CUlator...ready to test..

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R

rcy

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Apr 25, 2009
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Burlington, ON, Canada
Pool Size
55000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
I found Culator in a pool store near me. I was about to toss it in my skimmer before I thought, in the interest of scientific advancement, I should probably test the water for metals so I can do a before and after. So, I'll be getting my water tested tomorrow morning and the bag will be going in.

I have some nice pictures I'll post up here so we can see if the bag changes colour.

Speaking of the bag, I expected it to be full of granular material, but there are actually three marble sized balls inside the bag. Will have to see if they dissolve or something...definitely will have to cut the bag open after my treatment. Also find it interesting that the bag 'may' change colour and the colour can tell you what metals were removed.

Now, I don't even know if I have metals in my water (hence the test tomorrow), but I did run a Zodiac DuoClear mineral cartridge for four years, and suffered from brownish stains on my pump and filter baskets and my return eyeballs. These stains disappeared when I rubbed a vitamin c tablet on them. I did an ascorbic acid treatment last fall and have used sequestrant (the bottle actually says "stain and scale" and it may or may not contain phosphonic acid) at closing last year and opening this year.

Will the sequestrant affect the metal test on my water?

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Thanks for doing this. I've been a bit discouraged by this product due to mixed reports (I initially was excited by it and asked some people to try it and got it myself), but there haven't been explicit tests including measured metal ion values in most cases. The metal should still show up in the metal test even with a sequestrant, though you may need to wait longer in the test to see them show up -- the metal ions are in equilibrium with the metal sequestrant, but there are still some that are free and more are released as they react in the test. It is somewhat similar to CYA and hypochlorous acid in the FC test.

Patent Application 20090139929 describes how this polymer works more specifically.
 
Well, the pool store tested and all I got was 'LO' for copper and silver. Still, I tossed the bag in the skimmer anyway. The little balls didn't dissolve, so I don't know if it's a new method or maybe they'll dissolve as time passes. The instruction defintely say there's a powder in the bag.
 
They don't dissolve. They stay as hard polymeric balls. That's the point. The water flows through the bag, the metals bind to the polymer, the bag contents change color as a result, you throw away the bag to remove the metals. Now there might be powder inside the plastic-like balls that perhaps let water through but keep the polymer "powder" inside -- I don't know about those details. If you look at the How It Works page, you can see the "balls" in the bag that are apparently the polymers themselves.

Well, without a specific metal ion reading it's going to be difficult to know if this does any good. You could take some existing pool water into a white bucket and add some 20 Mule Team Borax or pH Up product to it as well as some chlorine and see if the water turns green from any copper.
 
So far the bag has stayed white.

I've been looking for the mineral 'bag' that I removed from my Duoclear system last fall. I was sure I kept it in case I ever needed it for something...you know...to fend off werewolves or something.

Just for giggles, I was thinking about dropping the bag in the skimmer with the CUlator to see if the CUlator would change colour (I think the Nature2 is silver..hence the werewolf repellent aspect).

Haven't been able to find the mineral bag though. I'll have to keep digging...
 
Update...

CUlator has been in a month. The bag is turning slightly brown, which would indidcate (per CUlator colour chart) that it has removed iron.

I'll post some pics when I get around to it.
 
That's good to know. In my pool over several months there is no change in color to the bag, but then again I didn't get any measurement of metals in my pool either (before using the CuLator). I know that some metal mounts in the pool have rusted, but that's already iron oxide and not ions. I used to have the bottom and one wall in the deep end seemingly turn yellowish when the pH got up towards 8.0 so I assumed that was iron. I haven't noticed that happening as much so maybe I had a very low level of iron and that the CuLator removed it, but it wasn't enough to show up as coloring in the bag. For me, I think this is inconclusive since I never measured an iron reading and the bag didn't change color. That's why I wanted others with more obvious and serious metal ion readings to use the product to see if it could work.
 
I was getting brown staining on my white skimmer and pump baskets that were easily removed with a vitamin C tablet. These stains haven't returned since I did an ascorbic acid treatment and pulled the Nature2 from my system (last fall). Maybe the brown in the CUlator bag is whatever the ascorbic acid removed that was still in my water?
 

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Gonna get around to posting pics ... maybe tonight when I get home. The bag is definitely noticeably brown. I'll cut the sucker open and see what the balls look like as well.

Gonna buy another and toss it in for kicks and giggles, but might do an AA treatment first (I notice my white fiberglass steps look a bit yellow/brown below the waterline, however, the brownish stains on my eyeballs and pump/filter baskets has NOT returned since I did an AA last fall).
 
Finally got around to posting some pics. You can see the white bag has a brownish tint to it now. It's very noticeable along the top seam. The very noticeable rust spot, I have no idea about. When I cut the bag open, there was powder in it and three clear glass marbles.

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OK...that yellow pic looks like orange juice. Wonder if it was "enhanced" for the website.

Still, I can't deny that the CuLator changed colour in my pool, albeit, it wasn't in a few days, more like a few weeks.
 
I added my CuLatorâ„¢ bag in the beginning of April and only now after almost 4 months do I notice one corner of the bag turning yellow/orange. I've got a Taylor K-1264 and never seen any iron or copper (i.e. < 0.2 ppm of each). So perhaps the amount of iron in my pool is very low. I'll just leave the bag in the skimmer and see what happens. I haven't noticed significant plaster coloration when the pH has risen as I did in the past so perhaps it is working, just slow when metal ion levels are fairly low. I do know that I have some stainless steel mounts that are rusty so I know there is a source of at least some iron in the pool.
 
Aloha friends!

I think the marbles are just to weigh the bag down so it doesn't float off into your pool (for those of us with missing skimmer weir flaps)! Until I read your posts, I figured I had just "lost my marbles!"

Anyway, I have a customer with a gorgeous hotel-type pool that finally started showing some ferrous and ferric staining problems when he stopped adding muriatic acid between my semi-monthly visits...the pH climbed too high, and POOF! STAINS... I must have lost half the hair on my head trying to both get rid of the staining, control algae (he has a bank of heating panels that heat his pool to 89 degrees every day!), and not drop the stain back into the pool. Problem is, the citric acid doesn't just remove the iron stains, but also a bit of his multi-colored "purposely-stained" plaster (a bluish-green background with a darker teal patina added on top?). So the pool plaster is now lighter in tone and saturation than it used to be. I got him to purchase 6 bags of the CuLator...and I'm hoping it works to remove the metal. This pool has "mock rocks" (waterfall, deep-end sitting bench, and coping where garden abuts the pool) built right into the edge of the pool, and I believe the construction guys stain the cement with a stain containing iron!! I pray I'm not doomed over the years...or maybe he'll just have to continue purchasing the CuLator!!

I'll let you know how things go...at least the pool is finally sparkling again!!

Aloha!

Warren
 
Opened a few days ago. Will toss a new bag in just for kicks. I had a 'incident' in the fall last year where a bag of steel wool blew into the pool and sat very near my fiberglass steps for about two days, turning them a light shade of brown. An ascorbic acid treatment had them looking like new, though I did have to place some vitamin C tablets directly on to some stains where pieces of steel wool had settled on the stairs and left a much stronger stain in the shape of the metal fibre.

Anyhow, we'll see if the CUlator changes colour drastically. Keep in mind I did drain below the returns when I winterized and that amount of water has been replaced with rain and snow melt, so I do have some fresher water in the pool than when I did the ascorbic acid treatment.

*edit* Was just checking out the CUlator website and it is now mentioned several times that "The contents do not always change color."
 I'm 'fairly' sure that this was not mentioned anywhere on the website last year...can anyone else remember?

http://www.culator.com/easy-to-use
 

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