Tan/Brown stain for life

[justden]

I have used stain free and metal free at least 5 times in the last 7 months and the stain keeps coming back, tan/brown and covers the whole pool. My pool is inground, indoor, heated and I use bromine, the last month I have tried DE in the cartridge filter to help hold the metals until I wash the filter.
Once again the stain is coming back.
What am I missing, this should not be so painful and costly.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Dennis

[mr_clean]

I have used stain free and metal free at least 5 times in the last 7 months and the stain keeps coming back, tan/brown and covers the whole pool. My pool is inground, indoor, heated and I use bromine, the last month I have tried DE in the cartridge filter to help hold the metals until I wash the filter.
Once again the stain is coming back.
What am I missing, this should not be so painful and costly.

first have the fill water you use to put in your pool tested for metals, Iron normally makes the brown stains. Lots of peoples water have high metal counts from well water.

A sequestering agent is a chemical that combines with metal ions to help keep them in solution and prevent them from falling on the pool’s surface and leaving a stain.

know when using it that it does not last forever & needs to keep being added to hold metals in solution.

If your fill water does not have high metals count but your pool water does then replacing water & using sequestering agent as a preventative would be the answer.

[justden]

Thanks mr_clean,
I have been using the MF every week and only using softened water for make up, still the stain. Also my water has a clear blue tint to it, the pool store said the blue was metal in the water and probably was not copper coming from my heat exchanger. Any other thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
Dennis

[Poolz]

only using softened water for make up

Soft water tends to be aggressive and corrosive, and will speed up the etching or erosion of any metals or plaster surfaces.

probably was not copper coming from my heat exchanger

Most decent heat exchangers nowadays are made of stainless steel. If the quality of the stainless is low (less than 304) some "rusting" and erosion is possible in corrosive water environments.

[mr_clean]

sense you have used 5qts of sequestering agent and stain comes back it sounds like metal count is very high.

have you taken a sample of pool water to store & have them test water?

once you know what they are you have a few options. What type of pool is this, plaster, fiber-glass, vinyl?

If plaster or fiberglass & count is not to high you can remove stain by lowering PH to 6.5-6.0 & srub stain daily until gone, then readjust PH.

Or if plaster & count is real high empty pool, acid wash & refill.

If vinyl, you can lower chlorine & put crushed vitamin c pills in white sock & let them sit on stain which should remove it.

No matter what if count is real high draining & refilling would be cheaper.