Waterline suntan lotion stain

Hi Richard - very interesting - many thanks.
I have some ‘Axton’ nettoyant ligne d’eau - I don’t know if you have any experience of this, and whether it is less effective than Bayrol, etc?
Your comment on ph though is most interesting - I had in fact just lowered the water ph before these lotion-basted children arrived! - did I contribute to the problem? Or did you mean use ph+ not to raise the general water ph level, but as a cleaning product?

The Water Lily’s are expensive. I got a top tip elsewhere to use the Spargo “Melamine Powersponge” you can get in Action, Lidl etc.

Net ‘n’ Skims can catch a good amount of the green suntan oil slick as well as all the other debris they catch instead of it going straight into your sand filter.

I’ve found that keeping the free chlorine level around the 5ppm Mark helps to reduce the green line stain on both the pool and inflatables.

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Geoff.

To use the pH+ as a cleaning agent, it turns esters such as oil and fat to a soap like product but does take a few minutes.

The Bayrol product is excellent as are all Bayrol products. I suspect the cash Piscines product is the same. Spray or wipe on the product then leave for a minute or two then scrub and wash off. Repeat as necessary.

Sun tan lotion is a culprit but so too is sweat, makeup, skin oils etc. Regular use of the Bayrol product should keep on top of it.

I am sorry, I tend to use Bayrol products as a, now retired, professional as my reputation relied on a clean and healthy pool, so have not used the Axton product

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Try using sodium bicarbonate and a light scourer on the “scum line”

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I would recommend caution with scouring. Liners are produced with a coating to help reduce staining. Scrubbing this with a scourer could damage the protective layer.
Its a complete nightmare with sun creams. 15 years ago I took pieces of liner material and coated them with various sun products and left them out in the sun.
P40 was the worst by far and produced an indelible stain with 15 minutes, banned its use at my pool.
The higher factor creams 30-50 were the next worse.
The dry spray types were ok. Liners have changed since then as the heavy metals once used are now banned in the EU replaced with safer chemicals like calcium so its probably time to repeat the test.
I agree with using the netskim on the baskets these can save a lot of backwashing.

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Appreciate what you say, but I did say a light scourer as I am aware that being too heavy handed can damage a pool liner.

I don’t think anyone so far has shared any experience of enzyme-based products you add to the water to ‘break down’ oils and lotions - any thoughts?

Mostly snake oil salesperson territory. Whilst enzyme is the new buzzword like serum is to the makeup fashion world, enzymes do exist that eat oils and grease the presence of any chlorine is likely to kill the enzyme within seconds

isn’t there an enzyme which “eats” plastic… … :thinking: :roll_eyes:

Yes but not in presence of a biocide.

Mmmm… I was merely musing on how things progress… and possibly go wrong…

When I heard about the plastic-eating enzyme … it was almost the same time as I heard about recycled plastic being used in road surfaces… and my mind went into a tizzy… :rofl: :thinking: