Hello all,
Our lawn care group recently came by to spread fertilizer. I happened to be in the backyard at the time and saw that their spreader was set pretty wide and some granules were dropping into the pool as they went around. I got them to stop but not before a good number dropped in. I would estimate somewhere between 50-100 small granules got into the pool.
I dropped what I was doing and spent the next bit brushing the pool and running the automatic cleaner. The granules seemed to dissolve quickly, but not before leaving rust-colored marks on the plaster where they landed. Brushing dulled these a little bit but did not get rid of them. Now we have a bunch of little brown spots all over our pristine, year-old plaster. It's truly maddening. At least to me. My wife thinks I always overreact on the severity of these things
I contacted my lawn care group and they sent me the chemical makeup of the fertilizer. It is below. They also called the fertilizer manufacturer who said the spots are caused by the iron (which I knew) and that they should go away over time (which I don't really think is true, but we'll see).
Fertlizer is:
20% Nitrogen
5% Available Phosphoric Acid
10% Soluble Potash
5% Sulphur
5% Iron
0.5% Zinc
Derived from: Ammonium Sulphate, Urea, Diammonium Phosphate, Muriate of Potash, Sustanite, Iron & Zinc Oxide/Sulfate
My concerns are two-fold:
1) Dealing with the spots. These are mostly in the shallow end on the flatter surfaces. I think in the deep end they were pulled down to the main drain and there is some staining around the edges of the drain itself. I have been reading on this forum and it seems for spot treatments like this maybe the best approach is crushed Vitamin C tablets in a sock. I ordered some tablets. Can anyone confirm this is my best approach? I just have a pretty good number of spots to treat, but they are all small.
2) The residual impact to the chemicals in the water. I'm less concerned about this as the amount seems very small. From what I can tell reading this forum, most of this stuff should be neutralized by the chlorine and as long as my levels stay ok, I should be good. I added a bit more chlorine yesterday to raise the levels higher. So far, chlorine is doing well and I have zero CC, so I think I'm alright there. My ph was high after the fertilizer went in (could have also been due to rain we got around the same time), but I've added some acid and brought that down. It's the metals like Iron that are concerning me. I've never tested for iron or suspected that I have an iron issue. Should I do anything here or just see if things continue to look clear going forward?
Thanks as always for any help you can provide.
Our lawn care group recently came by to spread fertilizer. I happened to be in the backyard at the time and saw that their spreader was set pretty wide and some granules were dropping into the pool as they went around. I got them to stop but not before a good number dropped in. I would estimate somewhere between 50-100 small granules got into the pool.
I dropped what I was doing and spent the next bit brushing the pool and running the automatic cleaner. The granules seemed to dissolve quickly, but not before leaving rust-colored marks on the plaster where they landed. Brushing dulled these a little bit but did not get rid of them. Now we have a bunch of little brown spots all over our pristine, year-old plaster. It's truly maddening. At least to me. My wife thinks I always overreact on the severity of these things
I contacted my lawn care group and they sent me the chemical makeup of the fertilizer. It is below. They also called the fertilizer manufacturer who said the spots are caused by the iron (which I knew) and that they should go away over time (which I don't really think is true, but we'll see).
Fertlizer is:
20% Nitrogen
5% Available Phosphoric Acid
10% Soluble Potash
5% Sulphur
5% Iron
0.5% Zinc
Derived from: Ammonium Sulphate, Urea, Diammonium Phosphate, Muriate of Potash, Sustanite, Iron & Zinc Oxide/Sulfate
My concerns are two-fold:
1) Dealing with the spots. These are mostly in the shallow end on the flatter surfaces. I think in the deep end they were pulled down to the main drain and there is some staining around the edges of the drain itself. I have been reading on this forum and it seems for spot treatments like this maybe the best approach is crushed Vitamin C tablets in a sock. I ordered some tablets. Can anyone confirm this is my best approach? I just have a pretty good number of spots to treat, but they are all small.
2) The residual impact to the chemicals in the water. I'm less concerned about this as the amount seems very small. From what I can tell reading this forum, most of this stuff should be neutralized by the chlorine and as long as my levels stay ok, I should be good. I added a bit more chlorine yesterday to raise the levels higher. So far, chlorine is doing well and I have zero CC, so I think I'm alright there. My ph was high after the fertilizer went in (could have also been due to rain we got around the same time), but I've added some acid and brought that down. It's the metals like Iron that are concerning me. I've never tested for iron or suspected that I have an iron issue. Should I do anything here or just see if things continue to look clear going forward?
Thanks as always for any help you can provide.
