Get Rid of Iron Stains in Your Pool

What a beautiful day in Michigan today.  92 degrees with not a cloud in the sky.  Us (grammar check) We Michiganders (yes, that's what I call those from Michigan) deserve many days like this after the record breaking winter of 2013/2014!

I decided to take a break from my masters program studies and read by the pool.  After reading, soaking in some sun, and becoming quite sweaty I decided to take a swim in the pool which was absolutely beautiful.

We have a fiberglass, in-ground pool which we fill every year from our garden hose.  Since we have a well, a lot of iron passes into our pool even though I use a filter on the hose.  This iron creates an ugly, orangey-brown stain all over the pool - especially on the seats and steps, but it is ALL over.  This iron staining makes our pool look dirty even when it is sparkling clean. 

Yesterday, I suddenly remembered that last year I discovered an easy, inexpensive way to remove these iron stains.  Simply...Vitamin C Crystals.  That's it!  Really!  Sprinkle the crystals into the pool and almost immediately the stains begin disappearing.  After I remembered this, I went to the cabinet and found a half-filled bottle of Trader Joe's Vitamin C Crystals.  I sprinkled them into the pool paying special attention to the steps and seats.  This was about 8pm.  I noticed right away some of the stains disappearing.  I decided I would go to Trader Joe's in the morning and purchase another bottle of Vitamin C Crystals.

This 16oz bottle was $11.99.

This morning when I checked the pool almost all the staining was gone!  I still noticed some along the water level and on the bottom of the pool.  I purchased some more vitamin c and sprinkled the entire 16oz bottle into the pool at 1pm.  Checking on the pool at 4pm all the staining was gone!  Well, there is still a small amount by the skimmer basket return.

I don't know what precautions there are concerning the chemicals and water balance, but I have never experienced anything negative from using Vitamin C.  I would recommend to research it more if you were going to try this.   You can find Vitamin C crystals at many stores.  I believe it is important that you choose a Vitamin C product that is from ascorbic acid.  You will be able to tell by looking at the ingredients label.

This is a picture of the staining that remains.  Look closely and you can see the staining.  Almost my whole pool had this staining, but much darker.  Since I just added more vitamin c today, I will check on any improvement tomorrow .


So use this tip and enjoy your sparkling, clear pool this summer and many more to follow!

Catching up on some of our Christmas activities...

I am still not used to blogging, hence the reason I have not posted in 2 months! 

Although it is February, I am posting about a few Christmas activities my students had fun with this past Christmas.

 

Our elf, Snowflake, was with us throughout the month of December.  It was fun seeing him in a different spot everyday.  I must say, Snowflake was a good elf...pretty much!

The day Snowflake was delivered to our classroom.



Here is a picture of our classroom door....

 

found this idea here

 

The bottom is green mountains with more angels.  The angels were the students' hand prints and the angel bodies were made from gold tissue paper.  The heads were circles cut from cardstock and the students added the faces and halos (I had this word spelled 'haloes' but spell correct corrected me.).  All of this was glued on blue construction paper then cut out.  I think they turned out great!

 

Here is my classroom Christmas bulletin board...

 

 

Just thought it up during class one day.  The border is made from manger scenes the students made.

 

Here is a close up picture of the student manger scene...

 

 

The students loved building 'Christmas trees' with green plastic cups!

 

Very proud they are!

I also had the students make Christmas trees out of strips of paper with scrunched up tissue paper as ornaments.



 Great for fine motor skills!

 

We made applesauce & cinnamon ornaments. 

Our classroom smelled sooooo good!

Click here for the recipe. 

These do not have to be expensive as you can usually find cinnamon at the dollar store. 

I even found $1 cinnamon at the local party store right by my house!

 

 

We used a straw to put a hole in each ornament and then added ribbon when they were dry.  It took a few days for them to completely dry.

 

Last project to share is the Moosteltoes the students made. 

 I read the book Mooseltoe to the class then they created their own Mooseltoe.  Scholastic had this book for $1 during its Christmas brochure, but you can find it on amazon.com anytime.

     

Click here to search for Mooseltoe on amazon.

 

Here is one student's Mooseltoe.

I found a *freebie* template from Smedley's Smorgasbord of Kindergarten blog here.

 

Although there was a lot more going on in our classroom, this is all I am sharing today since I am trying to get up-to-date with blogging.

 

Thanks for reading!

Happy Teaching!