Staining Or Spotting On Your New Surface
STAINS | SPOTS | CHALKING | REFINISHING
At Green Turtle Fiberglass we made the strategic decision to only use high-quality, well-proven products. This decision often means that we are not the cheapest company offering repair/resurfacing services.
Despite working on hundreds of pools each year, very rarely do our repairs or surfaces fail, or have a problem directly attributable to our methods or materials. Despite that, we are usually the first place the pool owner calls if there is a strange stain, blotch, or mark on their pool.
To save you both time, and probably money, below are some common questions and resources available to help your answer your question and find a solution:
I have this X colored stain on my pool surface.
When we resurfaced your pool, we applied a high-grade, totally inert material, designed specifically for your pool.
When we left, your pool did not have a stain on it, but just like ketchup splotches and oil droplets, they seem to find their way on to every white T-shirt you own. Well, pool stains follow a similar path. At one point or another, no matter how careful you are, the odds are you’re going to find one somewhere in your pool — maybe along the walls or spread across the shallow end stairs.
The fact that it has a stain now means that something has got on to the top of your surface. What that something is, is nothing to do with the surface itself. It came from somewhere and has settled on top of the surface.
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The stain either comes from organic foreign objects (leaves, fertilizer pellets etc.) from metals ( from your pool equipment or fittings) or from minerals that come from within the pool water and/or circulation system.
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Your first question should be to the person/company maintaining the pool. Did they do something different? Did they miss something? Is the water chemistry correct? Has it always been correct or is it just correct now after you asked questions?
If this person doesn’t know what has caused this stain or is unable to reduce or eliminate it then your next step should be to identify it.
The below link is for a stain identification kit. This can be done by yourself or by your pool guy.
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Jack’s Magic Pool Stain ID Kit
The reference guide below is considered the ‘bible’ for stain identification and removal procedures:
Jacksmagic CSS program Reference Guide
Once the stain is identified, then Jacksmagic will have the appropriate chemical and procedure needed to remove the stain form your surface.
Another good source for pool treatments is the following YouTube channel:
I have these little ‘black spots’ on my pool that are showing through.
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These are probably cobalt spots that are caused when chlorinated water comes in to contact with unreacted cobalt from the catalyst that was used when your pool was originally manufactured.
When we resurfaced your pool, you may have had us repair some of these cobalt spots. Our repair process does not use a cobalt-based catalyst so these spots you see now are from other areas of the original shell.
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Other than repairing them individually, which can be a costly exercise, regular chemical treatment is your best option.
The link below is another product designed to reduce cobalt spots from Jacksmagic and one from Pinch-A-Penny.
My New Pool surface has ‘chalked’:
It is HIGHLY DOUBTFUL that your GREEN TURTLE pool surface has chalked like your old gelcoat surface did, as it is not chemically possible for our surfaces to chalk. What you are probably seeing is known as Calcium precipitation or plating. This is caused by several factors driven mainly by your pool water chemistry.
With any pool it is vital, both for your health and the longevity of your pool, that water chemistry is maintained to industry standards.
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Calcium Fallout can occur when unbalanced calcium levels cause water to become increasingly unstable, especially when combined with unusually high Ph or total alkalinity levels. This can again result in cloudy water and/or scaling. In addition, warmer water temperatures, as seen Florida in the summertime, can exacerbate this issue since calcium becomes more likely to precipitate out of the solution in warmer water.
Water that is lacking in calcium will aggressively leach calcium from the plaster surface of the pool to equalize itself. In a fiberglass pool the calcium deficient water will start to corrode metal fixtures, fittings or even pool heaters for the same reason. When such corrosion occurs, it is also common for stains to appear, which over time can damage the fiberglass surface.
Often in these cases, we have found that homeowners and/or pool maintenance companies are not brushing the pool’s surface regularly, which is essential to the pool’s care. Brushing disrupts the sediments, sending the particles through the pool’s filtration system.
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Where an improperly maintained concrete surface pool would scale or stain, a fiberglass pool can have the problem resolved with chemical adjustment and brushing of its surface. In extreme cases, it may be necessary to add a sequestering agent to the pool. The addition of the sequestering agent will coagulate or consolidate these particles allowing the pool’s filtration system to capture these particles more efficiently. It is very important to keep a clean filter to effectively remove the minerals from the water.
If you use a pool service company and are experiencing this, take a sample of water to your pool store and ask them for a free water test. They will tell you whether your pool water is being maintained correctly or not.
The link below identifies two suitable sequestering agents by the leading pool ‘stain’ identification/removal company.
JacksMagic Purple Stuff - for pools with a salt Chlorine Generator
How to refresh my pool
Pools and their surfaces are like anything, they need refreshing up every so often. Citric acid and/or ascorbic acid are products that can remove stains and refresh the overall look of your pool.
There is a myriad of resources on-line advising of products and methods to help with the upkeep of your pool. Remember stains and marks are usually something on top of your pool surface and can be removed it is just a matter of with what and how.
