Stain help?

[EmilyOTR]

I have no idea what this is, it was there when we opened the pool. This is our first year owning this house. I have read the stain area of pool school but I was wondering if anyone had an idea of what this could be before I just try random things.

I also have a stain in my shallow end but it's not as dark and a larger area so it's hard to get a picture of. Similar color though.

 

[pooldv]

It looks organic is to me. You've read this? Pool School - Pool Stains. Ok, you're all set then. Give it a whirl.

 

[EmilyOTR]

It looks organic is to me. You've read this? Pool School - Pool Stains. Ok, you're all set then. Give it a whirl.

So my pool used to be a puck pool and I have pucks left somewhere. I just lay one on it for a while?

 

[pooldv]

Yep.

 

[EmilyOTR]

Yep.

How long do I leave it there?

 

[pooldv]

In this article, that I linked above, Pool School - Pool Stains, it says this,

Organic Stains
Organic stains are caused by leaves, algae or other organic matter sitting on the pool surface. To determine if you have an organic stain place a trichlor puck on the stain for a few minutes to see if it lightens or removes the stain. If it does then the stain is organic. To remove organic stains raise the FC up between 60% and 100% of shock level for your CYA, Chlorine / CYA Chart, and brush often, daily if you can.

 

[EmilyOTR]

In this article, that I linked above, Pool School - Pool Stains, it says this,

Oh gosh I must not have seen that. So several hours is fine and I should check it. Lol

 

[EmilyOTR]

So, I didn't see any lightening of the stain. What is my next most likely choice?

 

[pooldv]

Iron or copper.

 

[EmilyOTR]

I realize this is old but I never figured out my stain and then we closed the pool. and now that we are getting ready to open it again I'm back to wanting to figure it out. My pool was a puck pool so I'm thinking the next choice is likely copper? Pool school says this:

Copper stains can be removed by putting dry acid in a sock and rubbing it on the stain.

what is dry acid and where do I get it? I assume I wear gloves to do this? And just a regular sock for your feet is what I'm putting it in?

 

[JulieMorris316]

I realize this is old but I never figured out my stain and then we closed the pool. and now that we are getting ready to open it again I'm back to wanting to figure it out. My pool was a puck pool so I'm thinking the next choice is likely copper? Pool school says this:

Copper stains can be removed by putting dry acid in a sock and rubbing it on the stain.

what is dry acid and where do I get it? I assume I wear gloves to do this? And just a regular sock for your feet is what I'm putting it in?

I've been dealing with metal stains for a while now. Break a vitamin C tablet in half and rub it on the stain. If it goes away, it's metal/mineral staining. Since the chlorine test didn't affect it I'm guessing this will work. You can get rid of the stain by just rubbing it with the tablet if it's not too large an area. If it's an isolated incident this may fix it and you won't have to worry about it again, but if stains keep coming back you may have metals in your water that need addressing. The vitamin C tablet will take the metals off the surface and remove the stain, but they're still in the water and either need to be removed or bound up with regular dosing of a sequestrant. I'm using metal magic by proteam for the first time right now and it seems to be working well so far, as is *supposed* to clump the metal ions together so that the filter has a chance of removing them. Without this clumping step the ions are too small for the filter to catch and they just continually pass through and back into the water.

 

[EmilyOTR]

just a small vitamin c tablet like you'd ingest? I feel that would take a long time! lol. I don't think it's an issue with our water, it was there when we opened the pool when we bought the house. nothing else has developed.

 

[JulieMorris316]

You can use the vitamin c tablet to test the spot and confirm it's a metal stain. It actually removes the stain really quickly in most cases. You can also crush up some tablets and put them in a sock or something similar and rub them on the stain to cover a larger area if needed. If the stain is super big or widespread you can also use ascorbic acid powder, but the tablets are cheaper and work just as well for smaller areas.

 

[EmilyOTR]

You can use the vitamin c tablet to test the spot and confirm it's a metal stain. It actually removes the stain really quickly in most cases. You can also crush up some tablets and put them in a sock or something similar and rub them on the stain to cover a larger area if needed. If the stain is super big or widespread you can also use ascorbic acid powder, but the tablets are cheaper and work just as well for smaller areas.

Thanks. Do you mean a regular sock like for feet?

 

[funandsun]

After I opened my swamp last year and reading on TFP, I wondered what these stains where in our pool. So I went to the store and got some vit C tablets and came home to try them out. If what you have is iron, you can expect similar reactions to these.

The pump was on, I threw a bunch down and they started moving across the bottom of the pool leaving clear streaks behind them. It was interesting. I proceeded to take care of the pool with a treatment and as you can see, it came out great.

I used 1 quart of Metal Out, followed their directions on the bottle and in 24hrs it was lifted/sequestered. It never came back the rest of the season. Now, I can tell you I will have to repeat the process this year because the iron is now out of solution, but I expect similar results this year.

And no, there is no photoshop, that is straight out of an iPhone 6.

 

[JulieMorris316]

Yep. Anything that will hold the crushed tablets but let water in and the dissolved powder out will work. A sock is just readily available.