Will This Modified Ascorbic Acid Treatment Work?

[swimspaguyy11]

My new to me pool with a 12 year old vinyl liner was quite stained with iron (probably from using well water to fill/top off) and the stairs were really bad. I crushed up some vitamin-c pills crushed in a sock and was blown away that it worked like a magic eraser on the steps, with hardly any elbow grease at all, it just completely disappeared until all the vitamin-c was gone. It's about a week and a half later and still the steps look great. No sequestration agent was used. I only needed to use like maybe 20 pills total.

Some background: I have high FC in my pool due to high CYA, ~ 140ppm. I am running currently around 7ppm FC using LC at the moment. I just added salt to get up to 3000ppm and will be starting my new SWG soon, its plumbed in, just need to finish the wiring. Most of my staining was on the steps, in the shallow end near the steps, and then in the creases in the deep end and ramp.

My idea: Since the vitamin-C works so well even at my high FC level, on both the stairs and the liner, could I wrap the pool brush in a big sock full of vitamin-c pills, and just brush away all the stains? Rather than lowering the FC to 0. If I were to do this method, do I need to still use the sequestration agent? If so, which one? The Jacks pink? Or the purple one made for salt? Also, If anyone has any ideas of how to use the brush with the vitamin-c pills that would work better than trying to use a sock.

I really just want to make things look nice for this season until I replace the liner and maybe do a full renovation next year. I would like to avoid bringing chrlorine to 0, I think I'd rather just live with the stains for a season than risk messing up my water at this point, especially since I am still learning pool chemistry.

Thanks

 

[JoyfulNoise]

The stains will likely return very quickly. Locally around the sock of ascorbic acid, the FC is zero. Trying to wipe down the entire pool will eventually lower the FC and when you raise, the stains will come right back. The AA procedure is designed to work, any modifications to it will likely cause the stain removal to fail.

Your problem is your CYA is too high which you already know is the issue. The high CYA requires high FC levels and that causes rapid staining. And the well water is definitely an issue if it has iron in it.

I think your first task, before anything else, is getting the CYA cut in half, at a minimum. And then you can deal with the stains.

 

[swimspaguyy11]

The stains will likely return very quickly. Locally around the sock of ascorbic acid, the FC is zero. Trying to wipe down the entire pool will eventually lower the FC and when you raise, the stains will come right back. The AA procedure is designed to work, any modifications to it will likely cause the stain removal to fail.

Your problem is your CYA is too high which you already know is the issue. The high CYA requires high FC levels and that causes rapid staining. And the well water is definitely an issue if it has iron in it.

I think your first task, before anything else, is getting the CYA cut in half, at a minimum. And then you can deal with the stains.

Thank you, I was advised since I cant do the exchange method since I am on a well, that I should not change out the water to get the CYA under control due to the age of the liner (12 years old). Allen suggested I convert to SWG instead to be able to not keep adding CYA and deal with the high levels. Most likely next year I will be doing a renovation and replacing the liner and can get the CYA levels correct then.

I guess I will just deal with the stains for this year, as long as I can keep the stairs white I am happy. Should I add sequestration agent to keep the stairs from staining again or that wont work because the FC is too high for the agent to work?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

You can use sequestering agent. You’ll need to use the high startup dose and then see if the maintenance doses can keep the stains at bay. My guess is the high FC levels are going to tear through the sequestering agent at a very decent rate so you’ll likely be dosing more frequently than suggested.

Honestly, with no offense to @ajw22 ‘s advice, I would do the exchange drain to get the CYA down. That’s way more important than worrying about stains and well water. If the iron in the well water is high and it makes the pool go tea colored, there’s ways to handle that. But high CYA is a recipe for constant algae blooms and that will be a lot more maddening than iron stains in my opinion. Plus, using a lower overall FC level might save you on sequestering agent.

Up to you. You’re in a lousy position so you just have to be patient until that renovation job can get underway.