What to do? Mud..

[Strawberryshortcake]

I know we like progress pics!!
First round of vac done. I am refilling. I also brought the chlorine up and agitated it with the net. I’m gonna run the robot and then let it sit for another 24hrs and see what i’m left with.

I’m pretty impressed with the floc and that vaccum attachment (with the wheels!) was fantastic!

 

[mgtfp]

I flocked earlier this year after really fine sand from a storm further north got into clouds and rained down over Melbourne. Probably turned every single pool in Melbourne into a brown mud hole. People were "bragging" about their mud holes on the news.

Make sure you get everything out before you reactivate your filter. I did as you did, and super-filled my pool before adding the flock. I vacuumed to waste after about 1.5 days. And just to be sure, I then topped up the pool again, waited another day and had some more gunk that I vacuumed to waste. After that, nothing more settled on the pool floor, and I started filtering again after 3 days.

After the swimming season I opened my sand filter and gave it a deep clean. Saw nothing suspicious in the filter, looks like my attempts to keep the flock gunk away from my filter were successful.

I'd rather lose a bit more water and do an extra vacuum to waste, than having to deal with a super glued filter.

I don't regret having used the flock. I wouldn't use it to shortcut on a green pool. But a sand rain like the one we got here was an unusual event (at least here, might be normal somewhere else), that justified imho unusual measures.

 

[kimkats]

SWEET!! Will use this thread as one to show how to deal with dirt/mud/ash/stuff in the pool!!!

 

[Strawberryshortcake]

Here we are today
I'm not done yet. Seem to be having a small algea outbreak probably due to the heat and having to let the floc settle. I tried to mix some bleach in while that was going on, but it wasn't enough apparently.
I've been slamming for a few days, it's looking super clear this afternoon so hopefully I will be done tonight-tomorrow. I also put some tablets in because I lost nearly all of my CYA due to the massive backwashing/vacuuming I did.
Once I get done with that I'm going to try to address the iron staining again. Not an AA treatment. Just gonna dump in some metal magic and see what happens, lol. If it doesn't work, oh well.



Here is yesterday afternoon around the same time for comparison. You can see the deep end got a lot clearer!

 

[kimkats]

I see some in your future!!

 

[Strawberryshortcake]

I LOVE the Metal Magic method of getting rid of staining. You can see that I had a LOT.. and I've removed all of it without ascorbic acid, which means no fighting with chlorine being eaten up for days! It takes overnight and doesn't instantly lift stains like the powder but that's fine by me. The only thing is it will really drop your PH so be prepared to bring it back up.
I think I'm done!

 

[kimkats]

Well done!!! Now go jump in that pool!

 

[mgtfp]

Is that still the same pool?

Great job, well done!

 

[Jeska]

I LOVE the Metal Magic method of getting rid of staining. You can see that I had a LOT.. and I've removed all of it without ascorbic acid, which means no fighting with chlorine being eaten up for days! It takes overnight and doesn't instantly lift stains like the powder but that's fine by me. The only thing is it will really drop your PH so be prepared to bring it back up.
I think I'm done!
View attachment 152258

I just wanted to ask a few questions about your use of Metal Magic. How big is your pool and how much MM did you use? Did your pool cloud up? Did any of the stains return? I’ve done an AA treatment in the past and would like to skip that and just use a high dose of MM if possible.

 

[Strawberryshortcake]

I just wanted to ask a few questions about your use of Metal Magic. How big is your pool and how much MM did you use? Did your pool cloud up? Did any of the stains return? I’ve done an AA treatment in the past and would like to skip that and just use a high dose of MM if possible.

My pool is about 25,000 gallons I believe. I was putting 3 bottles in in order to remove the stains. No, it never clouded up but it did cloud up when I used other products like jacks magic.

Yes, the stains come back. It's not a cure all...just a way to remove a step (costly, though). I think it depends on how much iron is in your water... I seem to have a LOT so it comes back quickly for me. I actually haven't done a treatment in a while and my pool is currently green from staining as we planned to replace the liner this year, thus dumping the water and hoping the iron doesn't come back...it just felt wasteful to keep putting it in.
It is quite expensive, not gonna lie, however, avoiding the AA treatment seems worth it. I did it several times and more then once I just couldn't get the chlorine up quick enough and got algae, which meant slamming, which meant all that effort was wasted...

Recurring Metal Stains... worse than ever...

Here is the thread I stumbled upon discussing this method if you'd like to give it a read!

Specifically here,
Recurring Metal Stains... worse than ever...
on post #120 is where is discussing about metal magic only starts.

 

[Jeska]

My pool is about 25,000 gallons I believe. I was putting 3 bottles in in order to remove the stains. No, it never clouded up but it did cloud up when I used other products like jacks magic.

Yes, the stains come back. It's not a cure all...just a way to remove a step (costly, though). I think it depends on how much iron is in your water... I seem to have a LOT so it comes back quickly for me. I actually haven't done a treatment in a while and my pool is currently green from staining as we planned to replace the liner this year, thus dumping the water and hoping the iron doesn't come back...it just felt wasteful to keep putting it in.
It is quite expensive, not gonna lie, however, avoiding the AA treatment seems worth it. I did it several times and more then once I just couldn't get the chlorine up quick enough and got algae, which meant slamming, which meant all that effort was wasted...

Recurring Metal Stains... worse than ever...

Here is the thread I stumbled upon discussing this method if you'd like to give it a read!

Specifically here,
Recurring Metal Stains... worse than ever...
on post #120 is where is discussing about metal magic only starts.

Thanks for getting back to me! I read that entire thread and it was very informative. I am definitely going to give MM a shot. Just ordered 4 quarts today. I guess it’s important to keep adding more MM whenever the stains start to come back. I’m thinking of adding some DE or filter fiber to my sand filter to try to get some iron out. May not work but anything is worth a try at this point. Hopefully getting new water will solve your iron problem!

 

[Strawberryshortcake]

Thanks for getting back to me! I read that entire thread and it was very informative. I am definitely going to give MM a shot. Just ordered 4 quarts today. I guess it’s important to keep adding more MM whenever the stains start to come back. I’m thinking of adding some DE or filter fiber to my sand filter to try to get some iron out. May not work but anything is worth a try at this point. Hopefully getting new water will solve your iron problem!

That is the jist of it! keeping your ph and chlorine on the lower side is important in extending the MM life, but also being careful not to let the chlorine drift too low to allow algae and require a slam. It's a delicate and frustrating balance! Another benefit of the MM is that for me I never let my chlorine drift to zero before using it like you do with the ascorbic acid treatment. I saw staining, I put it in. I tried to keep my ph around 7.0-7.2 to extend it.

I have heard of using polyfill to help remove iron. I never personally tried it, but there are a lot of different methods like stuffing the skimmer (just make sure you don't restrict water flow too much), it's a very popular method. I believe however this only works if your iron is "out", and not being sequestered by MM. Also, that it's in your water and not just stained on your pool walls/floor...so for instance, your pool water is actually discolored.

If you’ve got iron in your fill water, use Polyfill to remove it

EDIT: Found out this method only works if your iron is oxidized already, meaning it’s got a dull or bright green tint to the water, or a nasty brown tint. If you know you have iron in your fill water, but it isn’t oxidized yet, bring your pool to shock level and it’ll turn the telltale green...

www.troublefreepool.com

there is a thread I bookmarked about that!