Sequestering is a good thing
Sequestering in your pool or spa water has to do with treating the minerals that can cause harm to your equipment, and it is something that gets overlooked because if you don’t add a sequestering agent regularly, like you add chlorine, you might not see the negative effects so quickly…but just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean something harmful isn’t going on in your pool water.
The Stainers
The most common minerals that a sequestering or chelating agent takes care of for our area are copper, iron, and calcium. Each mineral poses its own problems so we will start with the two that will stain your pool; copper and iron.
Chlorine always seems to get blamed for turning toe-heads into green haired swimmers, but poor chlorine is not the culprit, it is copper in the water that has turned someone’s hair green. And, just like blonde hair that gets stained, your pool or spa surface can get stained too.
While the copper stain in the water can be a pretty blue or green, iron is an ugly dirty looking brown. Both can come from your fill water or be added in other ways. In fact, if you fill from well water it may go in looking clear, but as soon as you throw in some shock, the water could turn brown (which is why you should always have your water analyzed before you do anything to it)
Hard Water
The other big mineral problem in Southern Utah is calcium and it is not only annoying, but it can be damaging to equipment and therefore costly to you, the pool or spa owner. It builds up on salt cells (that generate chlorine), heaters, the sides of your pool or spa, and can form in sheets in your hot tub if not taken care of. A salt cell, like the picture to the right, is covered in calcium and not able to work as effectively has you need it to (this means you need to leave it on longer to make enough chlorine and it will wear out faster). It will need to be cleaned with muriatic acid to restore it. But, if a sequestering agent was used, this build up would not happen nearly as fast, or at all.
“These minerals or metals reach a point of saturation caused either from being naturally high in our source water or through build up from evaporation, which in the can exceed 1/2″ per day. Calcium or minerals will cause stains on the plaster and that ring around the tile line that we need to clean every year.” (H20 Problems)
Calcium coming out of solution gets worse as the temperature increases, so it is important for hot tubs to have a sequestering agent regularly put in. Our soaring summer temperatures make our pools especially susceptible to calcium coming out of solution, so every pool owner should make sure that they put in Mineral Magnet on a regular basis. Besides chlorine and pH, Mineral Magnet is probably the most important treatment a pool owner needs to keep up with.
Mineral Magnet
At Tropical Pools and Spas, we sell Clear View Mineral Magnet as a sequestering agent and have been very pleased with the results we have seen in customers who use it regularly.
For Best results with your Mineral Magnet, add it when the water temperature is above 60 F. and run the pump for 24 hours.
On a side note, if you do bring your water in to be analyzed, please keep in mind that our test can’t tell if you have put in the Mineral Magnet or not. So if you put it in the day before and you bring your water in to be tested and the computer analysis still tells you to add more, don’t. Mineral Magnet is a product that you should write down the date you put in on a calendar and remember yourself.
Bio-Dex Salt Protect
If you have a pool that uses a salt chlorine generator we have a sequestering agent that is
formulated for salt pools. It softens and removes scale and prolongs the life of your salt cell. It also removes many organic stains and prevents them from coming back. In addition, Salt Protect helps balance pH and will lower water hardness too.
Rendezvous Protect Plus
For hot tubs and spas, we sell Protect Plus from Rendezvous to help you keep your minerals under control. Protect Plus will help you with stains, scale, and rust while brightening your water and protecting your equipment.
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