We went with Prism blue and love it. We drove hours north to see the Ocean blue and in person it was really dark, with not enough blue but in some pictures someone sent me it looked beautiful. Our sample of ocean blue was also pretty dark so it just didn't make sense. We then drove an hour the other way to see Aqua blue and it was too light of a blue for us but it would have worked had we not had other choices. We wanted a deeper blue that the Aqua Blue offered. It seemed the deeper end of the Aqua Blue pool we saw(deeper depth is darker) was the lightest of a blue color we wanted. Frustrated, we wanted to see Prism blue and nobody had it anywhere but we knew it was a slightly darker color overall. The pool builder nor the actual company that did the work had any customers that they could reach that had that color. We had already seen blue granite and knew it was more of a darker look and less of the blue we wanted with some green at times. Again, that was a runner up color and the pool we saw was beautifully built and we could have taken that color as well. In speaking to many folks, combing these forums, etc. we made a leap of faith decision the day before the pebble finish work was to be done, to go with Prism blue as our choice. I'm sure glad we did because it has almost exactly what we wanted. The steps do have a slight grey type of blue along with the seat area but the pool itself is a real nice deep blue at full sun. It is very true that colors change throughout the day and even if we look out the 2nd story window, it is a deeper shade of color which is awesome. Every day it changes and throughout the day. These three photos were taken at the same time this summer and they definitely look different depending on the angle. For us, the overall colors this finish provides is as close to what we want as we feel we where going to get without perhaps shelling out crazy money for exotic finishes. I think it was an important lesson for us that one color choice won't give you a steady color rather a range of colors.
For what it is worth, the finish is pebble sheen and it is also real nice. I agree that at a few times our kids have kicked off in the pool and stubbed a toe, only to find out that their toe is slightly scraped due to the rougher finish. In no way though has anyone said anything about it hurting their feet or being uncomfortable even after hours of pool play.
We also went with the salt system and I've been very pleased with it. Initially we expected our builder to set the pool up with the right chemicals. Instead they just dumped a gallon of chlorine in and said thanks! A week later they came back and dumped another gallon in since I called them to ask if that was all they were going to do. Knowing the water was going to be my ultimate responsibility anyway, I immediately ordered one of the test kits recommended on here. I read all the testing posts I could and I relied on a good friend to help me with it since he has a similar set-up. I ended up going to Leslies in the meantime and they gave us a bunch of chemicals to initially put in, some on day 1, some on day 2, etc. That worked for about a week and when I got my test kit I found almost everything was good but my chlorine was almost gone. I found that I needed to add it almost daily to keep the full sun from burning it off. I also had to add a chemical (escapes me which one) that acts like a sunscreen to help the chlorine last. With that added I could go about a week without adding chlorine. After about 1 month, the salt was able to be added to the new pool and that meant we could turn on the chlorine generator (salt system). Since then it has been a breeze. I've adjusted chemicals only twice since turning on the generator, just recently adding some acid to lower I think the PH which was slightly off. For the past two months or so the generator has done an excellent job and my chlorine production has been awesome. I have the intellichlor ic40 and it handles 24,300 gallons with ease. I currently have it down to 20% since we're not swimming and the temp is down to 60 degrees. I've found that playing with the time the pump runs and the % output of the chlorinator is probably something I'll continue to do throughout the seasons. I removed the unit to clean the fins and there was not a trace of anything to wash off so I re-installed the unit.
I also built a home made solar heater that is 500 ft of black garden drip line 5/8 inch and it sits up above the pool pump. Although it puts out 110 degrees all day long it is just not enough volume to raise the temp enough each day to offset the nightly drop from the cooler air. I can only run about 1/3 its available volume through it and that little stream is only heating the water where it enters the pool. I have since plumbed it into the return lines but we'll need more volume to make a difference. We added a solar cover but it was too late in the season. I know that it will help keep the heat in during the night and prevent some evaporation from the winds that blow by on a regular basis. I've decided to add (haven't done it yet) 7 solar panels this winter to the porch roof and we'll combine that with the solar cover next summer to hopefully get the water above 80 degrees. I'm researching panel choices and could sure use any advise from anyone that has done that so far. We don't want it hot but think something in the upper 80's would be our choice temperature as each day was a struggle to break beyond 80-82 degrees. Circling back to the pool color choice, I heard over and over again from folks just like us searching for a darker blue of some type in the pebble finishes. I can say that in our opinion Prism Blue is an excellent choice to consider to obtain that range of blue and it comes standard with the abalone shells in it. I hope this helps others in their research and I appreciate your help in educating me while we were building.
Hope all goes well with the pool build.
