We had a pool built last year and chose a Pebble Tec finish. I am now so sorry we did. I wish we'd saved the $$$ and had just gone for the old fashioned plaster finish. I'm 62 and use the pool for aqua exercises for my arthritis, and part of my routine is to walk MANY steps back and forth in the pool. The first few days I did this, the bottoms of my feet ended up RAW. At first I didn't make the connection. But finally on about the 3rd day, I realized it was from the surface of the pool. My feet were so sore I could hardly walk on them. My feet are not that sensitive. I walk around barefoot all day when I'm home. I now wear either water shoes or mesh shower shoes in the pool. I thought maybe I could "toughen up" the bottoms of my feet, but the few times I've tried to go in barefoot since the beginning, I can feel the irritation, and end up putting my shoes back on.

I'm in total agreement with you about green! Green = algae = not in my pool! Our plaster guy was really pushing Tahoe Blue, not sure why, although I got a hint from one of the installers that it might be one of the cheaper mixes. Anyhow... After looking at many, many pictures online and talking to people, I found that Tahoe Blue definitely has a bit of green to it. I'm guessing it's named after a lake because natural bodies of water are green-blue because of plants living in them. The ocean only looks pure blue on Sandals Resorts commercials. ;) We were between Midnight Blue and Tropics Blue and ended up using Tropics Blue (Stonescapes mini pebble) and we really like it. I think it's as close to a true medium blue as I've seen in a pool. It's dark enough to capture a little bit of heat but light enough to see the bottom clearly, and it has a really beautiful shimmer when the sun is on it. And we really like how the actual pebbles look where you can see them on the steps and in the spa. It's a really nice mix of colors. Now at some moments it might have a touch of the windex-look you're talking about. Thanks for that, by the way, I was calling it Kool Aid! But overall, it's a really nice, rich, shimmery, medium blue. I suggest that you search online for images of the exact color names you're looking at. Look at many pictures and take in the whole range. Don't just focus on one image you like because there's no guarantee of how exactly it will look in your pool, in your yard, with your sunlight, etc. Good luck!

here is a prism pool I looked at yesterday. water has to be off, note the tennis court in back ground is same as the water??? ... and finish was definitely prism blue. I requested to see another pool in prism. does anybody know if Aqua is alittle darker blue than Prism or other way around? Here is a link that might be useful:

I am in NE Phoenix/Scottsale, AZ area. The travertine is 12x12 bullnose around the edge of the pool and the rest is 6x12 tumbled pavers. We haven't been on it too much when it is wet, but it hasn't been slippery. I think being tumbled makes it not slippery. The whole process took about 45 days, maybe just slightly more to build the pool. They started Sept 13th and the pebble sheen was installed on Oct 31st. I was impressed with the speed the pool was built. They moved fast and even worked all day on Saturdays. I actually caused about a week delay because I could not decide on the waterline tile. My builder actually had to go to the tile store and pick up a sample of the tile I chose since he didn't have a sample. You can't see it in the picture, but it has some gold/brown it which causes it to slightly sparkle in the sun. I don't remember the stone color, but it was in the gold tone range. Some of the choices had more grays in it. It is individual linear stones and the top is flagstone. My pool builder said the pool probably had some algae in it which is why it was greener than any start up pool he had seen. And it got greener after the first day of fill. It had been in the mid-90's when the pool got filled, so it was hot to have it without chemicals in it.