Rising Calcium - Re-Plastered Pool

[hp223]

My pool was re-plastered on June 14, 2013.

This morning's test results
FC 8.5
pH 7.8
TA 80
CH 440
CYA 50

I added 42 ounces of acid today. I add about 42 ounces of acid every other day. This lowers the PH from 7.8 to about 7.4-7.3.

I lose about 2 PPM chlorine in a 24 hour period. The pool is in the shade at least 40% of the day. I add about 51 ounces of bleach each day with the Stenner pump starting at dusk. The bleach says 8.25 but I suspect it is a higher concentration because I get a higher rise in the chlorine level than the pool calculator predicts.

I have a couple of questions.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of raising the CL level to 8.5 and letting it go to down 6.5 versus raising the CL level to 6.0 and letting it go down to 4.0. The guidelines for a 50 CYA level are minimum of 4.0 with a target of 6.0. I have been raising it to 8.5/9.0 because I was worried the circulation of the pool would not distribute the chlorine evenly.

The CH level has been rising. It was about 330 a month ago but is now 440. Is this to be expected with new plaster or am I doing something
wrong. The pool had an acid startup.

 

[linen]

What are the advantages/disadvantages of raising the CL level to 8.5 and letting it go to down 6.5 versus raising the CL level to 6.0 and letting it go down to 4.0. The guidelines for a 50 CYA level are minimum of 4.0 with a target of 6.0. I have been raising it to 8.5/9.0 because I was worried the circulation of the pool would not distribute the chlorine evenly.

As long as your FC stays above the minimum, then the advantage of a lower FC level will be less chlorine usage since less will be lost to the sun. If your pool goes from 6 to 4 ppm FC just due to losses from the sun, then if you go to 8.5 ppm you will drop ~5.5 ppm each day or a net ~ 3ppm verses 2 ppm lost. The advantage to running higher is you have a more margin for error.

The CH level has been rising. It was about 330 a month ago but is now 440. Is this to be expected with new plaster or am I doing something
wrong. The pool had an acid startup.

First, I am not an expert on this....but it is not uncommon for the CH level to rise on new plaster startups. You TA being as low as it is for startup may be part of the reason you CH is going up. Normally a TA of 80 is fine, but with new plaster, my understanding is ideally you may want it higher. My guess is though, you should not be seeing a lot more CH rise at the 2 month point now. Again, I am not an expert on this (I have never maintained new plaster), hopefully one will show up and comment Here is one discussion I have found: http://www.troublefreepool.com/ph-rise-in-new-plaster-t29483.html#p325911

 

[BoDarville]

Yep, a CH rise in a newly-plastered pool is quite normal. The link linen provided goes into more details on this. Here is another article you may want to look at: Start-up New Plaster. One caveat...If your installer has given you specific "start-up" procedures that differ with anything in this article, the installer's instructions take precedence so as to maintain your warranty.