.

 

[CTFocusST]

In my side yard in some ivy I've been meaning to eventually pull up but right now it's just kind of a mess and semi hidden. Also below some trees but hard to avoid trees in my yard

 

[CTFocusST]

Poured it out up top of steps away from house. Area is covered in the same ivy shown under red circle

 

[mknauss]

You get lots of rain so I doubt it will be an issue.

 

[CTFocusST]

OK that's good.

Out of curiosity what is the concern about near plants if I didn't get a lot of rain? If pH is 7 my guess is not acidity

 

[mknauss]

No plants like chemicals to the extreme. May be no effect, just not good practice to dump chemicals with potential effects on plants unless you are not concerned for the plants. Rain will help dilute and disperse any salts, etc that were in the liquid.

 

[CTFocusST]

Good to know. Thanks for the help