Pool Build - California Dreaming - 3 Years Closer

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Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

spillmar said:
Is there a kit and some guidance on how to perform pool chemistry myself. I definitely need help or alternatively I can hire a pro and gleen off of him/her over time.
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that has to be a joke... right?

I hear theres this pretty good website... Dang I cant remember it
 
Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

spillmar said:
Thanks Nightmare, the final meter reading taken yesterday shows 45K gallons, spa is also quite large.

I have added nothing yet to the pool. I will be brushing it today and testing the water tomorrow. Is there a kit and some guidance on how to perform pool chemistry myself. I definitely need help or alternatively I can hire a pro and gleen off of him/her over time.
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DUDE!! If anyone is a pro... it's you. This site is all about not paying others to screw up your pool, after all your hard work you need to remain the king of your pool just like the rest of us around here. I can't believe we let you fill up this pool without a TF100 test kit! OMG!

Can we direct you to pool school now? Look up at the top of the page, white button. It explains everything. I don't know much about fresh plaster pools apparently (as seen my my CYA comment... never knew that), but you absolutely need chlorine and eventually CYA.

Can someone more experienced help our friend Spillmar with this? I'm still baffled that it wasn't mentioned prior to this... we let you down. Sorry!
 
Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

LOL

Find out the specific start-up procedure for your plaster type and SWG.

If this is compatible, I'd go:

25-50 lbs of stabilized tablets
4 Floats (3-5 tabs each)

That should get you to 30 days. It's super low maintenance :goodjob:

The Cheapo Chlorine/pH kit will be ok until the good one shows up. Your CH and TA should be close to mine.

I picked up the TF100, but get whichever one they recommend for Salt Systems.
 
Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

spillmar said:
Thanks Nightmare, the final meter reading taken yesterday shows 45K gallons, spa is also quite large.

I have added nothing yet to the pool. I will be brushing it today and testing the water tomorrow. Is there a kit and some guidance on how to perform pool chemistry myself. I definitely need help or alternatively I can hire a pro and gleen off of him/her over time.
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Major congrats on this milestone Spillmar. All the pro's and information you need to master your pool chems are right here. I would read up in pool school as much and as often as you can, and start checking out some other areas in the forum. We will all help and pitch in. You need to order a TF-100 test kit ASAP and learn to use it. Get the speedstir option too. You'll be doing some testing and it will make things nice. You ought to post a new thread elsewhere, and there will be some real knowledge given to you about a new plaster start up. I know there are some special considerations with that, especially for the first few-several months.
 
Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

Have you considered manually chlorinating?

Your mfr's guidelines indicate 0 chlorine is ok? Sorry, but what am I missing here?

While I don't know jack about plaster pools, I'm fairly certain chlorination is essential to every pool and new SWG pools need to be manually chlorinated till the salt is properly dissolved. Have you started the SWG yet?

I guess I'm a little confused over the new plaster/CYA/SWG relationship. Seems like it'd be difficult to maintain chlorine without CYA and SWG pools require high CYA levels.

I'm also a little confused over the lack of information/advice provided to Spillmar regarding water chemistry. He's been pointed to articles but no one has given direct advice regarding chlorination/CYA/SWG startup other than Nightmare and Spillmar is going on day 3 without chlorine. A week of this and we all know what's going to happen to that gorgeous pool. He does not have a test kit, he won't be able to shock properly and by next week we'll all be telling him to shock it if the 0 chlorine continues.

Seriously, what am I missing? Why are we not helping more? I am not qualified to do it.
 
Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

I don't want to give advice on the startup, because I don't know if the "Plaster" he has wants/needs something different than mine. I also have zero experience with SWG.

My PB and several other sources told me NOT to add CYA until it was past 30 days.

You can pour Liquid Chlorine into the pool, but his pools is almost 2x the size of mine. The 2 gallons I put into my pool were gone is about 48 hours (due to sun and lack of CYA).

I was told that the CYA contained in the "Stabilized" tablets was ok for a new pool startup. It took weeks of using the tablets for my CYA level to get up to anything measurable. After 30-40 days I did the CYA in a sock thing to get my level up to about 50.
 

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Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

Did they tell you WHY adding CYA to the pool manually was bad?

I am not arguing the advice, I have no basis to. I do however want to know why.

Spillmar has to somehow manage to get his CYA to the 70-80ppm range for the SWG. That's going to take a long time with pucks and I'm going to assume that means that the SWG will be taxed highly to maintain chlorine till the CYA is high enough. With 0 CYA... well from what I've read about SWG's... chlorine will be lost about as fast as it's produced. Someone please correct me if this is in error.

I guess the pucks will help keep the ph down though... ????
 
Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

Your best bet is to read the 'New Plaster Startup' article in Pool School and follow that as long as it doesn't conflict with the PB's requirements. He has the last say as it's his responsibility if something goes wrong. You don't want to give him a reason to deny warranty.
 
Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

Bama Rambler said:
Your best bet is to read the 'New Plaster Startup' article in Pool School and follow that as long as it doesn't conflict with the PB's requirements. He has the last say as it's his responsibility if something goes wrong. You don't want to give him a reason to deny warranty.
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Pretty sure the OP is the PB too. :goodjob:

Frogabog...FWIW, you do not add salt or attempt to start up the SWG in the first 30 days.



Spillmar you really have been busy building and not reading pool school here on TFP...here you go

pool-school/pool_plaster_start-up

Adding salt to a fresh plaster/pebbletec, etc pool is a no no, so that it may cure properly for at least 30 days. Starting up with Trichlor tablets is solid advice for now (1st 30 days), as fresh plaster tends to make PH rise and tabs are acidic and also add CYA, just be ready to supplement with liquid chlorine to maintain adequate FC. After 30 days, you can add salt and raise the CYA to SWG levels. If it's really sunny in Cali these days, you may consider adding 20ppm worth of CYA to start and let the tabs go to work over the next 30 days.
 
Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

Thank you, that makes sense to me now.

Spillmar... does the wife have any bleach in the laundry room? If you're using the pucks right now, it doesn't look like they're doing the job and you'll need to supplement with bleach/liquid chlorine till they are able to. With that size pool you might want to go with pool store liquid chlorine @ 12% but bleach will work fine (half the concentration=twice as many gallons). If your pool goes green I'll cry and spill salty tears into your pool and ruin the plaster!

:~}
 
Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

Okay, okay, lets just say I am REALLY embarrassed to have not learned the pool chemistry just yet in anticipation of filling the pool.
Good news is that I am a fast learner so I should be able to take your advice and the TFP School info and run with it. Thanks again.
BTW I have an unconditional lifetime warranty on everything related to this pool...the PB (me) guaranteed he will cover everything that breaks to the OB (me), and the plasterer (me) is on board as well.
 
Re: Pool Build - California Dreaming

Here are some photos from today of the pool. There are shots of the sun shelf with the bubblers on; a shot of the swim up bar with the column water spouts on; a shot from the deep end with the laminar fountains going; a shot of the spa with the blower going; a shot from the pool entry of the three waterfalls. Let me know your thoughts.

I have been waking at dawn to brush the pool which I repeat at dusk. I plan to do this for about a week until most of the plaster dust is dissolved, filtered, etc. I am thinking of getting the Dolphin deluxe cleaner. Any thoughts on this cleaner.

Best Regards.
 

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