Brownish Orange Staining On White Fiberglass Steps

[chadly08]

I purchased this house with a pool last fall and the steps have always been stained. The pool store gave me some quarter shaped tablet that seemed to run the stain right off but I never got around to following up on what it was and how I could get my hands on a larger amount. Anyone know how to make these steps sparkle white again?
Thanks!

 

[ajw22]

A good guess is the stains are iron. Crush up some vitamin C tablets and put it in a cloth on the steps. If it lightens the stain or clears it then you need to do an AA treatment.

Ascorbic Acid Treatment - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

@mguzzy recently did it on his pool.

 

[chadly08]

Man this AA treatment seems like a fair amount of water balancing. I hate that I’d have to bring down the FC. The steps where I rubbed vitamin C all over have stayed white. Any chance that filling a filter sock with ascorbic acid and manually scrubbing the stairs would work? Would it be better to buy a bunch of vitamin c, crush it up, and scrub the stairs with that?

I’m guessing the stains must be pretty old. The water can’t be holding much iron as they’ve stayed white where the tablet cleaned them.

 

[ajw22]

If you just need to do your stairs then spot treating with crushed vitamin C can work.

Chances are you have iron stains on your liner and cannot see it with the liner color. If it’s ok with you then ignore it.

 

[chadly08]

Appreciate the response. I’ll give it a try and report back. I’m sure you’re right about the liner. Someone would be hard pressed to be able to tell though.