Hydration Stains?

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Bevgrat

Bevgrat

Member
Nov 14, 2020
16
North Port Florida
I am reaching out as we are at our wits end with our pool stain. A little background, our pool is 18 months old, salt water, source water is well, 7800 gallons, quartz finish, Hayward heater. Grey stains started appearing in the deep end about 6 months, our pool installer in FL came and spot acid washed, spots lightened, several months later more appeared, now they drained pool, torched and acid washed. About 2-3 months after that they came back and continue to increase. Now a tech from the quartz company had us put Jack magic purple stuff in for 2 months and testing daily to keep alkaline, chlorine etc at his suggested numbers, still nothing happening to the stains. As that could be expected now no one will call us back. Now we are trying the CULator program and just added the Periodic metal stain eliminator kit, another $100 later and nothing. I’m hoping someone has had this issue and be of some help as all the forum we read there doesn’t seem to be a solution to our problem.1605384101565.jpegf1605384101457.jpeg1605384101565.jpeg
 
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Bevgrat, welcome to Trouble Free Pools :)

Sorry to hear about these problems. So you fill with well water, right? Do you know if you have metals in your water? I'm sorry to say we've never heard of particularly good results with the CUlator.

What is your current chemistry and are you testing yourself or relying on a pool store? Can you tell us:
FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA
Salt level

What other chemicals have you or the pool builder put in your pool??

A thread that discusses hydration stains-

Procedure to adress Hydration (plaster discoloration)

Our pool is just over a year old. We noticed splotching in our white quartz plaster within a couple months after startup (see attached pics). The pool builder, along with the plaster rep, didn't come out to look at it until 6 months after startup and told us it was hydration. They proposed...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Maddie :flower:
 
Merged threads. TFP Mod.
I am reaching out as we are at our wits end with our pool stain. A little background, our pool is 18 months old, salt water, source water is well, 7800 gallons, quartz finish, Hayward heater. Grey stains started appearing in the deep end about 6 months, our pool installer in FL came and spot acid washed, spots lightened, several months later more appeared, now they drained pool, torched and acid washed. About 2-3 months after that they came back and continue to increase. Now a tech from the quartz company had us put Jack magic purple stuff in for 2 months and testing daily to keep alkaline, chlorine etc at his suggested numbers, still nothing happening to the stains. As that could be expected now no one will call us back. Now we are trying the CULator program and just added the Periodic metal stain eliminator kit, another $100 later and nothing. I’m hoping someone has had this issue and be of some help as all the forum we read there doesn’t seem to be a solution to our problem.
FC .41-TC.41-PH 7.6-TA 104-CH 303- CA 38-Iron.2-Copper 0-Pho’s 0- Salt 3086 we test and pool accu blue test.
We filled pool with the water softener water not directly from well.
We can drive out metal stains as Jack’s magic and CuLator programs didn’t even lighten the stains.
 

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Wow, sorry you are having to go through that. I know nothing about stains, but it seems like step 1 would be identifying the stain type vs just randomly treating.

Luckily there is an article on pool school for you. Start here, and pay special attention to the section on iron stains since you are on a well and have iron show up in your test.

www.troublefreepool.com

Stains in Your Pool

The stained pool is beyond embarrassing. Our in-depth Guide to remove stains in your pool will help you to remove the stains and prevent them in the future.
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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It looks like it might be copper.

If you have a cartridge filter, can you remove the cartridge and show a picture of it before you clean it?

Drop some vitamin C tabs on a spot to see if anything happens.

Do you know if copper is in the water?

What's going on with the deck, why is it black?

Do you have pictures of the original look of the deck and plaster?
 
JamesW said:
It looks like it might be copper.

If you have a cartridge filter, can you remove the cartridge and show a picture of it before you clean it?

Drop some vitamin C tabs on a spot to see if anything happens.

Do you know if copper is in the water?

What's going on with the deck, why is it black?

Do you have pictures of the original look of the deck and plaster?
Click to expand...
We tried a lot of citrus acid-vitamin C and nothing. No copper and last accu check showed iron at .2 The deck is grey pavers that were sealed so in the shade appears black.
 

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It looks like it could be copper to me. Get some regular vitamin C tablets and drop them on a spot to see if anything happens.

The only other thing that I can think of to try is Jack’s #2 copper and scale stuff, which is sulfamic acid.

Do you have a cartridge filter?
 

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The only other thing that I can think of to try is Jack’s #2 copper and scale stuff, which is sulfamic acid.

If it works, you will need to drain and refill to get rid of the copper.

Note: Don't drain without getting a local professional to approve because the pool could float when drained.
 
Bevgrat said:
Yes we have a Hayward cartridge filter and all water test shows no copper.
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Can you go pull out the cartridge and show a picture?

When was the last time you cleaned the cartridge?

Was there any green color?

Note that copper tests that come back negative don't necessarily mean no copper.

If most of the copper is in the plaster, it won't show up on the tests.
 
JamesW said:
Can you go pull out the cartridge and show a picture?

When was the last time you cleaned the cartridge?

Was there any green color?

Note that copper tests that come back negative don't necessarily mean no copper.

If most of the copper is in the plaster, it won't show up on the tests.
Click to expand...
We brush every day and clean filter at least every 3rd day and it’s never green. It’s usually just a grey color. We already tried the vitamin C & citric acid right on the stain and didn’t do anything.
 
OK, in my opinion, it's probably copper.

The pool started out white and now it's turquoise and grey. If there was no turquoise, and the stains were only grey, I would not think that it's copper.

The look is classic copper stains.

If you're out of ideas, I would try sulfamic acid.
 

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