New pool One month later disappointed with plaster

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Thanks for the guides. I know the Pb didn’t add anything initially to balance the water. He came by the next evening after the fill to start up the pump. A few days after the fill I sent him a text to give him the results of the pool water. PH was high and TA was low. Also during this time I had a problem with the filter pump leaking air so a lot of bubbles were coming out of the returns. Anyway added acid for ph and baking soda to bring up the TA. Bottom line is I was pretty much on my own initially with water chemistry and have been since.
 
Thanks Marty, Allen, Matt. There you go Cyclist, the CSI calculated from the pool store numbers is even worse than what you got from your testing.

@JoyfulNoise, when you wrote "If you look at the NPC Technical Bulletin for plaster startups, they clearly mention making sure the LSI (Langlier Saturation Index, similar time CSI) of the fill water is not aggressive" I didn't realize you were referring to the NPC startup cards (which is what I used initially for my pool's startup). Though I'm not quite sure which section of the cards you're referring to by "they clearly mention making sure the LSI...of the fill water is not aggressive." I wanted to be able to point Cyclist right to that, so he can quote that if/when he needs to...

Sidebar: Guys, is the old webpage-based Pool Math still here somewhere? When I click on Pool Math I just get an ad for the app.
 
Sidebar: Guys, is the old webpage-based Pool Math still here somewhere? When I click on Pool Math I just get an ad for the app.

 
One of the questions I’m going to ask the other plasterer in the area is if they check the fill water and do they typically treat the fill water. This company is actually located right here in our town and they plaster many pools here so they should be very familiar with our town’s water.
I do see the caveat in the first paragraph of the startup procedure where it mentions due to unique local water conditions ... the process may need to be modified. And where filling the pool with extremely low calcium hardness, ph, or low total alkalinity may necessitate changes to these procedures. Obviously my water fits that bill
 
I talked to two companies today. One was the main plaster company in our area. The president is on the board of the NPC. That company stopped doing quartz plaster 18 months ago due to a lot of problems with quartz. I believe he said issue with excessively long curing time and calcium issues. The other person I spoke with also has stopped doing quartz and only does white plaster and pebble. They said that doing a drain, acid wash and polish is something being done to address it. My builder wants to do a wet acid bath. If I get to the point of doing a tear out I’m only to consider regular white plaster or upgrade to pebble.
Sent the Pb a text today stating we wanted to talk about out plaster but have yet to hear back
 
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