Hey there experts in the Deep End 
I’m curious as to what may be happening with my plaster finish and what I should do to address it - if anything. I’ve done a few things already, hopefully nothing too much
I test with a TF-100 kit, use a digital pH meter that is validated with phenol red. I check the phenol vs. the digital meter every 2 weeks or so It’s not the one that came with my TF-100, that one seemed to have temperature sensitivity issues so I got a new one from amazon, works much better for me.
Before I get into way too much history here are the basics:, I’m seeing what appears to be calcium scaling or something forming on my finish. It became very obvious to me over the past few days as I was cleaning up the “bottom” of the steps where some calcium had clearly built up in areas that I didn’t brush very well on the first couple of days of our pools life (We didn’t get in the pool for about 4 days, and during that time I couldn’t really get to the transitions on the steps very well from the side of the pool). I used a sanding block to knock some off the calcium off late last week and it relieved a rich deep gorgeous plaster color underneath that looked awesome and felt great!… the rest of the pool however doesn’t look like that. I started to “expand” my area of curiosity with a small wire brush, a pool stone and a pumice stone. I mostly cleaned up 2 steps and by and large it seems obvious to me that there is a really beautiful deep plaster color just waiting to be exposed in my pool. It’s crystal clear - THANKS TFP! - so I’d like to see that gorgeous color just a bit more.
(lots of pictures later)
When I use a pool stone or pumice stone, the white residue (calcium I assume) comes off REALLY easily. I have to scrub fairly vigorously with my tiny 4” wire brush to get it to come off, and a little less vigorously with the sanding block. The plaster that is under the white residue is smooth.
A bit of pool history:
Pool plastered June 10th. Altima French Gray. It’s a Plaster/Quartz combo. Details of the rest are in my signature. I typically backwash about every 2-3 weeks, I add DE to the filter and backwash at 25% increase in pressure. Pump runs 9 hrs/day on lower speed for circulation (1350 RPM), cleaner runs 3 hrs/day on higher speed (2900 RPM). My build thread has a lot of build details
Startup:
I started using Pool Math on June 18th, so I’ll give some basic history of the chemistry from there. These are my (mostly) weekend reading and full tests only. I checked FC/pH throughout the week and adjusted as needed - typically multiple times a day (I was sort of obsessive about it).
June 18 - FC 5.5, pH 7.5, TA 100, CH 175, CYA 20, CSI -0.20
— still fighting pH rise
June 23 - pH hit 7.8, dropped it to 7.4
June 25 - pH hit 7.6, dropped it to 7.4
— seems like pH started to settle a bit (I’m sure Trichlor tablet’s helped, decided to raise CYA from Trichlor with bleach as primary FC source).
July 2 - FC 5, pH 7.5, TA 80, CH 225, CYA 20, CSI -0.15
— We left for vacation here for about 2 weeks, I bumped TA before leaving. Instructions to the house sitter - test daily FC / pH using the T-100 kit, if pH gets to 7.8 add 3cups MA (14.5%). Used Trichlor floaters for baseline FC/pH management (and to slowly rise CYA), add bleach if FC gets to 2. Brush pool on the weekend. I don’t have samples, but when we got home, things looked good from a pH and CSI perspective. See reading below:
July 15 - FC 2.0, pH 7.6, TA 110, CH 225, CYA 30, CSI 0.02
July 23 - FC 1.5, pH 7.6 TA 100, CH 225, CYA 30, CSI 0.02
July 28 - FC 2.5, pH 7.7, TA 90, CH 200, CYA 35, CSI -0.02
July 30 - FC 9.0, pH 7.3, TA 90, CH 200, CYA 40, CSI -0.52
— (I took pH down as I was doing a mini SLAM - pool was getting a ton of use as we had a lot of family around end of July, noticed fairly high FC consumption and failed an OCLT on the 28th - also CYA was raising and I didn’t adjust min FC for daily addition)
— On the 31st I wanted to confirm it was calcium so instead of pouring my MA in a general deep area near the return, I poured it all in a small section of the shelf area in the pool, the white material fizzed a bit (didn’t disappear), so it really seems like calcium to me.
Today - FC 4.5, pH 7.5, TA 80, CH 225, CYA 40, CSI -0.23
Fill Water - (Connected to Auto Fill, it runs daily) - FC 0.5, pH 8, TA 120, CH 75, CYA 0, CSI 0.04
Water temp is typically 80-82 in the morning, and gets as high as 92-93 if we put the cover on. We’ve had it covered for a combined total of 2-3 weeks, typically for 2/3 days at a time if it starts to peak at 86-87 in temp - apparently my family enjoys a bathtub for a pool
Pictures:
Overview of the pool:
Steps that I have cleaned (mostly) - notice the bit of remaining white blotchy areas - I assume it’s calcium:
Corner of a step - it’s kind of difficult to see when I took off, but this area stated it as I cleaned up some white scaling (likely due to missed brush areas):
Baja Shelf - notice the streak of darker area near the side of the pool. I took the small wire brush across it 3-4 times and it “dusted up” like plaster dust did in the beginning (with nylon brush) - you can also see what the corners of the steps generally looked like before I cleaned them off here. I didn’t get these “curved” areas very well it seems during initial brushing:
Bottom of pool - the couple of “dark” spots are areas where I very quickly took a pool stone to see if those came off as well. They came off in 1-2 “strokes”, looks like plaster dust as it comes off the floor:
I realize my pool is pretty darn young, so if I’m just over reacting - then okay, I’ll stop. However, I noticed my parents dark plaster pool doesn’t have any of this stuff in it, and it’s 25 years old!!! So, I figured it was at least time to ask the experts here for an opinion, as well as to gain some knowledge.
Assuming there is something that I need to follow up on, I’m happy to reach out to my builder and plastering company. Just wanted to ensure I had some knowledge ahead of time before I ask for anything
Thanks!!!
-Ryan
I’m curious as to what may be happening with my plaster finish and what I should do to address it - if anything. I’ve done a few things already, hopefully nothing too much
I test with a TF-100 kit, use a digital pH meter that is validated with phenol red. I check the phenol vs. the digital meter every 2 weeks or so
It’s not the one that came with my TF-100, that one seemed to have temperature sensitivity issues so I got a new one from amazon, works much better for me.Before I get into way too much history here are the basics:, I’m seeing what appears to be calcium scaling or something forming on my finish. It became very obvious to me over the past few days as I was cleaning up the “bottom” of the steps where some calcium had clearly built up in areas that I didn’t brush very well on the first couple of days of our pools life (We didn’t get in the pool for about 4 days, and during that time I couldn’t really get to the transitions on the steps very well from the side of the pool). I used a sanding block to knock some off the calcium off late last week and it relieved a rich deep gorgeous plaster color underneath that looked awesome and felt great!… the rest of the pool however doesn’t look like that. I started to “expand” my area of curiosity with a small wire brush, a pool stone and a pumice stone. I mostly cleaned up 2 steps and by and large it seems obvious to me that there is a really beautiful deep plaster color just waiting to be exposed in my pool. It’s crystal clear - THANKS TFP! - so I’d like to see that gorgeous color just a bit more.
(lots of pictures later)
When I use a pool stone or pumice stone, the white residue (calcium I assume) comes off REALLY easily. I have to scrub fairly vigorously with my tiny 4” wire brush to get it to come off, and a little less vigorously with the sanding block. The plaster that is under the white residue is smooth.
A bit of pool history:
Pool plastered June 10th. Altima French Gray. It’s a Plaster/Quartz combo. Details of the rest are in my signature. I typically backwash about every 2-3 weeks, I add DE to the filter and backwash at 25% increase in pressure. Pump runs 9 hrs/day on lower speed for circulation (1350 RPM), cleaner runs 3 hrs/day on higher speed (2900 RPM). My build thread has a lot of build details
Startup:
- Brushed like crazy for a couple weeks. I don’t remember exact details, but it was 4-5 times a day until there was no visible plaster dust coming off and daily for another week or so. Still brush at least once a week, typically 2-3 times.
- Startup was “neutral”. The plaster was finished and 2 hoses where put in the pool. It was filled in about 13-14 hours after plaster was finished.
- Day 2, my builder came by, did an initial chemical check I didn’t write the numbers down. He added 2 gallons of acid (I assume 31%) and commented that our CH was low from the tap, otherwise things looked good.
- Day 3, per instructions, we brushed and managed pH. I started to balance chemical profile’s and have lots from June 18th on. Week 1 we focused on controlling pH rise and keeping FC in check
I started using Pool Math on June 18th, so I’ll give some basic history of the chemistry from there. These are my (mostly) weekend reading and full tests only. I checked FC/pH throughout the week and adjusted as needed - typically multiple times a day (I was sort of obsessive about it).
June 18 - FC 5.5, pH 7.5, TA 100, CH 175, CYA 20, CSI -0.20
— still fighting pH rise
June 23 - pH hit 7.8, dropped it to 7.4
June 25 - pH hit 7.6, dropped it to 7.4
— seems like pH started to settle a bit (I’m sure Trichlor tablet’s helped, decided to raise CYA from Trichlor with bleach as primary FC source).
July 2 - FC 5, pH 7.5, TA 80, CH 225, CYA 20, CSI -0.15
— We left for vacation here for about 2 weeks, I bumped TA before leaving. Instructions to the house sitter - test daily FC / pH using the T-100 kit, if pH gets to 7.8 add 3cups MA (14.5%). Used Trichlor floaters for baseline FC/pH management (and to slowly rise CYA), add bleach if FC gets to 2. Brush pool on the weekend. I don’t have samples, but when we got home, things looked good from a pH and CSI perspective. See reading below:
July 15 - FC 2.0, pH 7.6, TA 110, CH 225, CYA 30, CSI 0.02
July 23 - FC 1.5, pH 7.6 TA 100, CH 225, CYA 30, CSI 0.02
July 28 - FC 2.5, pH 7.7, TA 90, CH 200, CYA 35, CSI -0.02
July 30 - FC 9.0, pH 7.3, TA 90, CH 200, CYA 40, CSI -0.52
— (I took pH down as I was doing a mini SLAM - pool was getting a ton of use as we had a lot of family around end of July, noticed fairly high FC consumption and failed an OCLT on the 28th - also CYA was raising and I didn’t adjust min FC for daily addition)
— On the 31st I wanted to confirm it was calcium so instead of pouring my MA in a general deep area near the return, I poured it all in a small section of the shelf area in the pool, the white material fizzed a bit (didn’t disappear), so it really seems like calcium to me.
Today - FC 4.5, pH 7.5, TA 80, CH 225, CYA 40, CSI -0.23
Fill Water - (Connected to Auto Fill, it runs daily) - FC 0.5, pH 8, TA 120, CH 75, CYA 0, CSI 0.04
Water temp is typically 80-82 in the morning, and gets as high as 92-93 if we put the cover on. We’ve had it covered for a combined total of 2-3 weeks, typically for 2/3 days at a time if it starts to peak at 86-87 in temp - apparently my family enjoys a bathtub for a pool
Pictures:
Overview of the pool:
Steps that I have cleaned (mostly) - notice the bit of remaining white blotchy areas - I assume it’s calcium:
Corner of a step - it’s kind of difficult to see when I took off, but this area stated it as I cleaned up some white scaling (likely due to missed brush areas):
Baja Shelf - notice the streak of darker area near the side of the pool. I took the small wire brush across it 3-4 times and it “dusted up” like plaster dust did in the beginning (with nylon brush) - you can also see what the corners of the steps generally looked like before I cleaned them off here. I didn’t get these “curved” areas very well it seems during initial brushing:
Bottom of pool - the couple of “dark” spots are areas where I very quickly took a pool stone to see if those came off as well. They came off in 1-2 “strokes”, looks like plaster dust as it comes off the floor:
I realize my pool is pretty darn young, so if I’m just over reacting - then okay, I’ll stop. However, I noticed my parents dark plaster pool doesn’t have any of this stuff in it, and it’s 25 years old!!! So, I figured it was at least time to ask the experts here for an opinion, as well as to gain some knowledge.
Assuming there is something that I need to follow up on, I’m happy to reach out to my builder and plastering company. Just wanted to ensure I had some knowledge ahead of time before I ask for anything
Thanks!!!
-Ryan
