Trying to Swim More and do less work

[szampino]

Metals were 100% the problem.

Here is the issue that I found, and my 'so far' working remedy.

I added Pool Magnet and Metal Control to the water before shocking. Even when I get to the 'Best Guess Chart' Shock FC level. the Sequestering agent does not keep the Metals from falling out. So this is what has happened 2 years ago when I tried and the difference this year.

1. When the Metals fell out 2 years ago, I was going crazy between the forum and the pool store. The water was ugly, I was new to metals so I kept shocking and the water kept being ugly. I was also using Stabalized Chlorine which brought my CYA levels higher and required Higher FC levels. Then I learned about metals so I stopped shocking and began to treat the metals. Because I waited so long to begin treating the metals it took a long time to deal with metals, which means, I had my Chlorine levels very low for a long time, which in return caused Algea, which means I had to raise my FC's again and the viscious cycle began again.

2. This year I decided to conentrate on the water chemical balance and how it looks 2nd (What is on the inside is what counts). Small Adjustments I think is the key, and I still believe that putting the puck in the skimmer caused my metals to fall out the 2nd time, even though others don't agree. (See post).

If things change I'll repost.

[stma]

Sounds familiar as this (I believe) is NOW my identical problem....My FC number now is +30 ppm as i kept adding bleach in hopes to clear the water....

I just bought Natural Chemistry's Metal Free....Do you know if I need to drop my chlorine levels BEFORE i begin this particular treatment...????.....I know i need to drop the levels when I do the Ascorbic treatment via MBar's reccomendation, but i'm not certain wether it needs to be dropped for the metal out ??

Any advice you could lend would be appreciated...

[mbar]

The reason the free chlorine levels need to be low is that the chlorine will attack the metal control and use it up before it can do the job. It won't hurt anything but your wallet . I know it is hard when dealing with metals - because it is frustrating. But szampino is right, most of it is having the patience to let the chemicals do their job. It is easy to try to fix the water by adding more and more things, but it destroys the whole balance. Adding something before what you added first can do it's job will only make clearing the water take a lot more time, and use up a lot more money. Simple is best, less is best. Patience is the least expensive, but the most difficult part of clearing a pool