New Pebble - first tests

New owner of first pool: just completed, inground, 17,000 gal, Pebble Sheen finish, dark color. Fill-up complete 6/8, pump and filter operational late in the day 6/8. Will have SWG in a few weeks. Have ordered Ben's kit but have not yet received. All tests done by Wal-Mart HTH drop tests and some done by Leslie's, hoping to check my results. Filter/pump on 24/7. Absolutely no chemicals whatsoever added at start-up.

All Pebble materials indicate I should get pH and alkalinity in balance prior to chlorination.

My tests 6/9: Total Cl 2.0 (test kit only does total)
pH 8.2+
TA 90
Ca hardness 90 (really this low??)
Leslie's test 6/9: Free Cl 1.5
Total Cl 3.0
pH 8.0+
TA 50
No other tests offered, these were all by drops
My test 6/10: Total Cl 1.5
pH 8.2+
TA 80

Water temps are 82 in early AM, 86 at mid-afternoon.

Leslie's recommended adding 15# of Alk Up, even tho it would up my already-high pH, and handling the pH after that. I wasn't convinced so I did nothing.
After today's test, I have more faith in my TA readings than theirs, so am planning on adding a mere 2c of muriatic acid to drop my pH just .2 tonight. Basically, I'm trying to guage my pool's response, so am not trying to correct my pH all at once. I plan on testing daily and will do another calcium test and the first stabilizer test tomorrow.

Water looks very clear, pebbles on bottom highly visible. Water has a greenish cast from the side, but I've heard of lots of Pebble customers having a green-ish color to the finish/water that eventually changes to the true color. We also have a good reflection of some very green trees that could be affecting my impression of water color.

Am I on the right track? I'm concerned about having enough chlorine to keep my pool clean too. Should I be adding bleach?

Thanks for the help.
DD

OK, so I have new test results, fresh from the pool. We actually ended up adding only about a cup of muratic acid last night. pH still is 8.2+ but I think the color is closer to 8.2 than it has ever been. When seeing how little our pH dropped, we added about 2cups this AM.

Also bought a smaller test kit from Leslie's so I could get a free chlorine reading rather than just total chlorine in my current kit. So, the new results:

pH 8.2
Cl 1.0 (free less than .5)
TA 70
Hardness (calcium carbonate) 70
Stabilizer less than 30 (30 is last mark on vial going downward, had to add the final bit of solution but it finally did make the dot disappear).

We'll HAVE to add chlorine tonight, right? TA has been drifting down 10 parts each day since fill completed.

I need a plan.

Sandy

Hi, Sandy,

Bring your pH down. Sooner rather than later. I think you'll find it will rise on it's own with that new gunite pool...maybe for a few months. I'd shoot for 7.2

That greenish cast in your water might be algae. If it looks greener tomorrow, you'll definitely need to shock. I would put in a gallon of bleach today(should get you to 4ppm) or, if you decide to shock now, 4.5 gallons should get you close to 15ppm.

Thirdly, I would get some baking soda (alkalinity up) at the grocery store and raise your Alk to about 100 or so.....15lbs is convenient (5lb bags) and should get you around 110.

Keep a close eye on your pH.....don't let it get above 7.8 and a little lower would be better.

If you Calcium Hardness really is that low, I'd probably use Calcium Hypochlorite to chlorinate your pool for a while to get the calcium up. With your pH that high, several pounds of baking soda probably won't increase the PH much, but will bring the TA up into the ideal range. I'd use Muratic Acid to bring the PH down, but you might want to get some Calcium and Alkalinity in the water before you drop it too much

Thank you, thank you for the info. I don't want an algae problem, so I'd rather just go ahead and shock it - I actually thought one should shock any newly-filled pool anyway. If I add the bleach or calcium hypo to shock tonight, should I see that 15ppm on my morning water test? Or would it have come down by then? What level is swimmable?

Can I add everything into the water tonight? I realize I can't MIX it all up together, but can I treat the water with muriatic acid, baking soda and bleach within, say, an hour?

Thanks again for all your help.
Sandy:)

Hi, Sandy,

Spread it out some. I don't think there is a hard rule about time between chemicals but it makes sense to let one get into the sytem, then, the other.

Get your pH down with the acid. Maybe let it circulate a half hour or so and then put in the Cl. Wait maybe another 30 minutes and do the baking soda.

cwstnsko makes a good point about Cal hypo...both to shock and chlorinate. Because you need calcium anyway (which I overlooked) that would be my Cl of choice. Dosage should be on the container.

If that is algae in your water, don't be surprised if most or all of your Cl is gone tomorrow AM. Keep the Cl at shock value 'til the water clears.

Thanks again for the info. I just got home from getting bleach and baking soda. I'll use that handy bleach calc, as I need to adjust your 4.5 gallon recommendation a bit since I was able to get 6% bleach rather than the 5.25%. Also came in 182 oz jugs. Anything to make it more difficult, right?

Also noticed at Sam's (where the bleach was) that the Clorox Ultra is a 6% solution and the "regular" bleach packaged the same way in 3-jug boxes, was also 6%. Ingredients on the labels on both kinds were identical - same price. Had I picked up the "regular" bleach without reading the ingredients, I might have put in more chlorine than I wanted.

We'll do some work tonight and see what the tests show tomorrow.

Sandy

Re-read your post about the calcium hypo. We'll probably shock with bleach and then try the calcium hypo as more of an ongoing chlorination with frequent testing of that calcium level.

Sandy

Sandy,

with a gunite pool, you don't have to be too stingy with the bleach. Might fade a swimsuit if you go in when it's 10+ or so but, other than that, it will ensure you actually reach breakpoint.

4.5 gallons should take your pool to around 16ppm. I would consider that minimum to ensure breakpoint (shock).

Again, it'll disappear almost overnite if you have a lot of organics in there. :)

Dave, you were right on. My chlorine has disappeared! We added 3-182oz bottles of 6% bleach late yesterday afternoon (546 oz vs 544 oz in Bleach Calc!). New readings fresh from the pool:

pH 8.2- (rather than +) Total muriatic acid added is 1/2 gallon - we'll do more
Total Cl 0
Free Cl 0
TA 110 (added 10# of baking soda last night)
CYA less than 30 (redid this test, still not really confident in this measure, as the dot disappears(?) when the solution is right at the very, very top of the vial; another drop and it would spill over)
Calcium hardness 70-80

My Cl really "shocked" me, as there was no change in color for either test! Actually called the 800# to see what high chlorine would register on tests that only go up to 5.0 (I was hoping they'd say "clear"). They said I should see an intense orange color if I were holding Cl levels above 5. I can see I need to get a test that can measure high chlorine levels. Whenever Ben's kit arrives, will it register shock levels, I wonder?

So, I'm guessing that I should continue to add Cl to shock levels until it can hold Cl overnight? - seems like I read that somewhere???

Sandy