I have been heating my pool to keep it swimmable to build and work out the kinks of a pool tree system to keep the water draining off the cover so that I dont have to pump it off and end up with muck on top of it through the winter. Im now pushing the envelope for this area to keep it open any longer and think I have the pool tree set (I HOPE). My water seems ok and I am loosing about a point in FC overnight with les than 0.5 cc and CYA =70 and TA=90 and Ph=7.5. The FC was 6.5 this morning down from 7.5 late yesterday. The pool is covered and not getting any light.

My question is should I bring the pool up to shock levels for 24 hours and then close it or just close it now? Thanks for the advice.

I would bring it to shock value. It is such cheap insurance and may really help you get off to a good start next Spring.

Thanks David. I thought as much but thought I would run it up the flag pole here since I have recieved such great help here in the past. Im so glad I found this site when we got our pooll this summer. It has made havin a pool so much easier than it would have been without all the help provided here! Great site and wonderful help!! Thanks Jim

Jim, can you post pics of the free setup?

Hi carlscan26,

I dont currently have pictures of the setup Im using but I would not recommend it to you. I am going to attemt to get through this winter with what I am using but next year I intend to go in a different direction. Currently I am using a float( a inflatable boat) thaqt I had laying around and I built a platform inside the boat that stands about 4 ft above the water line. Off the top of the platform I attached some rope that radiates out to the top rail of the pool all the way around. I have a 27 ft round pool with 18 uprights and I used 18 ropes. I now know I would use twice that many next time. I have had to go between the ropes all the way around with stiffeners and along the ropes with rigid pipe to stiffen and remove sag from the system. It is currently working ok but I am going to have to watch it close I know all winter. I aim to improve this setup next year with a frame that is all rigid pipe and eliminate the rope totally. I have my cover streched over this whole contraption and screwed to the half that has deck on it and the other side I used pool clips and lots of spring clamps. It is working but its a bit shy of what I wanted it to be. I will post some pictures of the project soon to give you an idea of what it looks like fro the outside. I want to get rid of the floating part and go with a stationary structure that rests on the bottom of the pool or that spans the pool from rail to rail with no center support. Im thinking that could be accomplished with some PVC pipe. I just hope this setup holds me this winter. I have had some rain on it to point out the weak points and made some adjustments to fix things. I hope it just can get me through the winter and next year I will do something much better I hope!!

Thanks Jim