Hi everyone. We just had our pool resurfaced with Diamond Brite plaster. The contractor finished up last Monday and turned on our pumps. The contractor did good work, however they are not very good at communicating so don't really know what they put in the water, and they left me no startup instruction, but I do know that I have 6 empty gallon jugs of Muriatic Acid in my trash can.
Since they left me with no instructions, I went to the Diamond Brite website and got their instructions for starting up after new plaster and have been following the brushing regiment that they prescribe and trying to balance the pool to get it ready to swim, but I'm running into a few issues.
Let me also say that right now I only have test strips (InstaTest 6+ from LaMotte), but I'm going to order the K-2006 kit, but it will take about a week before it gets here, so I'm working with what I've got for the time being.
First Issue is PH. It's off the charts high, which I've read that is common with new plaster, but haven't been able to find what to do about it. I've added 5 lbs of Clorox PH Down over the last 2 days and my test strip is still glowing hot pink (over9) on my test strip.
The other issue is that I can't keep chlorine in the pool (I waited the 3 days Diamond Brite required before adding chlorine). My CL-220 chlorinator's lid has a leak, so I'm just using one of the floating dispensers for now until my new lid seals arrive on Wednesday for the CL-220.
I'm assuming that I need to get the PH under control before I need panic about the chlorine and am going to buy some Muriatic Acid this afternoon as I used up all of my PH Down that I had on hand.
With that long backstory, my questions are this:
1. Understanding that it's normal to have elevated PH with new plaster, am I supposed to just live with it until the plaster fully cures (doesn't seem right to me), or do I need to keep at it to achieve and maintain PH regardless.
2. Am I correct to assume that until I get the PH under control, I'm just chasing my tail with the chlorine.
Here are the test strip results I just took:
FCl - 0
TCl - 1
Alk - 120
pH - Over 9 (off the charts)
TH - 100
CyA - 100
Thank you for your help!
Jason
Since they left me with no instructions, I went to the Diamond Brite website and got their instructions for starting up after new plaster and have been following the brushing regiment that they prescribe and trying to balance the pool to get it ready to swim, but I'm running into a few issues.
Let me also say that right now I only have test strips (InstaTest 6+ from LaMotte), but I'm going to order the K-2006 kit, but it will take about a week before it gets here, so I'm working with what I've got for the time being.
First Issue is PH. It's off the charts high, which I've read that is common with new plaster, but haven't been able to find what to do about it. I've added 5 lbs of Clorox PH Down over the last 2 days and my test strip is still glowing hot pink (over9) on my test strip.
The other issue is that I can't keep chlorine in the pool (I waited the 3 days Diamond Brite required before adding chlorine). My CL-220 chlorinator's lid has a leak, so I'm just using one of the floating dispensers for now until my new lid seals arrive on Wednesday for the CL-220.
I'm assuming that I need to get the PH under control before I need panic about the chlorine and am going to buy some Muriatic Acid this afternoon as I used up all of my PH Down that I had on hand.
With that long backstory, my questions are this:
1. Understanding that it's normal to have elevated PH with new plaster, am I supposed to just live with it until the plaster fully cures (doesn't seem right to me), or do I need to keep at it to achieve and maintain PH regardless.
2. Am I correct to assume that until I get the PH under control, I'm just chasing my tail with the chlorine.
Here are the test strip results I just took:
FCl - 0
TCl - 1
Alk - 120
pH - Over 9 (off the charts)
TH - 100
CyA - 100
Thank you for your help!
Jason