Quote Originally Posted by dcastine
Newbie here - Hi!

Just had my 25 yr old gunite pool renovated this week - plastered yesterday, filled in the afternoon, brushed twice already. I had the water tested just today - they told me that I need to get to 300ppm of total Alkalinity (?!?!) - now in order to do this I need to add 94 lbs of a certain chemical in order to get there (Bioguard) - then maintain the Ph by adding Muriatic Acid 1/2 gallon at a time over the next year (again ?!?!) - also need to add scale inhibitor (this actually makes sense) - the pool was here when I bought the house so I'm new to a fresh start like this - the water is chlorinated and when they tested the Ph the water turned bright pink... does this sound right? 300ppm of total Alk?

Thanks
Dave
Wakefield, MA
davecastine@gmail.com
Dave, 300 ppm alkalinity doesn't sound right, but you should probably check the plaster manufacturer's recommendations/requirements for chemistry.

I had SGM's Diamonbrite installed in my pool. Their procedure for their "high acid startup" says to bring the alkalinity to zero. I'm pretty sure, however, that that's not the recommendation for plain white plaster. 3M's requirements are probably different than both of those and so on.

Whatever you find, I'd share that with your remodeler. You need to get him on the same page as the manufacturer so that in the event of a problem with the finish they don't both point at you as the source and leave you holding the proverbial bag. If your remodeler is really off the reservation, you should ask him to put it in writing.