Citric Acid Consuming FC

[chadly08]

I did a citric acid treatment + Jack’s Purple to whiten my stairs a few days ago and now I’m experiencing high FC loss. My CC have been 0 all week. My pool is crystal clear. It’s my understanding that the citric acid will be oxidized by chlorine and this along with long St. Louis sunny days is likely why my SWG isn’t keeping up with my chlorine usage.

My question is, do I need to do a slam, or because this isn’t an organic issue can I just supplement with liquid chlorine until things start stabilizing? I’d prefer to avoid slamming so my kids can enjoy the pool and cool off from the record heat we’re experiencing.

Thanks in advance for your expertise.

Chad

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Did you use citric acid or ascorbic acid?

 

[chadly08]

100% Citric acid

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Well, like ascorbic acid, it’s going to react with chlorine until it’s all used up. So you’ll just have to keep adding FC slowly and in small doses until it holds. If you SLAM, the steps will stain again.

And next time, if you can, use ascorbic acid. Chlorine reacts with citric acid and can form chloroform and other nastier chlorinated organics. They’ll offgas and go away but it could cause eye/skin irritation until it does. Ascorbic acid is much safer.

 

[chadly08]

Thank you! I will definitely use ascorbic acid next time. Hopefully I won’t need to, but I appreciate the clarification.

 

[markayash]

You don’t want to raise your Fc too high too fast. At least from what I have read and through my experience.
Just enough to keep the green stuff out
I think metal magic and probably Jacks recommend a Lower FC level also.