New Pebble Tec fill - high PH

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DandT40

Member
Oct 15, 2023
24
San Tan Valley, AZ
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
I’ve had water in my pool for one week now. It is a PebbleTec finish. The PH was lower around 7 the first few days but has been rising since. Since I don’t have chlorine or salt at this point, what’s the recommended treatment to counter act the plaster causing the PH to rise? I see the calculators but everything assumes chlorine or salt for an established pool. Is muriatic acid still the answer in the first few days? Thanks for any help to a first time pool owner!
 
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Have you read these two articles from the TFP Wiki site? They will help you enoumously-

Plaster Start-Up Guides - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Plaster Installation and Maintenance - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

It is the nature of plaster to raise the pH while it cures. Until you get the SWG up and running aprox 30 days past filling, you definitely need to use liquid chlorine in there to protect you from algae, and also use Muriatic Acid to lower the pH during this cure period. You also need to add CYA stabilizer as that acts like sun screen for your chlorine.

How are you testing? Please invest in a GOOD quality test kit and don't rely on pool store testing.
Test Kits Compared. in the end you'll save buckets of money doing your own repeatable testing. (I'm a huge fan of the TF-100 Pro Salt kit. It contains everything you need.

Additionally PoolMath. can help you with how much chemical you need to add. And TFP helps you avoid all the unnecessary chemicals pool stores want to sell you in exchange for those "free water tests" they offer.

Please feel free to ask more explanation or questions as they arise...we're happy to help.

Maddie 🇮🇹
 
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Thanks! Added muriatic acid per PoolMath and got the PH back in line. I do have a Taylor kit and everything else besides chlorine and salt and all that goes with it is in line because I did not know we should add it in this period before we start the SWG. Thanks for that!

Lots of great tutorials so learning a lot quickly!
 
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What exact Taylor test kit do you have?
Taylor makes a bunch of different test kits.
Test Kits Compared

Do you have a drop test to test salt? You will need one to test salt content when you start using your SWG.
Taylor K-1766 or equivalent.
Be sure to test salt in pool water BEFORE adding any salt.

Fill out your signature with pool, pool equipment (including manufacturers and model numbers) and test kit info.
This assists us in providing you help without needing to ask you for this info each time.

You can get liquid chlorine at the Walmart on Hunt Hwy.
Pool Essentials 10%.

Post a full set of current test results from one of the recommended test kits.

FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA
Water temperature
 
Yeah my kit is lacking so I ordered the TF-100 pro salt kit. Hopefully it will come soon because I can’t get any chlorine to measure after starting to add the pool essentials stuff yesterday. I added enough based on the calc that it should be measurable for sure but keeps coming up 0. I’m guessing this is from my CYA being low but I don’t want to add something without testing.

FC - 0
CC - 0
PH - 7.6
TA - 80
CH - unknown
CYA - unknown
Temp - 64
 
Did you get the TF-Pro Salt or TF-100 Salt?
Your kit will probably arrive Wednesday or Thursday.

What are the reagent numbers for the FC and pH tests in your current kit?
Whatare the expiration dates on the Taylor reagents?

When you say you added enough, how much 10% chlorine did you add?
What is the date code on the chlorine bottle?

Add the SWG model number (IC20, IC40, IC60) to your signature.
With a new finish, no salt for 30 days.
 
As Proavia's question above hints at- the date the liquid chlorine is produced is usually stamped on the neck of the jug. For today (Mar 27) it would read: 24086. That is the 86th day of 2024. You always should strive to buy jugs that are no older than 3 months for best potency. Chlorine degrades over time, or with excessive heat/sunlight.

Maddie
 
Thanks everyone. I’ve been out of town for a couple days but the wife has been keeping the PH down so last night I tested and same results.

The test kit looks good with the expiration on the bottles being later this year or 2025.

The jugs on the other hand…. The one I was using is labeled 23 362 and the other is 23 324. So that could be a problem right there. May go to the store and see if I can find something better.

New TF-100 Salt kit arrives tomorrow.
 
Got the new test kit and it confirms 0 chlorine…. Results are below. Was thinking of bumping up CYA before adding anymore chlorine. See if that helps…

FC - 0
CC - 0
PH - 7.5
TA - 100
CH - 375
CYA - 25
Temp - 69
 
Next time you dose chlorine, give it 20 mins of mixing and test again to see of you got anywhere near target.

How much have you been adding ?

How often ?
 

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Previous I added 36 oz a few times which should have moved it up. This time I added 50 oz and just tested and finally have chlorine present.

Generally speaking how often should I have to add chlorine (in this pre-SWG time)? Is it a daily thing?
 
DandT40 said:
Generally speaking how often should I have to add chlorine (in this pre-SWG time)? Is it a daily thing?
Click to expand...
Yes. Daily. UV eats FC.
DandT40 said:
This time I added 50 oz and just tested and finally have chlorine present.
Click to expand...
The gallons could be off, and the bleach a little weak, and lower CYA....... speaking of. How did it get to 25 ? Did you add it in any capacity such as pucks ? Fill water is 0 and testing under 30 is sketchy at best. With a fresh fill knowing our starting point, you can use the additions without the test to know it's 15 (?).
 
Ooooooooooooo. Yay. Let's get ahead of the next blunder. See the problem you're having dialing in the FC ? The PB is gonna do that with your salt too. Except they don't have any time to fiddle with it, so they're gonna drive by and toss in 300 lbs of salt in one shot without testing first.

When their gallons are off, your fill water had some salt, and you've been already adding all that sodium hyperchlorite and MA that breaks down to salt....... the PB will overshoot the target and you'll be draining.

Have them drop off 7 bags of salt and you take the care to get it right. Test first with a k1766, add 75% from baseline to target, then creep up the rest of the way once you know each bag got you XXX salt from the first add.
 
Got out this morning in between the rain to get some water samples to test. Starting to get some where. I added more chlorine again this morning as a result. For the CYA I did previously add some stabilizer as I assumed I was at 0 and was paranoid the chlorine was just burning off. Now that my chlorine is getting closer I’ll add some more to get the CYA up.

FC - 1.5
CC - 1.5
PH - 7.5
TA - 100
CH - 375
CYA - 25
Temp - 64
 
Newdude said:
Ooooooooooooo. Yay. Let's get ahead of the next blunder. See the problem you're having dialing in the FC ? The PB is gonna do that with your salt too. Except they don't have any time to fiddle with it, so they're gonna drive by and toss in 300 lbs of salt in one shot without testing first.

When their gallons are off, your fill water had some salt, and you've been already adding all that sodium hyperchlorite and MA that breaks down to salt....... the PB will overshoot the target and you'll be draining.

Have them drop off 7 bags of salt and you take the care to get it right. Test first with a k1766, add 75% from baseline to target, then creep up the rest of the way once you know each bag got you XXX salt from the first add.
Click to expand...
That sounds like a recipe for disaster! I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to do less work. Lol. I’ll be sure to test before they come so I can at least tell them the starting point.
 
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