My iron adventures

[MUTTSx3]

Good afternoon.
This is my first post. Ive lurked here awhile and also posted on another pool forum.

I live in Upstate NY with a roughly 24000 gallon in ground pool with liner that is 9 years old. For the first couple of years I used a SWG to chlorinate but have been strictly bleach for the past 4-5 years. I do have a heater. I test my pool with the taylor test kit. I tend not to worry about measuring calcium hardness any longer. I find my pool chemistry easy to maintain. Latest reading 1 week after opening pool-- pH 7.6, FC 4.0 CC 0.0, Alk 110, CYA 10-20 (always low each spring and Ive started adding stabilizer).

I am on well water. I try to add as little as possible since my liner staining started.

For the past 3-4 years Ive had significant staining of the entire liner. Dropping a few vitamin C tabs in was like magic and after extensive reading here and at the poolforum, I assumed this was iron and I did the whole routine (drop chlorine to zero, add algaecide, 3 pounds vitamin C to my 24k gallons of H20, add pink stuff, culator pack etc). Last year it didnt seem to keep the stains away for as long--maybe 2-3 weeks. In the past an early June treatment seemed to hold until September.

***At this point Im wondering if I need to get the test kit so that I can measure the level of the pink stuff and keep it constant all summer.
***Is swimming in all this pink stuff (phosphoric acid) safe?
*** Best place to purchase the Jacks magic request kit? Looks like pool geek had lowest cost. Are they reputable?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Tony

 

[Texas Splash]

Hi Tony and welcome to TFP! Some of your questions are chemical-specific, so I'll let a couple of our Experts reply to those. If you don't hear something, let me/us know and we'll PM them. For now though, drop the pH. Take it down to about 7.2 and give that a day or two and see how that works. Iron seems to play nicer with a low pH. Also, I suspect that over the seasons, your iron content has continued to grow with evaporation and refills. Your iron level may simply be growing to a point where you have to consider what options might be best. But for now, lower the pH and we'll look for more replies to your questions. Great to have you with us.

 

[MUTTSx3]

Well--Ive been good since late May but now the stains seem to be returning. The bright blue of my liner is now slowly fading and I can start to see the faint staining haze. I bought the Jacks magic request kit and my pink stuff level is 10-12ppm. I haven't added since my initial treatment in late May. pH is 7.2. Wife has been running the heater. How do you tell if the heater is the cause? Is it safe to add more pink stuff?

Thanks
Tony

 

[Swampwoman]

Hi Tony.
Splash asked me to check out your thread because I am on well.

Iron will increase in concentration over time. Its hard to get a read on iron level when you're using sequestrant. There can be a lot of moving parts to metal management, and to help over the long term it would help me to know your well water ppm in iron.

But first, most people with significant iron need to add the maintenance dose recommended on the label weekly or monthly, depending on the manufacturer. HEDP wears down over time. 12 ppm of HEDP is not always effective for people, I've witnessed some who need to keep it higher, even 20-ish.

So for right now, if you have Jacks left, add more.

In the future, if you'd like to try Metal Magic, a side benefit is that it often also remove fresh stains that have occurred. You sequest test will work on it as well and Pool Geek sells Metal Magic for about $16.

But here's a link to a test they ave you do to determine the amount needed for stain removal: http://www.proteampoolcare.com/images/uploads/MetalMagicSpongeTest.pdf

If you already know the iron level of your well, please post it.

If you use a water softener for your home, consider plumbing a line to your spigot that you fill the pool from.

Prefiltering the water can also reduce some of the metal getting in, but usually only the portion that has oxidized a bit.

Please also add your pool details to your signature.

Lastly, most sequestrant producers recommend keeping calcium above 200 irrespective of being vinyl, as that is supposed to help carry out spent product.

Hope that helps!

 

[MUTTSx3]

Thank you Swampwoman. I did add another bottle of Jacks pink stuff mid week after reading your post. Looked a little better. Tonight I added one more bottle . I haven't tested the sequestrate level in about 5-6 days. Ill get to it in the next 2-3 on my next day off. My calcium hardness is 800-900.
I may order a case of metal magic. Is all this sequestrate safe?
Thanks
Tony

 

[Swampwoman]

Safe, yes, but spent diphosphonic acid (HEDP) does degrade into phosphate when it wears off, which over time (eg years, not days) might make your water slightly more reactive for contacting algae but only if you drop below TFP [fc/cya][/FC/cya] specs.

Example: I've never had algae since taking over my pool, despite super high phosphate levels from a combo of swamp recovery and years of sequestrant use. So you should be fine

 

[MUTTSx3]

Wow--just wow! I wish I would have taken before and after photos. The metal magic was backordered at pool geek so I just got it late last week. I put in 2.5 qts as my pool is roughly 24k gallons of water. By the next morning there was improvement however after 24-36 hours it was stunning. My pool looks blue again! My kids want to know what I did to the pool. Now to figure out the sweet spot for adding additional product.

 

[Swampwoman]

Excellent news. I'm glad it worked well for you!
Cheers to blue