Newly remodeled pool (new Marsite) cloudy water

[sharonr]

3 weeks ago.. in ground pool in florida drained. tiles repaired and re-grouted, bond coat applied, next day pool refinished with new marcite. pool refilled.
day 1 about 3 weeks ago. pool remodeler refilled pool. sparkling clear water. no chemicals added
day 3 pool person (from remodeler) showed up (to "hot start" the pool) and put in 4 gallons muriatic acid and bag of shock. also brushed pool to help 'reveal' blue quartz flecks. pool still sparkling clear, looking bluer... nice. a little cloudy from the brushing but that clears up quickly.
day 4 pool person showed up and put in another 2 gallons muriatic acid; and 1 more bag of shock. brushed pool pool still sparkling clear and looking good, even bluer! Nice. Again a little cloudy from the brushing but clears up.

remodeler said not to be afraid to put in a gallon or 2 of muriatic acid if water gets cloudy.

week 2. pool cloudy. put in a gallon of muriatic acid and a bag of shock. pool clears up. (note filter has chlorine tabs in it)

middle of week 2. Deck refinisher pressure washes deck to prep for refinishing. gets all kinds of dirt in pool. pool dirty. Bad.
Day 2 of deck refinishing, apples first coat of refinishing material to deck. doesn't get any in pool, but vacuum still trying to clear up mess from day before.
Day 3 of deck refinishing. apples texture coat to deck. gets some in pool. pool vacuum still cleaning up mess, but getting better.
Day 4 of deck refinishing; applying finish coat of acrylic paint. gets a little in pool, but pool now very cloudy. (dirt from pressure washing is gone though)

end of week 2. pool cloudy. put in a gallon of muriatic acid and a bag of shock. pool clears up, but takes longer this time.

end of week 3. pool cloudy. put in a gallon of muriatic acid and a bag of shock. pool clears up.

as most of you can guess the ph is off the charts with all that acid but i don't know what else to do. the water comes back crystal clear when i put it in.

I have a guess that the high acid in the newly remodeled pool does something like help leach off the top layer/loose marcite of the pool so the quartz sparkles can show through and once that settles in we can stop all the acid and return to a normal ph.

note one time at the end of the first 2 weeks i put in about 2.t pounds of potash to help the ph. it helped, but did nothing to uncloud the water so we put in more acid and it cleared up.

Any advice on why all this acid is clearing it up? And how do I keep it clear and ph balanced at the same time? Thanks.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

Can you post your test numbers? You should be adding acid based on PH tests, not on the look of the water. The water will get cloudy when you need to add acid, but PH testing will give you a far more accurate idea of what is going on and allow you to regulate acid additions more carefully. Plus, PH interacts with calcium and alkalinity in complicated ways, so we really need to know all the numbers to give you good advice.

 

[sharonr]

free clorine ppm 1... test strip says this is ok

ph - below 6.2 the lowest number on the color chart

total alkaliity 0 very low on the chart

cyanuric Acid also below 0 on the chart

thanks for the help

 

[The Mermaid Queen]

I'm going to leave most of it to the pros, but you need baking soda. This will raise your pH and your TA, and both need to come up NOW.

A couple of things... read the stickies here, to give you a better idea of how to 'know' your pool and what it needs, instead of blindly dumping stuff in. Many so-called 'pool professionals' don't know squat about water chemistry!

Second, order the test kit linked in my signature. It will be the best money you spend!

Jason's calculator will help you figure out what and how much of things you need to add to your pool.

Finally, welcome to TFP!

 

[JasonLion]

You need to bring up your PH, total alkalinity and CYA (stabilizer).

From your description the builder did an "acid start", which keeps the PH low for a while at startup to help reduce dust from the resurfacing. Three weeks is more than enough time at low PH. You want to bring PH up to somewhere around 7.2 to 7.8. You can bring the PH up with borax or soda ash. Either of those will also raise the TA a little.

You want TA (total alkalinity) around 70 to start. You can bring TA up with baking soda. Raising TA will also increase the PH a little.

With a very low CYA level you won't be able to hold a chlorine level through the day. Have you been using chlorine tablets in the skimmer constantly? Or just the one time you mentioned? Chlorine tablets (trichlor) add chlorine and CYA. If you have been using them reguarly your CYA level will be higher than zero, though low enough not to register on the test. I recommend CYA between 30 and 50.

It sounds like you have been adding acid and shock at the same time. So it could be either one that was clearing the water. Adding acid lowers the PH, which causes any calcium dust to disolve. Adding shock raises chlorine levels which kill off any algae that might be just getting started growing in the water. After three weeks the vast majority of the calcium dust will have come off the walls, so that shouldn't be a significant issue at this point. There is still the question of how much calcium is in the water. Are you able to test for calcium? If your calcium level is very very high raising the PH could cause calcium scaling.

I suggest you get a good drop based test kit, such as the TF Test Kit or something similar. Having accurate test results will make it much simpler to maintain your pool and will more than pay for the test kit in chemical savings over time.