Refinished Pool ... wrong color?

This may help:


At least it gives you a mid-point comparator/standard to evaluate against your water.
Thanks! I’ll check it out. Maybe it’ll help me learn to do the test properly.

I contacted the builder and they are “required” to do the start up. What I find funny is they see it as a one time thing. There is no follow up after initial start up. Seems like there should be a procedure they would follow for the first x days. Anyway, I will find out what chemicals they put in the pool tomorrow, assuming they show up.
 
Seems like there should be a procedure they would follow for the first x days.
There most certainly is, about 30 days at least, and it should have started already. You're in the same limbo many new pool owners find themselves: trying to maintain a warranty and dealing with a builder that doesn't know much about pool water chemistry and its effects on new plaster. It's actually ridiculously common for builders to not understand pool water at all.

They'll come tomorrow, dump in whatever they're going to dump in, and it'll be up to you after that. Let 'em do their thing, then begin the "real" startup process the minute they leave. If push comes to shove, they'll have to prove you did something contrary, and they're not going to be in your yard monitoring you. If they indicate they'll be back in a few days or weeks, then we'll deal with that.

Review the startup processes Allen gave you (here), pick one, purchase whatever materials necessary for the one you select, including a proper test kit (one of the two we recommend, here) and a good pool brush, and go to it. You can start buying things today, order the kit for sure (or restock the one you have). Keep a log of everything you do.

Take notes about any conversation you have with the builder. Write him a follow up email tomorrow after his startup, that summarizes what he did and said. It doesn't have to be antagonistic. Just short and sweet: "Thanks for the visit today. Just wanted to jot down some notes and share them with you to make sure I have them right. You performed your startup process today, and used xxx and yyy in the pool. You instructed me to do the following: blah, blah. You mention that I should: blah, and that you would blah, blah." Like that. Don't make it sound like you're going after him (you're not), just that you want to make sure you're both on the same page. Including that you'll be taking over the rest of the start up procedure after he leaves. Hopefully he'll respond, and unless he says "No, we'll be handing that," or whatever, then you'll be good-to-go to take over the startup, and he can't later give you any warranty bs.

On a somewhat obscure positive note, the fact that your pool is green and getting greener, while not great, does indicate that there's something wrong with your water, which you're going to address soon, and so it's very likely to get bluer, perhaps as blue as you want, and this'll all be behind you in short order. It's too soon to worry about the color, so, you know, don't yet.
 
Dirk,

Thank you for the details. I've read a lot about the start process that Allen provided. Today I'll get all the chemicals I'll need and I"ll buy a new brush. I have the TF kit but need to restock some items and I'll try that CYA stuff that Candurin posted for me.

I love the follow up email idea and will do that for sure.

I was shocked our water was so bad. Last time we filled it up it was pretty much perfect, but it was also in April and wasn't 96* with full sun all day. Us and the kids are pretty excited to get into the pool, so hopefully in a couple days it'll be safe to jump in.

Thanks you and everyone for all your help! Any other advice is definitely welcome!

-Joe
 
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What color is your plaster?

Your problem now is you have algae in your new water. The way to clear algae is with the SLAM Process having high chlorine levels.

You do not want high chlorine levels with new plaster for the first 30 days. Especially with colored plaster where the chlorine can bleach out the color.

So you are stuck needing to live with the algae for the first 3 to 4 weeks before you can do a proper SLAM Process

Your pool company did you no favors in setting you up for this problem.
 
What color is your plaster?
It's beach/sand color pebble. Yeah, I'm pretty upset with the pool company. I kept asking them when they would be out here to do the start up and they were not in a hurry. I'm not confident they will even show up tomorrow either. We will see what happens. So in reality then, we can't get into the pool until Sept. We missed all summer waiting for them to repair the pool and now that it is repaired, we won't be able to use it because they have poor planning.
 
So in reality then, we can't get into the pool until Sept.
@ajw22 can confirm, but I think I have learned here that you can swim with the algae. I mean, that's not ideal, but the algae itself is not harmful to you. You'll get chlorine in the water this week, which will sanitize the water for safe swimming, you just won't be able to elevate the chlorine level enough to clear the algae. Now, the algae will be consuming the chlorine, so you'll have to add it more often than you would otherwise, but if you want to get in, you'll be able to.

It'll be safer than swimming in a lake, in terms of pathogens, but it'll be similar in that the water will be, uh, lake-ish colored!
 
@ajw22 can confirm, but I think I have learned here that you can swim with the algae.

A pool is safe to swim in with algae if you can see the bottom of the pool and the FC level is between the minimum and SLAM level for the CYA level.

Can you see the bottom of the deep end of the pool?
 
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We can see the bottom. The water is pretty clear, but it's definitely green. I went and bought some muriatic acid and the local pool store is out of liquid chlorine. This pic is from right now. It's pretty hazy, but can see the bottom. There is no chorine in the pool right now.IMG_9876.JPG
 
If it was my pool I would add enough Muriatic Acid to get the pH into the 7's.

I would hit the big box stores and find 10%-12% liquid chlorine.


On the 3rd day I would add 3PPM of liquid chlorine and maintain it there for the 28 days.

Your Pool Company will never know you added acid or chlorine. Just do it.

If after the 4th day your Pool Company has not added Stabilizer/CYA then you add 40PPM using the sock method. Do not predissolve it and add it through the skimmer as it says below.

If you need help doing these things just ask.

1723404067654.png
 
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PS. I didn't study any about the best startup procedure for my pool. At the time, I hadn't found TFP yet. The NPC card that Allen posted is what I used, and I followed it to the letter. There are others, but since it's too late for me now I never studied any more about it. Do so if you can, but the NPC MO is better than what your pool guys are doing, that's for sure.

I did make a mistake with the CYA, and ended up burning a stain into my brand new plaster. Heed Allen's advice about that, too. Don't mess with liquid CYA, or premixing it. Use TFP's tried and true MO of using CYA granules and putting them in a sock. Some here hang the sock in front of a return. I prefer to put the sock into my skimmer basket. Either way, just be careful with CYA in any form, as it is an acid and can burn your pool or deck if spilled or mishandled.

If you can't find granulated CYA locally, you can get in on Amazon. This is what I recently used:
 
PPS. The image that Allen posted of the NPC card is just the one side. The card is two-sided, so there's another whole side. Here. Though a lot of the back side can be safely ignored and replaced with TFP recommendations. When in doubt, ask here. Allen is taking good care of you, and will.
 
Hi guys! So pool guy came over today and add 4 gal of muriatic acid, some start up fluid (HPE or some start up chemical), a little liquid chlorine. The pool cleared up within about 30 minutes. He flushed out the lines and got the pump running. I tested the water about 4 hrs later and here are the results:
Chlor: 0.5
pH: 6.8 (probably lower but that is the lowest reading the tester has)
TA: 0
Calcium: 125

I added 3 lbs of baking soda. My local Sam's didn't have any baking soda so I was able to find one bag at Target. Tomorrow I'll add more.

My question is we have a salt cell (never really worked well; can't keep chlorine in the pool) and the guy wanted to dump 8 - 40lb bags of salt in my pool. I told him the plaster company said not to (they did) but mostly because I wanted to see what TFP says I should do.

I can't thank you all enough for the help!
 

When Should Salt be Added? In our industry, there seems to be some consensus to wait 30 days before adding salt to new plaster pools, yet some say it is okay to add salt within a couple of days of filling the pool. Who is right? This thread describes why it appears that the recommendation to wait 30 days before adding any salt is appropriate for most plaster pools, including quartz and pebble pools.
 
Thank you Allen! I feel much better about the start up of this pool. The water is crystal clear and I have some confidence that I know what to do.
 
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4 gallons of MA seems a bit extreme. I’m not the expert others are here, but I’d probably try to get that up to at least 7.2.
 
Hi DB,

I'm getting closer to balanced now. My numbers from today:
Chlor: 1.0
pH: 7.8 (added 10oz of acid - pool math provided the number to get me to 7.6)
TA: 80
CYA: 0 (Leslie's says 5) I have a sock in the skimmer now so it should start to rise
Cal: 125

For my warranty of the plaster I have to have documented balanced water through a pool store and I have to email them the test results weekly for the first 8 weeks. Then monthly for the next ten months. So that is why you will see me still using Leslie's. Their numbers are usually close to mine and they are better than the local pinch a penny.
 
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Hi DB,

I'm getting closer to balanced now. My numbers from today:
Chlor: 1.0
pH: 7.8 (added 10oz of acid - pool math provided the number to get me to 7.6)
TA: 80
CYA: 0 (Leslie's says 5) I have a sock in the skimmer now so it should start to rise
Cal: 125

For my warranty of the plaster I have to have documented balanced water through a pool store and I have to email them the test results weekly for the first 8 weeks. Then monthly for the next ten months. So that is why you will see me still using Leslie's. Their numbers are usually close to mine and they are better than the local pinch a penny.
Numbers are looking better! What's it look like now?
 

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