Our New Pool Build and The FUN (i.e. Stress) that Goes Along with it!

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Don't worry about the TA.

You need to stock up on stabilizer, salt, and CH to get them up to your recommended levels and liquid chlorine for FC until you get the SWG going again.

Get the chemicals on hand so you can get them into the water once it is refilled.
 
Thanks!
I have a couple bags of salt, and some stabilizer, calcium and liquid chlorine on hand. Will have to verify the amount is enough and get more if I'm too low, however. ✔
 
Pouring rain today and it still has a LONG way to go on refilling it.
Hopefully the rain helps fill it faster ?, and doesn't mess up the plaster since it was just refinished, and it's not full.
 
Hopefully you told them you "got it!" on the water chemistry. 2 gallons of Muriatic in a 16K gallon pool with low CH water.. oof... unless your pH is sky high or TA is sky high that alone wasn't good. (Not likely) Our startup guy added a gallon to our moderate CH water with high TA and it still was too much. He also put the CYA into the skimmer which I moved... you are a lot better off doing all of this yourself. This guy is locally known as an "expert".

Hopefully all will turn out well. Eventually it seems to always work out....
 
  • Wow
Reactions: MeowMeow724
Rattus Suffocatus said:
Hopefully you told them you "got it!" on the water chemistry. 2 gallons of Muriatic in a 16K gallon pool with low CH water.. oof... unless your pH is sky high or TA is sky high that alone wasn't good. (Not likely) Our startup guy added a gallon to our moderate CH water with high TA and it still was too much. He also put the CYA into the skimmer which I moved... you are a lot better off doing all of this yourself. This guy is locally known as an "expert".

Hopefully all will turn out well. Eventually it seems to always work out....
Click to expand...

Wow.... all kindsa' wrong there, then!
I will ask to test the pH before they just dump gallons into it. I will do it myself... actually. Though, the warranty manager also told me to just dump a gallon in it when it gets high, so... I guess that is how their company operates.

I am going to bulk up the calcium starting tomorrow. It's still filling up as we speak. We just added a second hose so hopefully it'll be done tonight! I may be up all hours waiting, though. LOL
 
Adding stuff today!
I have 2 socks of stabilizer going.
Added some MA earlier.
Added some liquid chlorine.
Will work on Calcium tomorrow.

I may just let the PB add the salt when they come. ?‍♀️

Hopefully I'm doing okay!

Is there a way to enter a fresh-fill in Pool Math? I thought there was but can't seem to find it now... So maybe I made that up?
 
Last edited:
Slowly but surely!

Can I add calcium at the same time as stabilizer/cyanuric acid? I still have 2 socks going.. one is a fresh one with 3lbs in it that I just started but the other one is almost done.

I really want to get the calcium going as it's only 50 ppm right now, but am not sure if it's safe to do at the same time?
 
MeowMeow724 said:
Can I add calcium at the same time as stabilizer/cyanuric acid? I still have 2 socks going.. one is a fresh one with 3lbs in it that I just started but the other one is almost done.
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rattus Suffocatus and MeowMeow724

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
?
As I'm adding calcium and brushing the walls I noticed orange lines coming down the top of the walls in the deep end, along the whole perimeter, and also from the bottom of the light.
Haven't checked the shallow end yet!

Maybe I should just add the salt since it has some stain inhibitor in it.

You've got to be kidding me....
This thing is going to be the death of us.
...and I probably just care too much.
I'm slightly wishing we had just done the vinyl pool at this point.

I texted it to the warranty manager and he said it can be fixed, whatever it is.

What do you think it is?
I'm suspecting it's from our flagstone coping, because it has natural tannins or whatever in it and I think when it was raining cats and dogs while the pool was empty (which I told the warranty manager I wasn't comfortable with!) that it ran down the plaster. It may normally do that but it gets in the water and not on the walls.. just a suspicion.. but that wouldn't explain why it's coming down from the light, either. So maybe that's not it.

Anything I can do to remove it?
I found this article that talks about removing metal stains from walls using a process with ascorbic acid.. but not sure if this is a metal stains.

I hope so they do or that I can!!

Example:
IMG_20200208_125248549.jpg

Another question....
Should I wait to use my robot vacuum since they acid washed? And/Or because I'm adding calcium?

I just threw him in there for a bit between dosing because it was bad and I swear I see new marks.. maybe I'm crazy, though...
 
Last edited:
Try brushing the royal mess on those lines with your pool brush.. if they don't come off, then probably some sort of acid wash is in order. They probably will tell you to wait 60 days or so which is actually reasonable. And yes, you can try the Vitamin C on the walls without hurting anything...it may or may not work, obviously.

As for adding acid. I use literal teaspoons for my 250 gallon detached hot tub and maybe a cup or two in the 13K gallon pool. That is to bring 'er down maybe 0.2 on the pH scale. You can use pool math to run some scenarios with this (yes it varies with CH and TA, etc.). I could see up to a gallon on start up depending, but never that much for maintenance on a pool your size unless something was wrong. Maybe someone out there has water that it takes that much acid, but... its pretty strong stuff, honestly.

Like I said, they threw in a gallon on startup and it took several weeks before I needed to add acid again. I was running a negative CSI for weeks. It likely was okay though because of the short duration and the fact I don't have heat in the pool, though. But doing smaller amount at once a week is better. You really don't need to adjust CSI more often than once a week, honestly.
 
Thanks! I did try the brush the lines a bit and didn't really notice a difference?
I'll keep trying though.. but they're also all along the perimeter, some areas worse than others.

I'm not sure I want to acid wash again... Doesn't that significantly reduce life of the plaster? And it was already done once.

The article I read was about adding the ascorbic acid to the water and it over time, reduced the discoloration. You're supposed to get chlorine and pH to specific levels first, and etc. It was a specific process.
But it did also say to test the discoloration first to determine the type of stain. So I'll have to do that first.

You can just use vitamin c on the walls without issue? Like, just set a tablet on it and see what happens?
I also wonder if I shock the pool if maybe it would fade the lines (if they are not metal stains)?

Startup was yesterday. They just added salt, and were going to to calcium but I've already done that (though I still have some to add). They didn't do any Muriatic acid.
 
Last edited:
I've read that you can use ascorbic acid / Vitamin C tablets directly.. I've not hear of treating the whole pool that way. I think I would try the tablets first to see if it is metal stains and it would help. There are posts here if you search for them about this. Would they fade on their own... possibly...

As for acid washing a second time... well.. if they are careful about it, you probably would be okay...
 
:rolleyes:
There is someone at our pool using acid and a brush right now. We saw on our cameras.. No one told us anything or that someone was doing this.
I am not sure what to think.. I guess they are spot acid washing???? GRR

Just went home and talked with him.
And looked. The stained areas are all over the pool. Running down the walls. It's bad!!

Update: Just had a call with the warranty manager. He is telling me the stains might be from our water source, and its high alkalinity.
I explained to him that it's running down the walls, and I'm confident it's from the rain while it was empty. He said that's possible. But I still think he's believing it's from our water.

He recommended using a sequestering agent.
Update: Added 32 oz this evening. According to the bottle, I should have probably added a little more since it says that much per 15k gallons. The stuff I got was Jack's Magic Magenta, but relabeled for Suncoast Chemical. It said Jacks Magic produced for Suncoast on the bottle. I ordered Jack's Magic Magenta from Amazon tonight, so another bottle is on its way.

He also recommended keeping calcium at 240ppm (which is low I thought...).

He also recommended we get a stainless steel brush or stainless/nylon combo, as the brush they gave us is actually meant for vinyl pools so we need an upgrade to help the plaster along. (Ordered a stainless/nylon combo tonight)

Update: Well, they used a ton of acid because my pH is TANKED and not even on the scale. So I'll have to test alkalinity and see where that's at now.

Oh, BTW, he said our plaster was so underexposed that the acid wash we did shouldn't really be one that reduced its life.
 
Last edited:
No, kimkats. I have pics of the streaks the day it was filled but not before.

I'm pretty certain it occurred between the time they acid washed and it was empty, and it was filling up. ...because the acid wash would have taken those stains off had they been there before it was drained for the acid wash. Which they weren't, because I definitely would have noticed if they were there before then, believe me!

Did you post the link of recommended pool chemicals for the TA? Or?
 
Last edited:
My CSI is still bad!

My pH is coming back up within range, but still not where I need it.
Alkalinity is dropped 50% to 70.

Calcium is 350- is that ok?
I'm confused now because the warranty manager was telling me to keep calcium to 240ppm, but when the startup guy came he told me the 300 I thought it was around was still a little low. I used to have it at 250ppm before the drain and refill and thought that was too low.

Should I do anything to increase pH or let it continue to increase on its own? It's taken 3 days to come up to the 7.s since they added what was probably many gallons of acid while they were washing stains off the walls.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply