Dark brown coloring after SWG IC-40

[E-Pryb]

Hello,

Took my Pentair IC-40 SWG off to clean it tonight and noticed I've got this dark brown discoloration after the blades. This cell is a year old and it wasn't there at the beginning of the season when I reinstalled it. Only thing I can think of if I did some treatments of Polyquat 60 (In the Swim brand) early in the season and maybe that is residue from some reaction. The Polyquat 60 was a light brown honey color. Otherwise, I'm only muriatic acid and 12.5% shock as needed. Just curious if anybody else has seen something like this and knows what may of caused this or if a sign of something else going on. Unit seems to be running fine after cleaning, just have the high salt light blinking(wasn't before), I'm reading 3800 with my test kit. I may cycle power in the morning if still on.

Thx

 

[PoolStored]

The brown is probably iron in your water, which is typically oxidized in the cell and the iron stains after the cell.

 

[pjt]

Took my Pentair IC-40 SWG off to clean it tonight

Was there any scale? Your cell should rarely (likely never) need cleaning when you have TFP water with a slightly negative CSI. If you do need to clean it:

SWG How It Works - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[E-Pryb]

Thx for the replies! Really wasn't much scale at all, but don't think I had done it since install. It wasn't blinking for it but just thought it would be good to do. I did the diluted muriatic acid method but will do the other methods going forward, thx!

I think I probably know my source if iron, I made a basketball hoop assembly a few years back that can withstand 4 teenage boys and their friends out of stainless steel tubing with a normal backboard and dunk rim. The rim is starting to rust some and getting into the pool. I'll do some testing to confirm.

Thx!

 

[PoolStored]

Could also be source water...how do you fill your pool? Well?

 

[E-Pryb]

From city service, pool was installed in 2019. First time seeing something like this, I think our source is pretty clean. I also noticed just a little of a reddish/brown accumulation on the skimmer wiers I didn't think much of yesterday, imagine this is related now.

 

[PoolStored]

Take some vitamin C pills in a sock, crush them up a bit, and rub them on the cell exit, and on the reddish/brown accumulation on the skimmer weirs. If it takes the staining away, fairly quickly, likely iron.