Newly Renovated Pool Start up.

[chadducote]

Hey everyone, I am seriously loving this site and all the great advice.

We just finished our pool remodel and had our pool replastered and we are in the process of doing a start up. I know many people on here don't like Leslies pool so I took my water to another store, as well as Leslies. I am not sure why so many are hostile about Leslies testing. I noticed they use Taylor reagents and testing, at least this one does. Here are my results and the suggestions that I am doing. Please let me know you think.

Leslies Results

Free Chlorine 2
Total Chlorine 2
Salt 0
Calcium Hardness 120
CYanuric acid 0
Total Alkalinity 90
PH 8

Copper 0
Iron 0
phosphates 1000


The other store

PH 8
Free Chlorine 0
total Alkalinity 125
total chlorine 0
Total Hardness 169
CYA 0
Salt. 0
TDS 300



I am following the other stores recommendation. He admitted that he is conservative on adding a lot of chemicals at once, His advise is to:

add 2lbs of ph decreaser
wait 12 hours
5lbs of Calcium
wait 12 hours
back wash if needed
6 lbs of Stabilizer
add to chlorine tabs


I am complete newbie to pools and pool chemistry. Learning on the fly. Please let me know any suggestions you might hame.

 

[Texas Splash]

Hi Chad and welcome to the forum! First & foremost, with a newly re-plastered pool, didn't your contractor give you some specific instructions? If so, you'll want to know what they are for any potential warranty issues. Having said that, the TFP Plaster Start-Up page is a good place to start. The reason we encourage owners to test their own water is for knowledge and testing consistency. Pool store testing is not always performed under the most ideal conditions and/or by employees who really know how to take into account all possible scenarios for your pool. In addition, they tend to sell extremely over-priced products you don't need.

Right now it's very important you test your own water and know what each item means via our ABCs of Water Chemistry. The link below in my signature to the TF-100 is a great place for a test it. I recommend the TF-100, but a Taylor K-2006C will work as well.

For chemical levels, you'll want to refer to the TFP recommended levels (link also below). With new plaster you probably won't add salt or run the SWG for 30 days, so you'll manually chlorinate with regular bleach. But review that start-up page and confirm if you have any contractor-specific instructions to follow. If not, that start-up page and recommended levels will help get you going. Keep in touch and let us know if you still have questions.

 

[ajw22]

Use PoolMath to determine the quantity of chemicals you need to make a change.

Tell us what your targets are for the chemical values you are changing.

You don’t have to wait 12 hours between adding chemicals. The only one you dont add at the same time in MA and CL. Give it 30 minutes between those two.

I recommend you add Stabilizer and CH in two or three doses and check values in between. You don’t want to overshoot your targets since you can only reduce them by draining the pool.

What pool startup guide are you using? I suggest you follow this http://www.nptpool.com/pdf/npc_swimmingpoolstart-upprocedures.pdf They say no CYA or CL until day 4.