Help, Please Balancing

[ald2002]

I'll start with background. Three weeks ago, my pool was filled after Pebblesheen was applied. My PB turned the pool over to me after dumping about 7 bags of salt in the pool two weeks ago and I was told I am responsible for balancing. The PB will be back next week to turn on the chlorinator which likely will be senseless since the water will be too cold. Also, the PB provided ranges for the chemicals which do not match the recommendations from PebbleTech.

I hired a pool service company to brush the pool daily and clean the skimmer. I test my water with my T100 and my pool servicing company tests my water too. The pool is consistently not balanced.
Today, the pool servicing company ran a sample of water through their Spintouch system and I also tested this morning. Please see below for results.

I don't know how to balance this pool and the pool servicing company won't treat the water since I am within the 28 days and my chemicals are conflicting. I've contacted my PB and know they will tell me it's ok if my CYA is high. It won't hurt the finish and it will dilute in time with rain and adding fresh water due to evaporation (this is the advice I've received before) We had awful storms last week and the CYA is still high. I also know from reading many posts in the forum that others have had conflicting chemicals and were able to treat based on guidance from forum members.

Also, I did treat with Muriatic Acid and I am VERY sensitive to it - had a hard time breathing. This is one reason I wanted help from the pool servicing company. One more note - there is lovely floater with chlorine pucks floating around the pool.

Any advice on next steps for this newbie? I'll go to Pool Math but thought I could get direction and guidance. Thank you so much.

Spin touch System Results
Chlorine 10
TA 80
pH 8.0+
Salt 3400 (chlorinator was not started and don't know why they added salt so soon)
CYA 100+
Calcium Hardness 209

Results from my testing T100
Water temperature 55 degrees
FC 11 (CC 0.5)
TA 90
pH 8.0
CYA 100
Calcium Hardness 550 (I know this must be a newbie mistake)

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Wow....kinda early to be adding salt. Please make sure you register your warranty with the company;

Product Registration - Register your PebbleTec product.

Enjoy peace of mind, knowing that our team of experts is with you all the way. Be sure to register your PebbleTec finish.

www.pebbletec.com

I would also follow the Pebblesheen start up guide and stop waiting for the builder to do anything.

Pool Care Instructions - Maintaining proper water chemistry.

With the ownership of a PebbleTec pool finish comes the responsibility of maintaining proper water chemistry.

www.pebbletec.com

Stand upwind of muriatic acid- brush well the area you slowly poured it into in front of a running water return. Do not use dry acid as that is harmful to both your pool surface and salt cell. Take that pH down as often as necessary.

How can you have so much Stabilizer in already?? Do you know how much they added? See any leftover containers? I would complain to the builder.

Make sure you did the CH test math correctly. Its a common mistake: if you use 10cc of pool water you multiply by 25, whereas the older instructions where you used more pool water and reagents had you multiply by 10.

I'd take that floater and pucks out.... that FC you have will probably last a month or so if covered. CYA only leaves the pool thru drainage or splash out. It will degrade slowly over time, and you may be at an ideal level by spring. I'd suggest performing a dilution test to determine just how much over 100ppm you are. Take equal parts pool water and tap water and mix well. Then use this for your pool water portion of the test, but double the results. Best to let the water sit inside a bit if its really cold before doing the testing. Let us know the results.

Maddie

 

[ald2002]

Wow....kinda early to be adding salt. Please make sure you register your warranty with the company;

Product Registration - Register your PebbleTec product.

Enjoy peace of mind, knowing that our team of experts is with you all the way. Be sure to register your PebbleTec finish.

www.pebbletec.com

I would also follow the Pebblesheen start up guide and stop waiting for the builder to do anything.

Pool Care Instructions - Maintaining proper water chemistry.

With the ownership of a PebbleTec pool finish comes the responsibility of maintaining proper water chemistry.

www.pebbletec.com

Stand upwind of muriatic acid- brush well the area you slowly poured it into in front of a running water return. Do not use dry acid as that is harmful to both your pool surface and salt cell. Take that pH down as often as necessary.

How can you have so much Stabilizer in already?? Do you know how much they added? See any leftover containers? I would complain to the builder.

Make sure you did the CH test math correctly. Its a common mistake: if you use 10cc of pool water you multiply by 25, whereas the older instructions where you used more pool water and reagents had you multiply by 10.

I'd take that floater and pucks out.... that FC you have will probably last a month or so if covered. CYA only leaves the pool thru drainage or splash out. It will degrade slowly over time, and you may be at an ideal level by spring. I'd suggest performing a dilution test to determine just how much over 100ppm you are. Take equal parts pool water and tap water and mix well. Then use this for your pool water portion of the test, but double the results. Best to let the water sit inside a bit if its really cold before doing the testing. Let us know the results.

Maddie

Thank you so much! The muriatic acid REALLY bothers me wondering if it's just my sensitivity? The moment I opened it it hit my lungs and I was cautious. I asked at least three times for an amount of CYA that was added. I was never given an answer and told the level is fine. I've complained they are happy to have my pool finished. I'll redo the CH tomorrow and take the floater out. I will try the dilution test tomorrow and report back. Do you suggest I focus on the acid for now with the hope the CYA will lower over time? I am hoping I don't need to drain any of the water. If I do, the pool company should be responsible since they added the CYA. Thank you so much, again, for your help.

 

[ald2002]

Thank you so much! The muriatic acid REALLY bothers me wondering if it's just my sensitivity? The moment I opened it it hit my lungs and I was cautious. I asked at least three times for an amount of CYA that was added. I was never given an answer and told the level is fine. I've complained they are happy to have my pool finished. I'll redo the CH tomorrow and take the floater out. I will try the dilution test tomorrow and report back. Do you suggest I focus on the acid for now with the hope the CYA will lower over time? I am hoping I don't need to drain any of the water. If I do, the pool company should be responsible since they added the CYA. Thank you so much, again, for your help.

With regard to the salt, I questions this and showed the PB the instructions you provided from Pebble Tech I was told adding the salt was perfectly fine as long at the chlorinator isn't started.

 

[ajw22]

With regard to the salt, I questions this and showed the PB the instructions you provided from Pebble Tech I was told adding the salt was perfectly fine as long at the chlorinator isn't started.

Your PB is an idiot.

When Can Salt Be Added to Plaster Pools - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

At this point your water is well past any startup recommendations. You should move on to TFP chemistry recommendations.

Recommended Pool Chemicals

Which should I buy? TFP's recommended pool chemicals are cheap, easy, and won't unbalance your pool water.

www.troublefreepool.com

Have you downloaded PoolMath?

 

[ald2002]

Your PB is an idiot

Interestingly enough, you aren’t the first person to make this comment, sadly.

 

[ald2002]

Have you downloaded

Yes!

 

[JJ_Tex]

Interestingly enough, you aren’t the first person to make this comment, sadly.

It doesnt mean your PB is a bad pool builder, but just because they can build them doesn't mean they understand or care about water chemistry.
Same things go for pool stores. They just have to be good at selling pool stuff, not necessarily fixing pool problems.

 

[ald2002]

It doesnt mean your PB is a bad pool builder, but just because they can build them doesn't mean they understand or care about water chemistry.
Same things go for pool stores. They just have to be good at selling pool stuff, not necessarily fixing pool problems.

True and I agree. Thank you.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Ok, you're 3 weeks in .... I'm sorry but muriatic acid must be used. There is a weaker strength MA available at some hardware stores (Lowes, I've seen) but remember that its half strength so you'll need to use twice as much to get the same result. So it costs more to use.

Maddie

 

[ald2002]

Ok, you're 3 weeks in .... I'm sorry but muriatic acid must be used. There is a weaker strength MA available at some hardware stores (Lowes, I've seen) but remember that its half strength so you'll need to use twice as much to get the same result. So it costs more to use.

Maddie

I added the acid the morning and had NO issues! In fact, I may have added a bit more than I should have lol. Good news, pH is way down - 7.0. I bet it will be back up tomorrow.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Are you remembering to brush around where it goes in? It is heavier than water, so we don't want to risk it settling on the floor or against the wall and marring your plaster.

Maddie

 

[ald2002]

Are you remembering to brush around where it goes in? It is heavier than water, so we don't want to risk it settling on the floor or against the wall and marring your plaster.

Maddie

Yes - I brushed. The pool was brushed 2x today. Thank you!