I've got absolutely no clue where to start!

Gosh those look handy but that is something that would have to wait a few years down the road lol. It hurt to buy the robot! o_O I do get plenty of sun on the pool though. Which leads to my question..

Thinking of bumping cya to 60. It is currently 90 degrees (and I bet if I set a thermometer out in the direct sun on my pool it'd be over 100). This isn't even hot yet, for here. That comes in July and August! We can easily reach 105+ with 115 heat indexes. The pool is in 100% straight sun most of the day. Thoughts?
 
Also a new pool owner here. I got irritated with all the skimming and having to run the bottom robot so much (Our previous owners had a Polaris so that's what we have for the moment). We also have a LOT of trees so stuff is constantly in the pool. I got a skimmer robot, that I LOVE. It means I have to run the bottom robot less so far less back washing and less Crud in the skimmers. Overall, worth the cost to me. Though with all the rain you've had maybe solar isn't your best bet :D

There are also some skimmers (I believe) that can hook onto the electric powered robots so it skims the water at the same time.
You have any specifics?
 
So I put in enough cya to reach 50ppm but I believe it is still 40 (up from 20). I can very faintly see the dot at 50, in all lighting types. Disappears half way from 50-40.

Should I wait a few more days? I also ordered the cya 50 standard from the tf100 test site as I really don’t want to screw up my cya!
 
I just want to say that you have inspired me, I'm working on a pool that was neglected too and I've found myself doubting myself and thinking I should drain and refill. I started on it around May 19th so if it took you over a month to get it from that to clear at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel!

And for anyone out there reading, listen to the TFP mods and order that test kit first, don't wait like I did. I probably could have been closer to clear by now but I'm just working on adding chlorine until then (a blind shock in a way).
 
You have a solid number now for your CYA so I would hold off on adding any more until you get the standard regent to train your eyes with.

How is the water looking?

Kim:kim:
Water looks great. Besides the persistent dirt!! I can’t wait for Jeffery to arrive.

Jeffery is going to be my robots name.
?

I just want to say that you have inspired me, I'm working on a pool that was neglected too and I've found myself doubting myself and thinking I should drain and refill. I started on it around May 19th so if it took you over a month to get it from that to clear at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel!

And for anyone out there reading, listen to the TFP mods and order that test kit first, don't wait like I did. I probably could have been closer to clear by now but I'm just working on adding chlorine until then (a blind shock in a way).

I’m happy my journey offered you some hope! I read soooo many threads here when my pool was still brown. All of the stories are really encouraging. The biggest thing I can say is after a proper test kit, make sure your equipment works. And do whatever you can to locate organic debris! Things were really stagnant with my pool until I fixed my equipment. I don’t think my filter was working at all!
 
View attachment 102280

Just wanted to keep posting progress pics ?? The deep end just keeps getting bluer, where there is hardly a stain on the liner.

Just awaiting my supplies to start stain treatment.

I’ve been following this thread because I am dealing with similar issues (in charge of my in-laws pool actually). Passed the OCLT and now moving forward with clearing up iron stain but I’m having difficulty finding the needed acid and sequesterant. Probably will order off amazon but curious how much you used. Our pool is roughly 25,000 gallons.

Just realized I forgot to ask my question.... just wondering how much of each product you used ? Acid, and sequesterant.
 
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I’ve been following this thread because I am dealing with similar issues (in charge of my in-laws pool actually). Passed the OCLT and now moving forward with clearing up iron stain but I’m having difficulty finding the needed acid and sequesterant. Probably will order off amazon but curious how much you used. Our pool is roughly 25,000 gallons.

Just realized I forgot to ask my question.... just wondering how much of each product you used ? Acid, and sequesterant.

Unfortunately I'm seeing staining come back today :( Not sure why so soon. The return jets are light tan and there is a light yellow stain under the water-line as before, but it's very light compared to before. Still, I am disheartened. I'm not sure I'll repeat the entire treatment so soon... it's expensive. Everything had been going well, liner was pure white up until yesterday. All that changed was I started exclusively using walmarts Pool Chlorine 10%, they finally put out fresh bottles less then 20 days old. I am wondering if it's possible it was TOO fresh? Maybe I had more like, 12%? And I added too much? When I was using the great value 6% bleach there was no staining. It just got annoying dealing with so many jugs.

But to answer your questions I bought my acid on Amazon,

However if you aren't in a hurry you can get it from other places for a lot less, like

I haven't personally ordered from there but just one example.

I bought the sequesterant and poly 60 from Pool Geek

I ended up using 5lbs of acid for my 25,000... my entire liner besides a patch in the deep end was stained. However, I think I could have used less. I followed the instructions here

Which say to keep adding until the stains are gone. But, I had a big patch in the middle and all of the side walls were still orange. I added about 2lbs, waited an hour, added another lb, waited an hour, then added the rest, and the directions there say to keep adding it until the stains disappear. In my case the acid needed to circulate overnight. I think if I had used 3lbs, and waited 24 hours, it would have been enough.

So.. to recap
-Let FC drop to about 1
-Added 2 bottles of poly 60
-1hr later, put filter on recirculate and walked around with a cup dusting the acid as well as tossing it out in the middle
-repeated steps as explained above, but the stains never fully lifted until the next morning. i put the filter back to filter and went to bed with stains all over the side walls
-woke up to stain gone, added 3 bottles of metal magic
-24 hours later, i started raising fc. i went through about 6 gallons to eat through the acid.
-I never added more bleach then called for to reach 3ppm, which was the lowest # for my cya at the time, so I was adding cups at a time retesting every 15-30min-then 1-3hrs
-24 hours later, i brought the ph to 7.2
 
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Silica Sand filtration cannot catch the Iron Salts without topdressing the sand with cellulose fiber.. Also no rush to return pool back to balanced.. Low pH and Alkalinity will keep trace metal in solution to give sand filter time to filter it out.. Good Luck with it !!! Matt
 
I got my CYA 50ppm standard, and I'm glad I waited for it! I surely would have said that was 40! So my CYA is at 50, I think, And I think I need more because this sun is just too intense... even thinking about some way to throw shade on the pool because I'm needing so much bleach :\ about 1.5 10% gallons a day. I have no overnight loss... it all gets eaten in the sun!

My robot is fantastic. The cord is a little short, or my outlet is a little far from the pool. So I have been running it twice, plugged in my at my pool equipment pad, and then plugged in the opposite side in my sunroom. I loveeee it! I haven't touched that stupid manual vac in a while. It took so long to do. o_O

I am going to be attempting to treat my stains again before they're really bad. I believe that I at least located the course of iron in the pool. We discovered the ladder is full of rust.. so it's just been leeching in who knows how long they used it that way. It was out when we got the house, but I bet it was sitting in there until the realtors had the cover made. I had put it back in for about a week. UGH! I tried metal magic last time but I am going to try Jacks this time.
 
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Silica Sand filtration cannot catch the Iron Salts without topdressing the sand with cellulose fiber.. Also no rush to return pool back to balanced.. Low pH and Alkalinity will keep trace metal in solution to give sand filter time to filter it out.. Good Luck with it !!! Matt
I would not suggest the use of cellulose fiber in a sand filter. If the iron precipitates, sand will remove the iron.

If the iron stays in solution, neither sand nor cellulose fiber is gonna' capture it.

Lower pH and TA and/or a metal sequestrant will keep iron in solution but will not remove it.
 
I’ve got a question about DE/filter fiber. How quickly should I be seeing the rise in pressure? I made a slurry of about 7.5oz of fiber in a bucket of water and slowly poured half on my skimmer while watching the gauge, and 5 minutes later added the rest. The gauge still hasn’t bumped about 20 minutes later. I was under the impression it was like instantaneous?

I also bumped my filter up to 3000 RPMs while doing this to get an accurate filter reading as the VS are always low on the slow settings.

edit:
I spoke too soon... 30 minutes later it's finally reading 1 psi increase.
 
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