Stain from adding pool salt. How to get rid of it?

May 10, 2017
18
Charlotte, NC
Hi All,
So I added 80lbs of pool salt directly into my pool late yesterday afternoon. My pump is on a timer so it shut everything down about 2-3 hours after adding the salt. When I went out in the morning, there was a very noticeable brown stain at the bottom where the salt sat all night (I have a Pebble finish). Lesson learned, not to add salt that late in the day.

My question is, how do I get rid of the brown stain? I've seen recommendations of rubbing a chlorinator tab on it, as well as adding muriatic acid with the pump off and letting it settle on the bottom where the stain is. Any of these actually work, or any other ways to go about removing it? Thanks all.
 
Welcome to the forum! :handshake:

It is an iron stain. Easiest way is to get some Vitamin C tablets (plain), put them in a sock, crush them up, and rub the sock on the stain.

Should disappear.

What brand salt did you use?

I always use water softener salt. Plain. From Walmart, Home Depot, etc.
 
Thanks for the tip, I'm definitely trying that.

I used the Chlorox pool salt from Walmart. Been using it for over a year now and never had this issue. I think it was because it sat on the bottom for so long, at least that's my reasoning! Could have gotten a bad batch too possibly?
 
We had a lot of reports last year about Clorox brand salt staining pools. Not so much this year.

I would suggest using plain water softener salt.
 
Welcome to the forum! :handshake:

It is an iron stain. Easiest way is to get some Vitamin C tablets (plain), put them in a sock, crush them up, and rub the sock on the stain.

Should disappear.

What brand salt did you use?

I always use water softener salt. Plain. From Walmart, Home Depot, etc.

Marty thanks for this tip. I have a few tiny dark spots that appeared after adding salt. I used a fingernail to scrape at them but they didn’t really get any smaller. I’ll try the vitamin c tabs.
 
Hey Marty,
Just circling back on this.

WOW!!!! The Vitamin C tablets worked INSTANTLY. Amazing! Thanks for the help, really appreciate it.

Welcome to the forum! :handshake:

It is an iron stain. Easiest way is to get some Vitamin C tablets (plain), put them in a sock, crush them up, and rub the sock on the stain.

Should disappear.

What brand salt did you use?

I always use water softener salt. Plain. From Walmart, Home Depot, etc.
 
Another black mark on Clorox. I was steered away from Clorox CYA with a warning about stories of quality control. Salt, too? "Trusted brand" and " well advertised brand" are two different things, I guess... The hypothesis was the outsourcing Clorox does for its pool products... I didn't read proof of that, just somebody's guess...
 

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Hey Marty,
Just circling back on this.

WOW!!!! The Vitamin C tablets worked INSTANTLY. Amazing! Thanks for the help, really appreciate it.

I, too, have suffered brown staining from the use of Clorox salt. The Vitamin C test was conclusive, however, due to the amount of staining, it would be extremely difficult to remove with tablets alone. Is there a more broadly-based remedy?

FC 7
CC 0
PH 7.6
CH 400
TA 60
CYA 60
SALT 3000
TEMP 92

15k IG plaster gunite
 
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