My wife and I were in the same predicament over choosing the color for our pool also. We wanted a blue but didn't want any green shade to the water . We were happy with the "blueness" of Blue Granite but like yourself we didn't care for the rather dull or grayish look in shallow water. We ended up choosing Midnight Blue PS and couldn't be happier. we actually have Sandy Beach in our beach entry for the first 15' of the ramp down, and while we were already paying the upcharge for two diferent colors of pebble application, We had them do our entire spa in Sandy Beach PS as well as we felt the sandy beach pebble looks great in shallow water, at least better than any of the darker pebble choices. We too have the Oklahoma flagstone and I think the Midnight Blue and Oklahoma compliment each other nicely.good luck with your project.

No salt for 30 days for sure with any new cement based interior surface. The heating is actually more of a concern for your heater since pH fluctuations will be crazy for the first month in a concrete pool. A pH of 6, as recommended by someone here, is 10 times more acidic than a pH of 7 and 100 times more acidic than a pH of 8. Since a heater is so expensive and the internals are quite sensitive to pH imbalance it would be in your best interest to have the heater bypassed until you have the pH controlled. If you do not have a heater bypass built in then you can not avoid sending water through the heater unfortunately. Water temp is one of the factors in calculating the saturation index of the pool water - which is to say the potential for a scaling state in the water. This is why you can not just use soft water to fill with - it needs to have calcium hardness high enough to not damage new concrete but also not develop a scaling state from high temps and too much calcium hardness. For the first 30 days simply watch your pH and alkalinity, as well as maintain around 1ppm free chlorine. If you heat it then don't boil it - 80 degrees. New pool owners tend to like 90 degrees until they get the first gas bill.

I had a problem on my old pool where we used Pebble Tec above the waterline instead of tile. At the time, maybe 2003 or 4, Pebble Tec marketing info on their website and brochures showed fabulous photos of the finish outside of the water. I think there were even photos of it being used as a finish for decking. Anyhow, Cracks showed up in a few years... getting gradually worse and worse. I called Pebble Tec and they informed me it was installed improperly and that it should never be used above the waterline. Huh? I went back to their website and, sure enough, all the outside of the water application photos were gone. So... there is nothing special about Pebble Tec. It's all about quality of the crew doing the application and Pebble Tec is just another material.. albeit one that is marketed a bit better. Unless you're getting a deal I'd go for some other exposed aggregate finish. I think their warranty and installer validation process is marketing magic. Hey... Let's turn this into a bash Pebble Tec thread. Pile on. :)

Can't help you with photos of the new color, but I have to say I'm surprised to hear that you couldn't see the bottom of the Prism Blue pool. We have Black Onyx Pebble Sheen® and have no problems seeing the bottom of our pool (except in the middle of the night without the pool light on). Pebble Sheen® is "smoother" than Pebble Tec®. Neither is sharp or rough (or should I say, neither of them should be sharp or rough). The pebbles in Pebble Sheen® are smaller than the pebbles in Pebble Tec®, and the Pebble Sheen® surface is buffed (the Pebble Tec® is not) during the acid wash phase. A Pebble Sheen® surface should be very much like that of a basketball or football -- you feel bumps/texture but no roughness. Are you sure your neighbor has genuine Pebble Sheen® and not another brand's mini pebble and they just refer to it as Pebble Sheen®?