The acid wash will help lower the fill water pH. Suggest that you test after you fill to make any decisions.
New Build - Houston TX!
- Thread starter Rebuke
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Finally, a few days ago, done.
Well done as in we have water, there are a few odds and ends but the pool is functional. I still haven't been given "pool school" and they haven't really done "startup" other than I had them turn on the main pump. Those are supposed to be in the next day or two. The water feature pump still needs an electrician, I thought about doing it myself, but I don't want to ruin the warranty.
Plaster crew was amazing. They had ropes crisscrossing above the pool, hoses swinging on ropes, and just went to town. Very fast, very efficient. I confirmed everything with them right before they started. The hand cast shimmering sea shells on the bottoms look great, and we are very happy we got the blue blend. My little daughter calls them twinkle stars and blue sparkles.
They came out bright and early the next morning and did the wash, and they used what looked like a weed whacker with a sander on the end and brushed the whole pool down. It looks and feels fantastic. I have heard of rough pebble sheen, ours is soft and feels great.
It took just about 24 hours to fill, and I recorded my water meter. Set alarms to get up at night and check to stay on top of it. My calculations were correct and we are sitting at very near the 25k gallon mark. Pretty crazy actually. It is so crazy that the intervals went like this:
5,000 - touching bottom of 1st step
10,000 - touching top of first step
15,000 - waterline just barely a mm on top of second step
20,000 - just reaching start of tanning ledge
25,000 - filled
I can't claim the credit for such a beautifully consistent volume design, it just came out that way. After it was filled and we turned off the 2 hoses we got an email from the water company saying they suspect we have a leak. They sent us a very pretty graph that showed we were outputting ~1,000 gallons an hour, which is nice to know as well. Also confirmed my count which was nice.
I tested the water after the fill and the pH was over 8, the TA was super high, 220 if I remember correctly, and the CH was super low, 50-75. So I went on down to leslies and asked for some muriatic acid, liquid chlorine, and some hardener. Guy behind the counter wanted me to give him my numbers or bring some water in before he just gave me my chems, to be fair I think he was trying to be helpful? Or upselling, who knows?
Anyways I have been bringing the TA down. Every morning pH is back over 8, I add acid, it comes down to about 7.4, the next morning back over 8. But that TA is indeed coming down, should be 150 tomorrow. I also tossed in the bucket of hardener, and now have a CH of 125 which should be fine until the startup guy gets out here. Much better than 50-75 anyways.
But all is good, water looks great, pool looks great, just brushing, brushing, and some playing! I get my snorkel out and go brush, it's more fun that way.
I think I maybe could have done with 2 pool lights, heck I might have been able to be fine with 1. My neighbors will love me. Wait until I get an audio system up. (I wouldn't be the first, or even the 5th, plenty of neighbors up till 1am during swim season blasting music and lights. 2 Such parties going on in the background already.).
We love the color of the water, the photos can't do it justice. It changes with the time of day and the weather etc.
Now for the clean up. Irrigation repair, soil, sod, etc.
And after that we can go piece by piece and build the rest of the backyard up. We have the intention of adding palms, birds of paradise, paver garden boxes and a paver fireplace area with paver benches, a pavilion/pergola, an outdoor kitchen, a garden shed etc. We will see how many of those I do myself to. I like projects.
Oh and we need to find cabinets for towels and toys and other things. Oh and pool furniture. The list will never end I am sure.
Well done as in we have water, there are a few odds and ends but the pool is functional. I still haven't been given "pool school" and they haven't really done "startup" other than I had them turn on the main pump. Those are supposed to be in the next day or two. The water feature pump still needs an electrician, I thought about doing it myself, but I don't want to ruin the warranty.
Plaster crew was amazing. They had ropes crisscrossing above the pool, hoses swinging on ropes, and just went to town. Very fast, very efficient. I confirmed everything with them right before they started. The hand cast shimmering sea shells on the bottoms look great, and we are very happy we got the blue blend. My little daughter calls them twinkle stars and blue sparkles.
They came out bright and early the next morning and did the wash, and they used what looked like a weed whacker with a sander on the end and brushed the whole pool down. It looks and feels fantastic. I have heard of rough pebble sheen, ours is soft and feels great.
It took just about 24 hours to fill, and I recorded my water meter. Set alarms to get up at night and check to stay on top of it. My calculations were correct and we are sitting at very near the 25k gallon mark. Pretty crazy actually. It is so crazy that the intervals went like this:
5,000 - touching bottom of 1st step
10,000 - touching top of first step
15,000 - waterline just barely a mm on top of second step
20,000 - just reaching start of tanning ledge
25,000 - filled
I can't claim the credit for such a beautifully consistent volume design, it just came out that way. After it was filled and we turned off the 2 hoses we got an email from the water company saying they suspect we have a leak. They sent us a very pretty graph that showed we were outputting ~1,000 gallons an hour, which is nice to know as well. Also confirmed my count which was nice.
I tested the water after the fill and the pH was over 8, the TA was super high, 220 if I remember correctly, and the CH was super low, 50-75. So I went on down to leslies and asked for some muriatic acid, liquid chlorine, and some hardener. Guy behind the counter wanted me to give him my numbers or bring some water in before he just gave me my chems, to be fair I think he was trying to be helpful? Or upselling, who knows?
Anyways I have been bringing the TA down. Every morning pH is back over 8, I add acid, it comes down to about 7.4, the next morning back over 8. But that TA is indeed coming down, should be 150 tomorrow. I also tossed in the bucket of hardener, and now have a CH of 125 which should be fine until the startup guy gets out here. Much better than 50-75 anyways.
But all is good, water looks great, pool looks great, just brushing, brushing, and some playing! I get my snorkel out and go brush, it's more fun that way.
I think I maybe could have done with 2 pool lights, heck I might have been able to be fine with 1. My neighbors will love me. Wait until I get an audio system up. (I wouldn't be the first, or even the 5th, plenty of neighbors up till 1am during swim season blasting music and lights. 2 Such parties going on in the background already.).
We love the color of the water, the photos can't do it justice. It changes with the time of day and the weather etc.
Now for the clean up. Irrigation repair, soil, sod, etc.
And after that we can go piece by piece and build the rest of the backyard up. We have the intention of adding palms, birds of paradise, paver garden boxes and a paver fireplace area with paver benches, a pavilion/pergola, an outdoor kitchen, a garden shed etc. We will see how many of those I do myself to. I like projects.
Oh and we need to find cabinets for towels and toys and other things. Oh and pool furniture. The list will never end I am sure.
Great work on the testing and brushing. the pool looks fabulous.