How Slowly to add 10% Bleach After AA Treatment

[Jen_om]

In the past 36hrs I've lowered my FC to 0, added polyquat 60, added AA, added media to my skimmer basket to help the sand grab the iron particles then finally last night added Jack's Pink Stuff. And I have a culator in my skimmer basket. My liner is clear of iron stains this morning. My next step is to backwash my filter (sand), then add more stabilizer and then the 10% bleach that I picked up from Walmart. Poolmath says I need to add 40oz of the 10% bleach. The various forum directions all say to do that slowly, how do I know what is "slowly" though?

FC: .1
CC: 0
PH: 7.2
Alk: 94
CYA: 2
Temp: 75

 

[IceShadow]

Pencil-sized stream in front of a return jet with the pump running.

 

[IceShadow]

Also, how did you get a FC level of 0.1? What test kit / steps to get that result?

 

[Jen_om]

Also, how did you get a FC level of 0.1? What test kit / steps to get that result?

I use the Taylor. I just ran out of the chlorine testing powder so gave the results I got from the pool store. I know it's 0 though because I haven't added any in a few days. And yes, I've already ordered my testing refill supplies.

Pool Math says I add 40oz (5 cups of 10%). I add it all at once, just in a small stream? I was thinking slowly meant little by little over many hours.

 

[IceShadow]

OK, just making sure you weren't multiplying by 0.05 or something like that.

 

[IceShadow]

Also, I missed the bit about the AA treatment. Don't take my advice for that, that was for generally how to add liquid chlorine. Wait for someone with more experience with that treatment to respond.

 

[aeh0603]

What FC are you targeting? I've only done the AA treatment once and it was a couple years ago, but I believe adding FC slowly meant targeting an FC of 2 or 3 and adding that in the slow stream as described. Repeat that every hour or two until the FC starts to hold (the AA in the water will consume FC quickly). Ensure your pH remains in the low 7s and you should be able to bring your FC up to the target for your CYA.

Hopefully someone who is more knowledgeable will chime in soon. When I did my AA treatment I also had to drain water to lower my CYA and CH levels so I did the process a bit different than the instructions. When I got to this step in the AA process, I instead started the cycles of draining and refilling my pool to lower CYA, CH, and the metals all at the same time. My fill water doesn't have metals so I did this to avoid the need for ongoing metal sequestering. Consequently, since I drained to reduce metals in my water I didn't need to be as careful adding FC back in since there was less risk if the metals restaining my pool.

 

[Jen_om]

I'd like to have FC at 3. At the moment I can only test PH and Alk with my Taylor test kit as my refill set hasn't arrived yet (I'm out of the chlorine testing powder and the CYA drops). I used strips today to test FC, TC and CYA just because I have nothing else and can't even make it to the pool store. PoolMath initially told me to add 5 cups of 10% bleach which I did. Strip tests detected FC/TC at first but overnight lost all signs of FC. I've added 2 cups at a time of 10% bleach today over the past 5hrs, stabilizer and some more Jack's pink stuff. My PH is holding at 7.2, ALK at 100. We have a ton of houseguests coming over on Sunday so I'm trying to keep this thing beautiful until then and praying my refills arrive in today's mail.

The iron battle is perplexing. It seems ridiculous to have to add sequestrant every week to keep the stains at bay. Even with the media I add to my skimmer and the backwashing it just keeps coming back. It's not in my fill water (we aren't on a well, I've tested the water for metals and I have a metals filter on the garden hose). My only guess is rain-induced runoff from lawn fertilizer.

I'd be interested to know anyone's opinion about sequestrant vs flocculant, which is preferred and why.

 

[aeh0603]

Flocculant is not recommended for use by this site. It can ruin your filter media by gumming everything up. If this happens you would need to replace all your sand.

Sequestrant works to keep the metal ions in suspension in your water. If you have metals in your water and do not use sequestrant, one of two things will likely happen (generally triggered by high chlorine levels, or high pH). Either the metals will deposit on the surface of your pool in the form of a stain, or the metals will oxidize and become visible changing the color of your pool water to green for copper or a rusty brown/orange color for iron. There is no reliable way to control which of these reactions occur, but it's only if the second state occurs that filtering works to remove the metals.

As for the source, I believe it is possible to have iron in city water... I don't think it's limited to wells. If this is the case though, you would likely be dealing with rust stains in your house as well (sinks, toilets, etc.). I noticed that your signature says you have a pool frog mineralizer, if you are using this, it can contribute to metal staining in your pool.

 

[Jen_om]

We don't use the mineralizer part of the Frog but the manufacturer told me it does not contain iron anyway, and iron is what I'm battling. We also don't have stains in our house. Next year we're going to swap out our old sand filter and get a new one with a different material. I know they make a bunch of stuff now (glass etc) that is supposed to be better than sand. That's a whole other endeavor though. I just realized this week that while reading the forums that I haven't been rinsing after all of my backwashing. And I've done a lot of backwashing trying to get the iron out (with sequestrant).

At the moment my pool looks gorgeous- no signs of stains and perfectly clear- but the FC still isnt holding according to the strips. I've added an entire gallon pf 10% bleach since Wednesday. My PH and ALK are staying low and those two things I can reliably test with what remains of my Taylor kit supplies.