I had my new pool filled on May 5 of this year. Since then we have grey stains on the white plaster. The pool company is saying it is a hydration problem and they will have to drain the pool, is this right? Also, now we are getting brown rough spots, which they are calling scales but can't tell me why it is happening. The chemicals are never right. Since May I have added 3 bags of salt which seems excessive. The chlorine is always low or none. The pH is always high and I need to add acid. I have added stabilizer once already in July and now they are saying I need more. I talk to people with salt water pools and they haven't done any of this. Any assistance is appreciated because I am constantly arguing with the company that put it in. Another thing is the guy first told me you need to run the pump at least 6 hours a day to produce chlorine, then he upped it to 8, now he wants me to run it 12 hours. This just doesn't make sense. Could the salt cell be bad even if I am not getting a reading on the meter? For some reason the salt and chlorine are not staying in the pool and the plaster looks terrible and they have no answers. Help!! Pool is 10,000 gallons.
new pool issues
- Thread starter Cmorris
- Start date
- Jun 22, 2014
- 47,802
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
Hello and welcome to TFP! 
I'll jump right to a few of your concerns first:
- Salt doesn't just disappear unless you exchange water. It's not uncommon to add enough salt to be around 3100 ppm or so. In your pool that would be (6) 40 lb bags.
- PH will always tend to rise quickly with new plaster. It's one of the most common challenges that must be continuously monitored to keep pH under 7.8. Add to the curing process an elevated TA or any other aeration (which includes a SWG) and your pH will climb faster.
- Without knowing all of your test results from a TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C test kit, we're guessing from here. But if your CYA is not at least 70, you will lose FC quickly as the SWG is designed to produce FC slowly over the day while your pump runs. At the same time, if your FC dropped too low this summer, you could be fighting algae which will also deplete FC very fast.
If you don't already have a TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C test kit, that would be my first recommendation. I personally recommend the TF-100 w/ Speed Stir. From there, the following links may help you as well:
Pool School - Determine Pump Run Time
Pool School - Water Balance for SWGs
Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart
I'll jump right to a few of your concerns first:- Salt doesn't just disappear unless you exchange water. It's not uncommon to add enough salt to be around 3100 ppm or so. In your pool that would be (6) 40 lb bags.
- PH will always tend to rise quickly with new plaster. It's one of the most common challenges that must be continuously monitored to keep pH under 7.8. Add to the curing process an elevated TA or any other aeration (which includes a SWG) and your pH will climb faster.
- Without knowing all of your test results from a TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C test kit, we're guessing from here. But if your CYA is not at least 70, you will lose FC quickly as the SWG is designed to produce FC slowly over the day while your pump runs. At the same time, if your FC dropped too low this summer, you could be fighting algae which will also deplete FC very fast.
If you don't already have a TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C test kit, that would be my first recommendation. I personally recommend the TF-100 w/ Speed Stir. From there, the following links may help you as well:
Pool School - Determine Pump Run Time
Pool School - Water Balance for SWGs
Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart
The salt not disappearing is what the pool company said but I have only backwashed it 2 times after heavy rains. All of the chemicals have been fine except for the chlorine and the pH which I was told is going to fluctuate while the plaster cures. What doesn't make sense is why the salt is disappearing, and they added 6 bags in May, and why there is consistently no chlorine. Ironically enough I don't have any algae in the pool. Any idea what the brown rough spots could be, they are on at least 1/4 of the pool.