While having a pool during the summer is a nice luxury here in Tucson, it’s not without its maintenance challenges. From adding chlorine, to covering it, to balancing the pH levels, to cleaning it, a pool requires significant upkeep. This includes taking care of stains.
Despite your best efforts, it’s possible your pool will develop stains, but knowing how to identify the various possible stains will allow you to clean them better. Catching stains early is very helpful and could prevent you from having to hire a pool algae removal service.
Identifying pool stains
There are two main types of pool stains: organic and metal. Let’s go through them:
- Organic: These stains can be caused by anything that was living at one point, such as bugs, berries, algae, leaves, dirt or worms. They’re usually green and brown or red and blue.
- Metal: These stains can be the result of metals like iron, copper or manganese getting into your pool somehow. They’re usually greenish blue, reddish brown or purplish black.
Testing the stain
If you believe a stain is organic, take a bit of granular chlorine and apply it directly to the stain. Scrub it with a brush, and if it begins to disappear, it’s organic. If not, then it’s likely metal.
If you think a stain is metal, take crushed vitamin C or ascorbic acid and apply it to the stain. If the stain begins to fade when you scrub the acid into it, it’s likely a metal stain. If not, then it’s organic.
Removing organic stains
Fortunately, these stains are typically easier to remove than metal stains, though it’s still an involved process:
- Clean out any leaves or debris from the surface of your pool.
- Test your pool’s water and balance the pH to between 7.4 and 7.6.
- Shock the pool. This process involves adding a hypochlorite shock solution to your pool, dramatically raising its chlorine levels. Do this in the morning or the evening.
- Wait for the shock to circulate.
- Brush the stains until they disappear.
- Turn on your pool’s pump to filter out dirty water.
- If the stains aren’t completely removed, you can apply granular chlorine and scrub them again until they’re gone.
Removing metallic stains
You can always call your local pool professionals to assist you with these, as metal stains are more persistent than organic stains. But if you want to try it yourself, follow these steps:
- Use a metal reducer like Metal Free to deactivate any excess metals in your pool’s water.
- Take ascorbic acid and apply it in your pool at a ratio of ½ pound for every 10,000 gallons.
- For stubborn stains, apply the ascorbic acid directly onto the affected area.
- Take a brush and scrub the stains.
- Turn on your pool’s filter and run it for at least one hour.
- Repeat steps two through four if necessary.
- Use a commercial enzyme or metal eliminator pack in your pool to prevent future metal stains.
Call for stain removal today
Keeping the right chemical balance in your pool can prevent you from needing pool algae removal as well as stain removal. But if stains develop and you’d like some input from the experts, give us a call at Arizona Pool & Pond Company. We’ve seen every kind of stain you could imagine, and we’d like to help you get your pool looking and feeling great again.