Cleaning Metal Stains from Your Swimming Pool

Armed with equipment for cleaning your pool, you are ready to go to work on any debris, spot, stain or dirt patch that you can find. How do you know which would be the most effective and least fuss method to tackle those unsightly stains and spots? Are you going to go to work scrubbing everything? That would drain you in no time and cleaning your pool would really be a very unrewarding task if the spots and stains reappear in a short period of time.

If you spot reddish-brown stains in your pool these could be caused by metallic objects that have corroded by reacting with the chemicals in the pool water. If the stain is localized, someone probably accidentally dropped a metallic coin, bottle cap or tab into the water. The stain could be due to copper, manganese or iron; each gives a particular tint to the stain. In that case, you have to fish out the culprit and then scrub the spot with sandpaper to dislodge the staining material. The pool filter will then take over and remove the material from circulating water. Be sure to protect your eyes with safety goggles while doing this. You could also remove the stain with sodium hypochlorite, but if you happen to overdo the dose, you would end up creating another type of stain that cannot be scrubbed off!

In case you wake up to find a case of diffused reddish-brown staining in your pool, it could be due to presence of excessive metals, particularly iron, in the water supply. Metal stains are somewhat easier to remove by just rubbing a regular vitamin C tablet on the stain. If the vitamin removes the stain, you know it is because of metal in water. At this point, you had better collect a sample from your regular water supply and get it tested. If there is metal in it, then you know where it has been entering your pool from. The other possibility is that the cocktail of chemicals in your pool water is corroding the metallic accessories and equipment that is exposed to the pool water. It could be the plumbing, the railings or ladder that is getting corroded.

A number of diagnostic kits are available that will tell you the exact cause of the discoloration in your pool. Once you know this, you can neutralize the threat by treating with appropriate chemicals. These chemicals will combine with the metal particles and send them into solution so they do not settle on the walls or the floor. When this combination of the stain remover and the metal particles reach your pool filter, it gets trapped in it and is removed from circulation. The procedure now involves action for three consecutive days: sand filters need to be backwashed for three consecutive days, Cartridge filter has to be washed, while DE filter has to be backwashed and recharged everyday for three days.

The best way to avoid staining is by testing water chemistry and cleaning your pool filter regularly so the metal build-up does not happen in the first place.

Cleaning Your Swimming Pool
A guide on how to clean your pool.