Keeping stains away

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J

jhendric23

Member
Jul 15, 2022
10
NJ
Pool Size
25000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
So I have been going down the rabbit hole to remove and keep away the iron stains. So many questions and clarifications I want details on but for now let’s stick to this one thing at a time.

I have treated my pool with ascorbic acid and it lifted the iron stains. Now all the Fe3+ is soluble Fe2+ floating around dissolved in the water.

How do I get it out of the water? The sequesterant binds to it but can I do something to remove it? How do I filter it out? What’s the point of the sequestraint if I never actually remove the iron, I am going to have to keep adding sequestraint forever if I don’t remove the iron?
 
jhendric23 said:
How do I get it out of the water? The sequesterant binds to it but can I do something to remove it? How do I filter it out? What’s the point of the sequestraint if I never actually remove the iron, I am going to have to keep adding sequestraint forever if I don’t remove the iron?
Click to expand...

DING! DING! DING! DING! Winner winner chicken dinner!!!

Exactly.

You sequester the iron and then you have to drain off the water and add fresh, iron-free water.

Where is the iron coming from?
 
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The best way is certainly to replace as much water as possible. Caveats are:
1) Don't drain an in-ground pool below the water table, it may pop out
2) With a vinyl liner you need to keep at least 12'' of water in the shallow end to stop the liner from moving out of place
3) Be certain that the replacement water is actually free of iron

Another option is to fill the skimmer with polyfil and hope to filter out as much as possible when the iron ions get reoxidised with rising FC and pH. There are some threads with ingenious ideas to make that as efficient as possible, but it will never be as good as a water replacement.

Sequestering is clearly just a band aid. Good to keep stains from reoccurring before the water can be replaced.
 
You have a couple of options if you've sequestered the iron...
  • Continue to sequester, pretty much indefinitely and be careful not to raise chlorine too high (a fine line here) so you don't break down the sequestrant as a result.
  • Continue to sequester, and try removing the iron via CuLator 1.0 and 4.0's from Periodic Products (some people have good results with these, others not -- I personally found them fairly effective, but I used 4x the recommended CuLator amounts)
  • Continue to sequester, and try removing the iron via adding Filter Fiber to your filter to help catch the iron there (can be used in conjunction with the above).
  • Drain the water after doing an AA treat or after sequestering (which might be pointless if your fill water has iron in it!!)
  • Stop using sequestrants and let the chlorine oxidize the iron (water will turn green/brown), and remove it by use of PolyFill in your skimmers or custom-made PolyFill device.
  • Consider installing a dual tank soft water system to be used for all fill water (or auto-fill) water. This ELIMINATES ALL IRON completely before it gets into your pool. (this is what I did - problem forever solved).
 
JoyfulNoise said:
DING! DING! DING! DING! Winner winner chicken dinner!!!

Exactly.

You sequester the iron and then you have to drain off the water and add fresh, iron-free water.

Where is the iron coming from?
Click to expand...
Not 100% sure since we have always used municipal water and didn’t have a problem before. I now have a hose filter on before the pool to ensure the iron is removed so I have metal free fill water. So I guess I keep sequestering until I have replaced enough water to reduce the iron.
 
jhendric23 said:
Not 100% sure since we have always used municipal water and didn’t have a problem before. I now have a hose filter on before the pool to ensure the iron is removed so I have metal free fill water. So I guess I keep sequestering until I have replaced enough water to reduce the iron.
Click to expand...

Those hose end filters rarely remove iron and even if they do they are limited to a few hundred gallons of water before they are spent.

Your municipal water may have iron in it, it’s fairly common on the east coast. The only permanent way to remove it is to have a whole-house iron filter and run a dedicated spigot outside for pool fill.
 
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