Fill Day's almost here and I can't wait!

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delrayser

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Jul 16, 2018
52
Austin, Tx
So after months of construction, we had plaster installed today, acid wash will be tomorrow, and then WE FILL! Going to use water from the hose so I thought I'd test our tap water with my brand new K2006. Here's what I got:

pH: 8.0
CH: 125ppm
TA: 175ppm

I don't think I needed to test anything else but let me know if that's wrong. I checked the water company's latest quality report and it matches my results so I think I did everything right.

I know my pH and TA are too high and my CH too low, and of course the FC and CYA will need to be built up, but according to my PB he's going to handle the first few weeks of water maintenance, so I don't think I need to worry about anything at this point. I'm still planning to test on a semi-regular basis during that period just to get in the habit and give myself some practice. Any red flags, or words of advice from anyone as I get started?
 
Word of Caution!- once you start filling do NOT stop at all.If you stop and start again you risk having water lines on your plaster. So keep it going all night if you have to. You can slow it down a little but don't stop.

Also, please put a sock rubber banded on the hose so that the metal end doesn't mar the plaster.

Your water isn't too soft, so you'll have to add some. My CH is 40...we are very soft!

Get some CYA in there as soon as you can and bleach too. If you hang a CYA loaded sock over the edge into the water make sure it isn't touching the wall. CYA is acidic and can leave a mark if left on surface. Alternatively you can place it in the skimmer but only if you run the pump continuously until its all dissolved.

Maddie :flower:
 
Has anyone described the water meter trick to you yet?

Just before they start the fill, go out and take a photo of your city water meter (probably near the street somewhere). Minimize use of water in the house (showers, toilet flushes, no laundry or dishwasher, turn off your sprinkler/irrigation systems, etc). When the pool water reaches halfway up the skimmer opening, shut off the hose and take another photo of your water meter. (The photos are just a convenient way of capturing the meter numbers.) The difference between the two meter reads will be the volume of water in your pool, for use in Pool Math to calculate how to dose your pool. (Some city meters are not in gallons, but I can help you with the math if that is so.)

Much more accurate than trying to figure out your pool's volume from its dimensions, or taking your PB's word for it.

If you can't get your household to go easy on the water, no problem. The number will still be close enough. Or just subtract a few hundred from your total. The irrigation is the biggie, along with the big appliances. Toilet flushes and a few showers will not affect your pool math...

Congrat's on the new pool!
 
I did what Dirk has said above (read/photograph the water meter at the sidewalk before starting the fill and after the pool is filled). It took me about 12 hours to fill my pool with two hoses.

Run multiple hoses if possible. I ran two hoses from two different faucets from around my backyard. Those faucets are not in series and so the pool filled quicker than just using one. There is nothing wrong with using just one, but two are better than one. Don't stop the water supply until the pool is entirely filled. (Don't press the plaster with your fingers, don't walk on the plaster)

When my pool was replastered, I also had a brand new filter and easytouch system installed, but the easytouch was kept offline for the first one week. The filter was running continuously (24 hours) at 2200rpm for 7 days. After that the easytouch controller was enabled and the filter has been running for about 12 hours a day.

I brushed the pool daily (30 days), sometimes twice. The pool startup company brushed it daily (30 days).

Filter was cleaned about 10 days after the pool was filled and there was very little dust seen when brushing the pool. Polaris 380 cleaner and the solar heating panels were turned on 30 days after pool was filled (plaster cures better in cold water than in hot water).

I had a few bird droppings in my pool on fresh plaster while the pool was still filling and so there are some stains here and there. The color is all gone, but the solid material is still stuck on the plaster. Doesn't bother me.

My pool ended up with 60ppm of CYA after the startup. They added a little too much stabilizer. I wish it was left at 40-50.

I jumped into the pool 32 days after the first fill (although I think it would have been ok 15-16 days after the fill, I had to wait until the water heated up).

Congratulations on your new pool!
 
First of all, the "water meter trick" is absolutely brilliant! So simple and yet I never would've thought of it in a million years.

I know not to interrupt the fill. PB estimates 24-36 hours to fill ours with a single hose. I have a second hose bib on the opposite corner of the house but I don't have enough hose to get it to the pool. I may try to see if I can borrow a neighbor's for the day so I can get the fill time down.

norcalpool1 said:
I jumped into the pool 32 days after the first fill (although I think it would have been ok 15-16 days after the fill, I had to wait until the water heated up).
Click to expand...

I am amazed you had the patience to wait that long! Our PB said we could be swimming within 24 hours of the fill being completed, after he gets the chemicals in there. Is that because we have pebble, so it toughens up faster?
 
Fill's done! And... it took a lot less water than I was expecting? Our PB estimated a volume of 17,500, but our water meter only showed a total usage during the fill just shy of 13,500? Is a 20% difference normal? I guess my water meter could be off but that seems unlikely, much more likely that the PB just estimated wrong. I assume with a free-form fool it's more art than science to estimate the volume.
 
The meter is definitely more correct. The PB simply built your pool smaller than they said...

How big of a deal that is, is up to you. To me, that is a big difference from the contract design and I would be really POed... As it isn't something you can change or fix now that it's done.
 
JasonJoel said:
The meter is definitely more correct. The PB simply built your pool smaller than they said...

How big of a deal that is, is up to you. To me, that is a big difference from the contract design and I would be really POed... As it isn't something you can change or fix now that it's done.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's what I'm struggling with now, too. The contract doesn't specify a volume and gives all dimensions as "approximate" so I'm not sure I have a strong contractual claim against the PB. And I'm sure they'd point out that we were there the day they painted it out and didn't have any issue with it then. Of course, how a pool looks when it's just painted on the ground vs when it's actually built is a big difference.

For the time being, I'm trying to focus on the silver lining that my chemical cost will be 20% less than what I had anticipated...
 
And just to be clear, the 17,500 number that I was working off of before, was just something the PB offhandedly said while we were chatting one day. I just asked for a ballpark of the size, he glanced at the gunite shell for about 15 seconds, and then said "probably about 17 and a half thousand gallons." So I wasn't expecting scientific accuracy from that number, but I also wasn't expecting this big a difference.
 

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Did you take pictures of the meter readings? Others have said they contacted their water department and told them they were filling a pool and were able to get the sewer charges waived for the pool volume. Some said they were told to take pictures of the meter before and after. Not sure if you have to notify them ahead of time or not, but it'd be worth a call.

delrayser said:
Fill's done! And... it took a lot less water than I was expecting? Our PB estimated a volume of 17,500, but our water meter only showed a total usage during the fill just shy of 13,500? Is a 20% difference normal? I guess my water meter could be off but that seems unlikely, much more likely that the PB just estimated wrong. I assume with a free-form fool it's more art than science to estimate the volume.
Click to expand...
 
Winnie-the-Pool said:
Did you take pictures of the meter readings? Others have said they contacted their water department and told them they were filling a pool and were able to get the sewer charges waived for the pool volume. Some said they were told to take pictures of the meter before and after. Not sure if you have to notify them ahead of time or not, but it'd be worth a call.
Click to expand...

I called the water company beforehand to ask about this, they said it didn't matter because our wastewater charges are a flat rate per month that's determined by our average use during the winter (so there isn't any irrigation going on). I guess if I'd been filling between November and February it would be worthwhile to let them know, but for summer it doesn't appear to matter.
 
delrayser said:
Fill's done! And... it took a lot less water than I was expecting? Our PB estimated a volume of 17,500, but our water meter only showed a total usage during the fill just shy of 13,500? Is a 20% difference normal? I guess my water meter could be off but that seems unlikely, much more likely that the PB just estimated wrong. I assume with a free-form fool it's more art than science to estimate the volume.
Click to expand...

This is what the meter trick is all about. PB guesses and trying to do math on a free-form gunite shell are usually off, usually way off. Water meters can be off by as much as 1 or 2%, but that's about it. You can verify the meter accuracy with "the bucket trick!" Read your meter, run 5 gallons through it (fill a 5-gal bucket, or five 1-gal milk jugs, whatever) and check the meter. Do 10 gallons, 20 gallons, etc if you want more accurate results.

A secondary test, and really the only one that matters, will come when you start your testing and dosing. When it's after sundown, test your pool water for FC and CC. If you get a CC of zero, then you likely have nothing "eating" your chlorine. Then add enough chlorine to bring your FC up 2ppm. Determine the amount to add by using PoolMath, which relies on entering your pool's volume. Circulate the water well for an hour or so, then test your FC and CC again. If you've now got an extra 2ppm of FC, and your CC is still zero, and it's dark outside, then that's a pretty good indicator that your pool's water volume number is good.

I'll leave you to hashing out the size of your pool with the contractor, but another way to look at it: do you have enough room to play in your pool? The less gallons that takes, the better. Less to sanitize, less to fill, less to heat, etc.
 
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