step by step new pool

[harrispool]

I'm nearly complete with my owner/builder pool/spa here in So Cal. Tomorrow Pebble Tec is being applied and then acid washed on Wednesday. I will beging filling with water immediately and should be full sometime Thursday. Then what?
I'll have the company that installed the equipment fire everything up and show me how it works, but can someone here please give me step by step of what I should be doing as far as chemical, filtering, etc. While the guys that installed the equipment seem to know what they were doing they are not in the pool maintenance business so I don't trust them beyond the install

The pool has a Pentair DE filter(no DE yet), Intellichlor Salt System, Pentair 4x160 pump.

Thanks for the help

 

[zea3]

You will have to chlorinate manually for the first 30 days. Look at the Pool Calculator and practice inputting data until your pool is filled. The pool calculator will tell you how much of which chemicals you need.

To get your pool going after it is filled you will need to add chlorine and stabilizer(CYA, aka conditioner). How much you need will be determined by how many gallons of water are in your pool. You can choose to use liquid or powdered chlorine for start up. You can get powdered chlorine with stabilizer included, read the labels and be careful if you are adding stabilizer in addition to powdered chlorine.

As far as the filter goes, you can choose to use DE or a DE substitute, such as Fiber Clear. Both should have info on the packaging for how much to add for your filter. DE filters are measured in square feet, so you will need to look at the filter or the documentation that came with it to find out what size it is if you don't already know.

You will need a good test kit such as the TF 100 or Taylor 2006.

You may want to buy a couple of gallons of MA (muriatic acid) since new plaster pools need frequent doses to keep the pH and Alkalinity in balance for the first year.

After you pool is filled have a sample of the water tested (either by yourself or from a pool store) and post the results here. We can then determine if anything else needs to be done with your water.

Good luck and enjoy your new pool!

 

[JasonLion]

Start the pump.
Check for obvious leaks in the plumbing.
Put DE into the filter.
Add a startup does of sequestrant, preferably a brand labels for use with fresh plaster, but any will do.
Run the pump 24x7 for a while.
Don't add any chlorine for the first day or two.
Don't add salt for 30 days.
Don't put the pool cleaner in for at least a week.
Use trichlor tablets for the remainder of the first 30 days.

Follow all advice that you get from the plaster people, even if it contradicts what we say. You don't want to risk your warranty by not doing what they tell you to do.

 

[TimS]

Add a startup does of sequestrant, preferably a brand labels for use with fresh plaster, but any will do.

Just curious - OP doesn't mention any metals in the fill water, so why do you recommend a sequestrant? Is there something about Pebble Tec or new plaster that adds metals or something to the water, or is this just a preventative measure?

 

[JasonLion]

There are two reasons to use sequestrant with a fresh plaster job. One, if you do have metals in the water they can get incorporated into the plaster and become stains that are impossible to remove (without re-plastering). Even if the odds of that are low, it is usually worth a bottle of sequestrant to avoid the small chance of a problem Two, sequestrant helps control any plaster dust that gets into the water (calcium is technically a metal, so sequestrant works on it). Plaster dust is hardly ever an issue with pebble, so this reason is less important here.

 

[TimS]

Thanks for the explanation.