New Pool surface, help with numbers please!

[SeeGars]

Okay! We are 3.5 weeks into our newly rennovated pool. The surface is River Rok and I am not confident that the company hired to do the work on the pool and the first 2 weeks of water maintenance was very diligent in their efforts.

ALso, I left on a 5 day vacation and upon doing so I had my PH slightly acidic. When I arrived home on Monday night, the ph was soooo basic, the purple was almost black in the test cylinder. I have dumped almost 5 pounds of dry acid just to get it to down to 7.8. and have put more in this morning to get to 7.5

Here are my numbers from my T-100 kit....

FC 4
CC 1
TC 3-6
ph 7.8
T/A 80
CH 380
CYA 100

Anything I should be concerned with at this time?

 

[SeeGars]

Oh, and here is a pic about 2 weeks ago when the pool was shedding debris, etc.....

 

[PaulR]

Hopefully your contractor left you instructions or at least guidelines regarding your water chemistry parameters, relating to your warranty coverage.

In a new plaster pool (River Rok counts as plaster for pool-chemistry purposes) you will see significant pH rise for months, possibly up to a year. You must keep on top of the pH, possibly daily at first. I would suggest using muriatic acid rather than dry acid, if you're comfortable handling the muriatic.

Because you'll be adding so much acid, you will also need to keep an eye on your TA, and add baking soda as needed to keep it in range.

Your CH and CYA seem high. The usual answer in both cases is to replace water, but with brand new plaster I think you're supposed to keep the water level up during the initial curing period? Others with more experience in these things would be able to advise you better. You can live with it for a while but the high CYA in particular will be problematic in the long run.
--paulr

 

[SeeGars]

Thanks Paul

Unfortunately, my contractor is as dumb as they come... :grrrr:

He brought me PH INCREASE when I told him my ph was high. He thought he was doing me a favor....

I am thinking the CYA will come down some as I continue to lower ph.... (not sure if this is true as I am still learning).

Plus, I know I will still be backwashing considerably more frequently than normal for a few more weeks (not sure if this is true as I am still learning). This would allow some water replacement eventually.

I was wondering about switching to muriatic acid given the apparent large volumes still needed by the pool. I am completely comfortable handling it (not sure if this is true as I am still learning ).

Any other thoughts are certainly welcome!

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Yes, use Muratic Acid instead.

They only practical way to lower CYA is water replacement. Lowering the PH has no effect on the CYA levels.

Note the CYA/Chlorine chart - your FC is too low for such a high CYA level - and I'm concerned about the CC of 1. Have you used any non-chlorine shock product like MPS? Do you have an SWG?

Is your FC holding overnight?

Please take a moment to put your equipment/specs in your signature. Go to User Control Panel, then Profile, then Edit Signature.

 

[SeeGars]

Yes, use Muratic Acid instead.

They only practical way to lower CYA is water replacement. Lowering the PH has no effect on the CYA levels.

(OOPS, Thanks!) Fortunately, we have no water restrictions here at the moment, so lowering and replacing water is not a problem.

Note the CYA/Chlorine chart - your FC is too low for such a high CYA level - and I'm concerned about the CC of 1. Have you used any non-chlorine shock product like MPS? Do you have an SWG?

I don't know if any non-chlorine shock product was used as our contractor hired an outside company and they did everything for the first 2 weeks. Now, in retrospect, I consider any of their efforts to be suspect at best. They even took some of my chemicals from my garage... And, yes, sorry, ours is a salt pool now. That part is new to me as well. To that end, the contractor dumped in about 550 pounds of salt. I estimate our pool to be no more than 10,000 gallons... maybe 12,000 on the high end. Very hard to estimate as our pool is irregular with a suntan bed as well as a 4 foot submerged lounge. He did state that the SWG is 4x bigger than needed (it is for a 40,000 gallon pool) as he likes to over supply all needs to the pool, the gas line he installed, etc....

Is your FC holding overnight?

I don't know and will search how to test this tonight and post the info tomorrow.

Please take a moment to put your equipment/specs in your signature. Go to User Control Panel, then Profile, then Edit Signature.

Will do as all the equipment is new.

 

[SeeGars]

I bought some salt test strips (Aquachek brand). The level shows > 7,340. I am asking our contractor why he put in so much salt. Sigh.... :grrrr:

I will get the manufacturers recemmonded optimum levels but is there any damage in the short term? Obviously, I will need to drain and replace water now.... :grrrr: :grrrr: :grrrr:

 

[SeeGars]

Sigh,

Our SWG is a Jandy AquaPure 1400 which claims 250 pounds of salt for a 10,000 gallon pool. Our lunkhead dumped in 550 pounds of salt.

Time to go drain it.... :grrrr:

 

[Bama Rambler]

Sigh,

Our SWG is a Jandy AquaPure 1400 which claims 250 pounds of salt for a 10,000 gallon pool. Our lunkhead dumped in 550 pounds of salt.

Time to go drain it.... :grrrr:

I'd agree! With a CYA level of 100 and more than double the amount of salt, I'd say half the water needs to be replaced. Be sure to check with your PB about draining that much water from your pool. You don't want to give them reason to deny warranty if a problem should arise.

 

[SeeGars]

Sigh,

Our SWG is a Jandy AquaPure 1400 which claims 250 pounds of salt for a 10,000 gallon pool. Our lunkhead dumped in 550 pounds of salt.

Time to go drain it.... :grrrr:

I'd agree! With a CYA level of 100 and more than double the amount of salt, I'd say half the water needs to be replaced. Be sure to check with your PB about draining that much water from your pool. You don't want to give them reason to deny warranty if a problem should arise.

True!!!! Email to him now.

Sigh......

 

[SeeGars]

Well

The numbers are all thrown out the window LOL. We had an unexpected downpour last night that caused the pool to overflow onto our yard. YIKES, the overflow simply couldn't handle it.

I did manage to backwash down the water and replaced it.

I added some acid and chlorine... just a wild guess...

Pool this morning (after running pump all night of course with 2 backwashes) registered FC of 1 and a ph slighlty low at 7.2. The Jandy machine did "measure" the pool salinity to be at 3,000ppm. Once I get my chemistry stable, in a day or 2, I will repost the numbers.

Thanks everyone

 

[SeeGars]

The rain is still a problem and will probably be so for the next 2 days :grrrr: but here are my numbers as of this morning...

FC 1... yikes!
TA 80
CYA 80
CH 240
ph 7.8
Salt 3100ppm

Last night, the FC was 5 and the ph was 7.5. I have no idea how how much rain fell last night.

I added the proper amounts of ph, bleach and CH as recommended by the pool calculator. Due to the rain and fluctuating chemistry, the pool pump is running 24hrs a day.

Thanks for all the info provided at this forum in pool school, etc.....