New plaster hand off, Please help

[Martinhd28]

New Hydrazzo put in two weeks ago. Pool has been handed over to me to take care of.

current readings are
Chlorine 0
PH 7.0
Total alkalinity 50
Cyanuric acid zero
Calcium 40

Not much plaster dust when I brush although it’s hard to tell it hasn’t been vacuumed since it was filled two weeks ago and there are a lot of trees around it may just be debris or it could be some plaster dust.


What’s my next step?

pool is 20000 gallons so Im thinking first add 1 gallon of clorox amd som cyanaric acid?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Don't use Clorox pool products. The bleach now has polymers in it which we do NOT want. The granular and puck products named XtraBlue have copper in them. The Clorox salt has caused some iron stains in some pools.
Use PLAIN, unscented, non thickened, non-polymer technology, bleach if you can find it use that. Otherwise aim for the Liquid Chlorine that you find in Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart's pool section, some pool stores, etc.

Get your Free Chlorine (FC) up to 5ppm TODAY
Put 30 ppm of CYA in your pool in a sock, in the skimmer with the pump running until its all dissolved TODAY
On another day that you're not adding anything, add enough Calcium Hardness to take your pool up to 300 to start with.

Use Pool Math, either the app or the web version found on the bottom of this page, to tell you how much of each chemical it takes to get to the prescribed levels.

Maddie

 

[Martinhd28]

Thank you so much for the response. I have put in 5 pounds of CYA And on way home now from Home Depot with chlorinating liquid.

Will report back

 

[Martinhd28]

Ok 1 gallon of HDX Chlorinating Liquid from Home Depot added. (10% Sodium hypochlorite). And 5lbs dry CYA added in skimmer.

Pool math app downloaded and linked to account.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

You risk introducing a clog to your pool's plumbing by putting CYA down the skimmer. Far safer is to use an old sock hung freely in the pool in front of a return.

Maddie

 

[Martinhd28]

Ok Thats for heads up about the CYA in the skimmer.

Below are this mornings numbers. Not sure why FC is not higher. I added a gallon of 10% liquid chlorine last night which should have resulted in about 5ppm no?(approx 20K gallon pool)

also not sure why PH isn’t rising faster but maybe plaster more cured that I think at this point(day 12).

The calcium number i gave before was incorrect. Calcium is at 150.

I added more Liquid Chlorine. Will test again this evening and plan on adding more calcium tmrw. Sound good?

One other thing to mention. The pool has a SWG. I plan to add salt in about two more weeks and will then stop with the liquid chlorine

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Did you test for CCs? I see no mention of them which may explain the FC being so low.

Which test kit are you using?

Please fill out a signature line with all the details of your pool, its equipment, how you sanitize and test, etc. Find it under <Settings>

 

[Martinhd28]

Filled out signature line. Thanks for reminding
I am using a Leslie's K2006 knockoff teat kit but its a few years old. Going to replace this weekend.

this morning FC is 3ppm and CC is 0
Ph is 7.2

My plaster guy has s telling me calcium should be 150 but test kit recommends 200-400.

I have some calcium up, should I add it or leave calcium low while its curing?

the chlorine is a mystery to me. I have added 2 gallons in 2 days and only at 3ppm. According to label that should have yielded close to 10ppm! Or maybe my math is off. Or old test kit

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Check the date codes for that liquid chlorine- if old it may very well be weak and worthless.
You can order full replacement reagent kit at www.tftestkits.net
Your calcium should be higher. That plaster guy is clueless about chemistry. If your calcium is too low in the wall, the water will pull calcium out and weaken the wall. No bueno.

Maddie

 

[Martinhd28]

Maddie I will add some calcium. Ok to dump it in or do i need to add to skimmer/sock etc ?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

On a day you don't need to do any other chemical additions....you can either scatter it in the deep end and brush so it all dissolves or predissolve in a bucket of water. The thing to be careful of with calcium is that its exothermic, meaning its gonna heat up something crazy like. Don't go playing in that bucket.

I always recommend brushing after adding chemicals in an area of the pool just in case some fall and sit, instead of mixing in and dissolving fast.

Take it up to at least 250.

Maddie

 

[Martinhd28]

Okie dokie, all is going keeping water balanced daily. By this weekend I will be ready to add salt. Looks like I am going to need 13 bags of salt. Do I dump all of that in at once? Someone said you should not let undissolved salt sit on the bottom of the pool? I don’t see how I’m going to add 13 bags without that happening.

 

[BenB]

Salt goes in the SHALLOW end then brush side to side and down until it dissolves. Shallow end because it's much easier to brush with less water around! It will dissolve very quickly.

Do 4 bags or so at a time and don't add everything at once - if you've calculated 13 bags then add 10, give it a day to thoroughly mix and then retest to see where you landed.

 

[johnnyutah2210]

I learned some hard lessons with new plaster. You can expect to be battling rising ph levels for a while, maybe into next season, this is common with new plaster. Listen to Yippee, if you don't keep your calcium hardness up, the water will leech it out of the plaster causing cracks and calcium scaling that looks like dripping candle wax.

 

[BenB]

Absolutely right - you need to manage your CSI very carefully. Right now at -1.13 the water will pull calcium out of the plaster over time. You need to maintain a positive CSI as outlined by our resident plaster expert onBalance while your plaster is curing.You can do that by increasing pH, TA and CH. Use PoolMath to play with various figures to see how they impact your CSI overall. Eventually you will want to run at or below 0 to prevent scaling.

 

[Martinhd28]

Thanks guys, right now csi is -0.44
Calcium at 190
TA at 55

I will bring calcium up some more today.

adding salt this weekend

PS i have been battling rising PH for 15 years haha. I buy muriatic acid by the case