Hi all-
this is my first post, but have been using TFP since I opened my pool. I am having white spots on the quartz plaster finish and have been asking the builder to correct it. the pool is about two months old (end of March 2020). the pool guy was here to lower the ph and scrub the plaster to reveal more consistent aggregate. 3-4 days of PH lowered and scrubbing. we did almost 7 days of that when the pool was first filled.
the pool guy wasn't doing anything for the month that we were waiting for the plaster to cure (and get the heater turned on), but i thought he was. as a result, i think the PH got high before i started testing and adjusting. I had to add quite a bit of muriatic acid to get the PH down, but have kept it at 7.8 or lower since. That was maybe 2 weeks where we didn't do anything to the pool before i realized he wasn't coming by regularly.
the builder sent a different pool guy today. I told him i thought the numbers were pretty good, but the pool guy that originally set the pool up dind't tell my anything about what he added. i specifically said I have never added any cyanuric acid or anything that contains that. He told me the PH was off the charts (looked like 7.8 to me) and the chlorine was too high. He also said the CH at 370 was concerning and that 200-400 was the range. It was like being set up to be blamed for the scaling/white stuff issue. he wants to change his bid to the builder before he does anything. As soon as I said I had a Talyor test kit and thought the cheimstry was good, it seemed like things changed. He said he wouldn't touch the pool until he updates his bid. I asked more specifically what that meant and he said adding some language about it being the builders responsibility if something he does goes wrong. He said by talking to me he thought I wouldn't be happy with the results. I thought I was fairly polite, but did ask several questions about his ranges, etc. I also said I just wanted the finish to look more like the aggregate than the blue plaster (we scrubbed the pool at least 20 times during the first week to expose the quartz, but i am not convinced they monitored the PH level to make sure it would be effective the whole time).
From last night:
FC 7.5
CC 0.5 (yesterday was the first time it registered anything other than colorless, always at 0)
PH 7.8
CH 350 (pool guy said 370 with his taylor kit)
TA 80
CYA 80 (i fluctuate what i show 70-90, but have never added any CYA or anything with CYA in it). Pool guy used taylor kit and said 70.
Salt 3400
I did add 20 oz or so of bleach last night wanting to make sure the FC was high if they were working on it today. that should only have raised it by about 1 ppm.
On a side note, the original pool guy and the builder told me the IC-30 SWG could not hook up to the pentair intellicenter. I found that out after i realized it was set at 20%, but the app was showing it at 50% when the pool started to look a little cloudy. they just didn't add the communication cable. i had to call pentair customer service to convince them the marketing material was accurate. it wasn't really warm yet, so the chlorine demand was pretty low during that time. adding some bleach and adjusting it to 50% did the trick.
Should i be worried? Does it make sense to still have them scrub the pool? i am not sure about how much it will affect the life of the plaster at this point.
this is my first post, but have been using TFP since I opened my pool. I am having white spots on the quartz plaster finish and have been asking the builder to correct it. the pool is about two months old (end of March 2020). the pool guy was here to lower the ph and scrub the plaster to reveal more consistent aggregate. 3-4 days of PH lowered and scrubbing. we did almost 7 days of that when the pool was first filled.
the pool guy wasn't doing anything for the month that we were waiting for the plaster to cure (and get the heater turned on), but i thought he was. as a result, i think the PH got high before i started testing and adjusting. I had to add quite a bit of muriatic acid to get the PH down, but have kept it at 7.8 or lower since. That was maybe 2 weeks where we didn't do anything to the pool before i realized he wasn't coming by regularly.
the builder sent a different pool guy today. I told him i thought the numbers were pretty good, but the pool guy that originally set the pool up dind't tell my anything about what he added. i specifically said I have never added any cyanuric acid or anything that contains that. He told me the PH was off the charts (looked like 7.8 to me) and the chlorine was too high. He also said the CH at 370 was concerning and that 200-400 was the range. It was like being set up to be blamed for the scaling/white stuff issue. he wants to change his bid to the builder before he does anything. As soon as I said I had a Talyor test kit and thought the cheimstry was good, it seemed like things changed. He said he wouldn't touch the pool until he updates his bid. I asked more specifically what that meant and he said adding some language about it being the builders responsibility if something he does goes wrong. He said by talking to me he thought I wouldn't be happy with the results. I thought I was fairly polite, but did ask several questions about his ranges, etc. I also said I just wanted the finish to look more like the aggregate than the blue plaster (we scrubbed the pool at least 20 times during the first week to expose the quartz, but i am not convinced they monitored the PH level to make sure it would be effective the whole time).
From last night:
FC 7.5
CC 0.5 (yesterday was the first time it registered anything other than colorless, always at 0)
PH 7.8
CH 350 (pool guy said 370 with his taylor kit)
TA 80
CYA 80 (i fluctuate what i show 70-90, but have never added any CYA or anything with CYA in it). Pool guy used taylor kit and said 70.
Salt 3400
I did add 20 oz or so of bleach last night wanting to make sure the FC was high if they were working on it today. that should only have raised it by about 1 ppm.
On a side note, the original pool guy and the builder told me the IC-30 SWG could not hook up to the pentair intellicenter. I found that out after i realized it was set at 20%, but the app was showing it at 50% when the pool started to look a little cloudy. they just didn't add the communication cable. i had to call pentair customer service to convince them the marketing material was accurate. it wasn't really warm yet, so the chlorine demand was pretty low during that time. adding some bleach and adjusting it to 50% did the trick.
Should i be worried? Does it make sense to still have them scrub the pool? i am not sure about how much it will affect the life of the plaster at this point.
