Best month to open my pool

[frustratedpoolmom]

Okay it was more than 2,000 gallons. Had the pump off and on yesterday, didn't want to leave it on when I was away, drained about 6 inches down. Turned it on since 10am this morning, and still several gallons to go. My water level under the cover dropped below the return. Looks like the weight of all the water on top of the cover pushed it up and out thru the top rails. Have a bit of wash out by the base, will need to back fill and do some landscaping, it looks terrible. Looks like we had some sand washout in one 12 inch spot. Since the water level in the pool dropped, it allowed the cover to collect even more water. The air pillow deflated, so what started as 6 inches from the top rail to the water level has turned into almost 18 inches... the last time this happend we thought we had a leak in the liner.

So I peeked under the cover and it's crystal clear, I can see the bottom liner perfectly, smells a bit like Chlorine under there. Crystal!

I want to get the cover off and get to filtering, before my clear goes to green and before the birds start dropping their babies poo in the pool like the last two years.

I know its early, but what the heck? First warm day I'll crank that heater and we'll be swimmin'!

 

[jjdurrant]

I have my opening scheduled for the week of 4/20 (not yet brave enough to open\close myself).

Nice tip on the poolskim.. copters drove me mad last year. Where is the best place to by one?

 

[piku]

But you have an AG pool. You're lucky enough to be able to siphon through a hose. We get a lot of rain here for some reason so I have to pump off 3-5 inches a week during spring. I send it through a hose back into the "the woods". It probably is seeping right back onto my property and turning my lawn to moosh.

 

[cubbybeave08]

. This year, I'm considering putting my solar cover on under my mesh safety cover and trying that. I'm just not sure how effective the solar will be that way...

That's what I did last weekend. I'm curious to see if it helps any. I opened mine about 3/15 last year. That was my first year of opening it. All of the oak things hit in early April. I promised myself last year that I wasn't going to take the mesh cover off for good until after tax day. I have the SWG going at about 50% for 2 hrs per day now, and that's all I'm doing.

I bought a poolskim and it was the best thing I ever did. I get bombarded with the helicopters all summer. It sucks them right up. I rarely have to skim.

ETA: Last year I was open in early April because I had to get a new liner. I bought the poolskim in May, I believe. It makes a HUGE difference with the helicopters and leaves.

What is a pool skim...and where can I get one?

 

[jjdurrant]

http://www.poolskimusa.com/

http://www.intheswim.com/Pool-Equipment ... l-Skimmer/

 

[TizMe]

How does the pool skim work on an AG pool with one return line ? My skimmer will still get all the floating debris and junk and not the pool skim ....

 

[offgrid]

Up here in Ottawa, Canada - I opened the pool last weekend. April 3rd. We don't have many trees and the water that was on the cover (rain and melted snow was very clean) So I pulled the cover off and let the water go into the pool. The water is very very cold - so no algae at all. Crystal clean at the moment. I'll turn on the pump and do a backwash over this coming weekend and add a bag of salt. I'll test the Chlorine levels and let you know the readings.