Our New Pool Build and The FUN (i.e. Stress) that Goes Along with it!

[ajw22]

Your CSI is low at -.39. Let your pH ruse to between 7.6 - 7.8 and your CSI will be between 0 and -0.3.

If your last CYA test was 2 months ago you should update it.

 

[MeowMeow724]

Last CYA was 12/15/19.
I guess I didn't log it.
It was 100.
I think it was a little off.. my testing for that is still not great. I'm thinking more like 80..

The app is acting weird and isn't showing it on the logs until I click into it, and they're not lined up where they need to be.

 

[ajw22]

Last CYA was 12/15/19.
I guess I didn't log it.
It was 100.

CYA of 100?? How did it get that high? With that CYA your CSI is -0.41

With CYA 100 and a SWG it is off the FC/CYA Levels and you should have a target FC of 8.

Retest your CYA.

 

[MeowMeow724]

CYA of 100?? How did it get that high?

With CYA 100 and a SWG it is off the FC/CYA Levels and you should have a target FC of 8.

Retest your CYA.

I don't trust my testing skills for that yet.
I'm realizing I don't have some of my logs in pool math yet. I'll update. 11/29 testing was 60 for CYA...so I think I screwed up the 12/15.

I just turned the SWG down again today from 6 to 4 also because the FC is high.

 

[ajw22]

Last CYA I see in your PM log is Nov 23 @ 50.

 

[MeowMeow724]

I just updated my logs. I hadn't put some in there... I write it down sometimes and put in PM later. Sorry about that!

.....either way i do need to retest it. For some reason I thought I had to use the same tube as the other tests so I waited till after dinner because I was testing till the last second before it was ready and just didn't get there ?

Done!
About 40.. I still feel like I mess this one up.
I see the target is 70-80 and even if I did mess up, it's not in that range...

 

[ajw22]

Putting a suspect bad value like the CYA 100 messes up other things in PoolMath. If you suspect a test got messed up it is better not to log it and retest.

 

[MeowMeow724]

Understood.
I think I need to watch some videos on CYA testing. I just feel like I stink at it.
I'm more confident hat the 40 I got tonight is more accurate. But I will retest tomorrow.

I was just thinking I'd love to invest in an automated test system. Why isn't that a "thing"! ?

I heard about an auto pH system. With my crazy pH it may not be a bad idea.

 

[ajw22]

Get CYA standard solution to practice on.

R-7065 CYA Standard 50ppm (2oz)

tftestkits.net

Read this for tips...

CYA Testing - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Auto pH systems are not 100% reliable and require periodic maintenance.

 

[Rattus Suffocatus]

The CYA test in the kit is IMHO by far the worst part of the kit, it is very subjective. (I like a different kit's TA test better too but that is completely personal opinion.) Do the CYA test in BRIGHT SUNLIGHT for the best result. Follow the instructions in the kit to a T on this one. This is total sacrilege here but the strips I got from the PB test CYA (and only CYA, they suck otherwise) as well and as accurately as the Taylor kit (TFP kit uses Taylor chemicals). I personally like to have another test source from a different manufacturer as a backup source if possible, I do both when I test CYA (which isn't often once you get everything stable and you aren't using CYA, di or trichlor). They always match but then I get a warm fuzzy I did the titration test right.

Other than CYA and TA, the Taylor kit is far better on everything else and it's a wash on TA, I just like the mechanism of the other kit better, they give identical results.

However, you need to figure out how to get your methods there, because at least initially you need to have that number measured as accurately as practical. The standard test solution is probably the best way of doing this, but finding a second type of CYA test kit could be a possible second way of doing this.

And by the way, I'm bad about recording stuff into PoolMath as well. If everything is fine, I tend to forget to do it, but I also have to test in the dark (twice, my hot tub is detached) most times before work. So I am in a hurry to get out. Weekends are exceptions and I do more detailed testing then and I usually remember to enter it in.

But if you are trying to setup stuff or work through problems you will have to get disciplined about recording. I probably have been lucky that I've not had any problems so far (especially with my sloppy testing and recording!). Bleach and acid only so far. Beauty of TFP methods I suppose.

 

[MeowMeow724]

We seem to be steady creeping .1 pH per day.
Since I've been keeping it around 7.6, maybe I should try and keep it at 7.4 generally so that when it creeps up it won't be so borderline, so often.

Chlorine didn't really change, so I bumped it down again, from 4% to 2%.

 

[kimkats]

Play around with the pH and see if there is one spot where it does not creep up as fast. With you having new plaster it is going to go up for a while just from the curing but after a while it will settle on the number it likes the best and stay there for a while.

Kim

 

[ajw22]

We seem to be steady creeping .1 pH per day.
Since I've been keeping it around 7.6, maybe I should try and keep it at 7.4 generally so that when it creeps up it won't be so borderline, so often.

Chlorine didn't really change, so I bumped it down again, from 4% to 2%.

The lower the pH is the faster it will rise. pH will rise faster from 7.4 to 7.6 then it will from 7.6 to 7.8. There is n benefit to reducing pH rise by trying to keep your pH lower. Most pools with SWGs are happier with pH around 7.8.

 

[MeowMeow724]

Question on calcium hardness...
Mine is around 250.
We've had the high pH issue and the PB noted calcium building up from leeching on some areas where they may not have been fully exposed (I may be wrong on the affect they mentioned...)

So, if we keep our pH around 7.6 to keep a better buffer for the consistent increases we've been having, that should help.

With this situation.. and our calcium being on the lower end of the range, should I bump the calcium just a bit as well?

 

[MeowMeow724]

So. Confusing.
I'm told our pH has been high and may be lending to why we're seeing some markings... Along with how the plaster was done.

So I'm trying to keep it lower. Today I probably went a little too low on the pH, but it'll be higher by tomorrow anyway.

I ran all tests again today, after testing pH and adding MA to decrease it.

I feel like things are in pretty good balance but my CSI is -.61.
If I put pH to 7.6 it goes into the -.30s...

I can't seem to figure out how to keep that number in the range it should be (.30 to -.30) Do I have the range wrong?

I feel like I'm never going to get a good handle on this. ?

 

[ajw22]

pH level does not have any effect on markings you may see on the pool.

Run your pH more towards 7.8 and your CSI will be better. I think I have suggested this previously.

 

[MeowMeow724]

Thank you! Yes you did.
But I'm paranoid of keeping it on the higher end because of what the PB told me about the markings.
They said that if the pH is high it can make them worse... Basically that it can exacerbate the plaster being underexposed? Or overexposed? In those areas.
There's marking all over the pool. And I don't know if I'm just seeing new ones I've not noticed before or if they're new. Drives me nuts. But, the same things went with our new-build house.. as time goes on you notice more things that were always there, but you never had noticed before.

And today I noticed something on the bench I hadn't noticed before...
Almost looks like they didn't smooth out the line with the the trowel.. and an area that looks like plaster wasn't smoothed or brushed away??? ?

It's really hard to see, and the pic where I added an arrow is too large to upload.

 

[ajw22]

You need to decide who you will listen to. Trying to follow the suggestions of many different people just leads to the confusion you have. If you want to follow your pool builders advice I suggest you talk to him about your confusion.

Markings on the pool are not caused or fixed with water chemistry. It is a convenient excuse that builders use as they will not tell you it is caused by plaster workmanship. Read...

Pool Water Balance is Not (Always) the Problem

Pool Water Balance Is Not (Always) the Problem (For this post, please consider the LSI as being the same as the CSI which is more familiar to TFP members. Pool industry people are more familiar with the LSI). For 50 years, the pool industry has considered pool water within an LSI (or CSI) of...

www.troublefreepool.com

Being Blamed for Plaster Discolorations? Don't Get Hoodwinked

Some newly plastered pools (including quartz and pebble finishes) may develop either color fading, white soft spotting (also incorrectly called "spot etching" by some plasterers), white streaking (in colored plaster), calcium nodules, gray mottling discoloration (of white plaster), spalling...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[MeowMeow724]

Thank you again!
Another valuable article.

I wonder if this is why they're going to acid wash the whole thing and are pretty easy going about it (at least they seem to be).

I wonder if I should push for a replastering? Or do you think our discolorations, lines (which we initially thought we caused from the leaf rake but I doubt so...)
There is even the weird elongated triangle coming down the wall off one of the return jets, and there's no way we caused that. Oy.

 

[kimkats]

If you do push for a new plaster job make sure they do a FULL chip out. They will try to just chip out around the returns, lights, drains, etc and plaster over the old plaster. That is okay BUT it does mean that when it comes time to replaster due to time/age down the road it will be more expensive on YOUR dime as they will have to chip out TWO layers of plaster.