Restored Gunite yesterday - checmical questions...

[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

[KurtV]

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.

[zelmo]

The best online instructions I found for balancing water in a newly plastered pool were at the NPC site. http://www.npconline.org/

Find the consumer tab and there is a link to start up notes.

[dcastine]

Thanks guys!! I went to my pool supply house yesterday and he gave me the 'sticks' that I need to measure and two cases of muriatic acid - he told me to get the Ph down (like you said) and watch the calcium and to make sure I brush the pool twice a day for 3 weeks... that sounds better - THANKS FOR THE WEBSITE!!!

Dave Castine
Wakefield, MA
58 Degrees and rising!!

[duraleigh]

Hi, Dave,

Please take this as it is intended . I believe you are simply guessing at what to do to your pool. Do you mean test strips when you say "sticks"?Dave, they are worthless.

Spend $15 bucks and get a drop based test kit and post the following info. FC, CC, Alk, CH, pH, and CYA. Also, can you tell us how many gallons in your pool?

Without the above info, it is almost impossible to give you solid advice on your pool chemistry. Even, if the Alk of 300 is correct (which I doubt a bunch) How will you know what your reading is now? How will you know how to get where you belong?

Please don't add 94 lbs of anything 'til you find out where you are

[dcastine]

Yes - that's what I meant Dave...

I'll spend the money for the tester you are talking about and report back what I find. $15? - heck I just spent $11k for new plaster !!! THANKS stand by...

Dave