Advice on whether to acid wash or refill immediately and zero alkalinity acid treat pebblecrete pool

[GreenLeaf]

Heya (mods feel free to move to the right place).

I have drained my 30yo pebblecrete pool due to early diagnosis of copper staining as a result of using an ionizer (
see my intro post about switching to a SWG and the TFP methodology).

The staining is not that bad and hard to see from afar. Up close there is "statue of liberty" blue/green staining of the white parts of the plaster. There is also "darker banding" and dark blotches scattered around.

It's worth fixing but not worth damaging my plaster over or losing my plaster due to the upcoming hot weather days.

I've heard you should not leave a PebbleCrete pool's plaster to dry over 90F or so. Today and the following days few days are going to be 21->27->30->31->32->33->30 C / 70->80->86->88->90->91->86 F.

Should I just start refilling my pool ASAP and do the zero alkalinity acid treatment to try to remove the copper staining? Yesterday I bought gloves/gas-mask/boots/tyvek-suit but today realized acid washing is a job best done with 2 people. I doubt I can hire someone before this hot weather kicks in.

Should I:

1. Do a "light" acid wash myself (using a weed sprayer to evenly coat the plaster with 5:1 HCL and wash off quickly)?
2. As seen on YouTube videos - Watering can, 30 seconds later hose it off, keep moving, bicard in the deep end?
3. Hire someone to do the acid wash
4. Immediately refill and zero alkalinity acid treatment
5. Do something with a metal sequestratant (pre fill or post fill)?

Thanks very much!

 

[wireform]

The time to do anything like what you describe would be in the cooler time of the year preferably early spring.

 

[GreenLeaf]

Thanks for the hard advice. Taking the draining hit now and writing off the pool draining as a learning experience and dealing with it in winter might be the most pragmatic approach.

 

[GreenLeaf]

Here's a picture of the deep end, now that it has drained.

I also did a small test of HCL 1:10, which brought the white (now white-blue) PebbleCrete back to a nice sand color. I got a call back from PoolStainRemovers who I believe were going to suggest I use this once the pool is full, but I'm sure TFP has their own opinions.

I'll start refilling the pool...

 

[GreenLeaf]

I ended up doing a one-man acid wash. No great photos because I worked two nights into the dark and when you're doing an acid-wash solo the last thing you want to do is take off all your gear and go and get your phone for a selfie.

At the end of the first day, the sump water was bright statue of liberty blue/green.

At the end of the second day, it was brown (plaster color).

Now refilling the pool.

At the end of the process I have got all the copper out of the plaster, but my feeling is (and I might be wrong) that there are areas where the stone has taken on the blue color. The only way to get it out is super strength acid and that weakens the plaster.

Maybe I can try a sequestrant after refilling or "just let it be" until I get the pool replastered in 10 years.