Vinyl Swimming Pool Stains Could be Metals!
If you’re a cheapskate like me, you may have opted for a large vinyl above ground pool instead of an inground pool. I did buy a good one - a Splash Pool - because they are warrantied for 30 years, and not just expected to last a year or two like the cheap ones you buy at a discount store. And yes, I am a frugal person with a pool - but I live in the Shouth, and hey - it gets hot here! OK?
Stains Could Be Metals and Not Algae
OK, so here’s the story. After I uncovered my pool for the summer it was a greyish-green horror. I did my best to scoop out gunk, balance the water, and start treating for algae - which I surely did have! However, even when the water tested within normal parameters, looked clear enough to see the bottom, and had plenty of chlorine, it was still an ugly greenish-gunky looking pond.
On the advice of the guy at the pool store, I dumped in more algicide, which was a big mistake. See, algae killers contain copper, and more copper may have been coming into the pool from my old pipes which supplied fresh water! Do you see the problem? The ugly greenish mucky color did not come from the water, which was crystal clear when it came out of the pump in a backwash or rinse. The color came from staining on the sides of the vinyl pool, and these were caused by metal in the water!
I found a solution that worked for me, and that was to get ascorbinc acid (vitamin C). You can find it at some pool stores, but some people buy it from vitamin stores too. You need to let the chlorine levels go down to very close to 0. But before you do that, test to make sure this is the problem.
Step 1 - Shake some of the ascorbic acid in a white sock, and throw the sock in the pool. Push the sock around the bottom with your pool net and see if it erases the state. It did the trick for me right away! Another test would be to take a vitamin C tablet and rub it against the stain if that is possible. If that erases the stain, then you know ascorbic acid will help!
Step 2 - Let your Chlorine levels go way down. You can usually just wait a day or two, or else you can buy another chemical for this. Being a cheapskate, I just waited. The ascorbic acid will work a lot better with little or no chlorine in the pool.
Step 3 - Add the Ascorbic acid according to directions, if you bought it at a pool store. My bottle said to add 1/2 pound per 10,000 gallons of water. Keep runnning your pump and filter, and you should see an improvement very soon. You can also follow up with some product like Metal Magic - but metal magic did not do the trick for me without the ascorbic acid.
When your pool is nice and crystal clear, like mine is, you can backwash and rinse your filter, and then make sure you get your PH balanced before adding chlorine back in.
I hope this works for you as well as it did for me. Have a great summer!
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How To Unclog Your Toilet
Do You Have One Of Those Toilets?
Well, toilets are one thing we would rather not discuss too much, and I have already posted a quick tip about unclogging a toilet with no commercial product. And while I have had some fairly positive feedback for that tip, apparently it does not do the job 100% of the time. And we really need to aim for success!
OK, so you walk in the the bathroom, and you see that one of your kids, your signifigant other, or of course the mysterious “somebody else”, have left a nasty mess. What do you do?
- If the bowl is not really full, you try to flush it once, and only once.
- Try the cold bucket or water. You need to strike a balance between pouring it in quickly, and not overflowing the top.
- Try a plunger. We find that those larger plungers you can find these days work better than the really small ones. We even named ours… Big Bob… like he was part of the family. Make sure that Big Bob covers he hole, and that you are pushing water down, and not just air.
- If this doesn’t work, you may have an obstruction that should not be there. Is it possible that somebody in your house put a “non-flushible” item in your potty? Well, it happens. You can either use a “snake” if you have one, or an untwisted wire coat hanger. I really like those inexpensive plastic snakes you can buy, and then discard after a use.
- Note: You may need to wait awhile between every step. Even when a toilet is clogged, the water usually drains, it is just very slow. This gives you an opportunity to step out for a breath of fresh air every few minutes.
- If the blockage is organic, or even paper, a chemical may help. You can even find green friendly products that are not harsh (go ask at the hardware store), or of course use our favorite: dishwashing soap.
- If all else fails, it is just time to call the plumber. In my experience, if you have already called a plumber a few weeks ago, and the clog is back, you are looking at a larger and deeper issue. Your blockage may be in the sewage system beyond your home.
I do have a friend who just gave up after several embarassing situations with her own lav, and she went out and bought one of those “12 golf ball” models at the local hardware store. I know that some of the earliest “low flow” models are not very effective, but the technology of flushing more with less has improved.
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How To Unclog a Toilet With No Commercial Product
This is a great tip to unplug a toilet without expensive products. Simply squirt some normal dishwashing detergent in, and that nasty clog should get all greased up. The detergent is made to dissolve organic matter and it also lubricates.
Another benefit is that the pleasant smell of the detergent. It will mask the less pleasant smells that may come from the toilet clog.
Did you try this tip, or do you have another simple way to get a toilet unplugged? Let us know by leaving a comment!
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