New pool completed -- muratic acid in the skimmer and other issues / questions

[jasontx]

Hi-

First off I really appreciate all the information here and people's willingness to help. I've learned a lot -- mostly focusing on construction and stuff other than chemistry because it wasn't time yet. After a long build, the pool is done (well almost).

A picture of the completed project (I had just brushed so it is a little cloudy):



13k Gallon 17'x33' 3'-5'-4' 7' round spa
Light gray plaster with blue and black quartz
Jandy Equipment: 2.5 HP 2speed Stealth pump, 1 HP Waterfall pump, 580 Cartridge filter, 400k heater, Salt system, PDA

And now my questions and issues.

1. I watched the pool company's startup guy pour half a gallon of muratic acid into each of the skimmers. The pool wasn't running for a few minutes after that. I know all of you would have tackled him before the first drop hit, but I mentioned above I haven't paid as much attention to the chemistry yet -- and plus he does this for a living (I know). They have yet to come out and look at it, say that when stuff is clogged in the skimmer line this is standard practice, and aren't sure that caused my problem.

The problem is the plaster under the skimmer looks mostly gone and the quartz remained:









What are my options to fix this? Are there any good ones or are the solutions worse than the problem? While the pool company hasn't seen it in person yet, they aren't sure it was the acid. I don't think they were there before startup, but the water was a little cloudy and even later at first I thought it was a reflection of the dark skimmer "hole".

Now on to my more mundane questions:

2. While I got a Taylor 2006 test kit, I also went to test the water at Leslie's (who was appalled at the story above and didn't even want to sell me chemicals until I got it resolved with the builder). They also said no chlorine while the plaster cures -- at all. Is that right? I don't know that I've seen it mentioned specifically but I got the impression everyone else was doing it immediately. I know the startup guy put some in, but I wouldn't go by his actions. So should I put some bleach in? (Startup guy also put some CYA in, although I think it is a little low.) I've added muratic acid (not to the skimmer) 3 times and ph was still 8 before the last add. TA was 50-60 this morning so I added the last of the 12 lb box of sodium bicarbonate -- I need to check it again.

3. Pump noise. I'm sure you all think the 2.5 HP pump is way too big. For some reason in Texas that is the way everyone does it. At least I got it switched to a two speed (although the 2 speed relay isn't installed yet). Anyway, the pump seems really loud to me. Really loud. It is behind a 6 ft fence but it is loud everywhere in the backyard. I don't know how to quantify the noise level. You can maybe just hear it a bit in the house, which is 30 feet away. I plan to run it at the hopefully quieter low speed most of the time but is this normal?

4. The three waterfall things (they call them scuppers) are nice but kind of make too much noise for a quiet evening in the backyard. They are on a dedicated pump and each have a valve to level out the flow. Is it bad for the pump to lower all 3 values to make less water flow?

I'm sorry this is so long -- I thought about posting multiple threads but decided to keep it together. Thanks for hanging in there...

Jason