Cleaning AGP before Spring opening ?

[WorBry]

This has been my first winter with a AGP (Cornelius 18' x 52" round). As is common practice in my locale (Quebec), I dropped the water level to around 20" below the skimmer plate when closing last November.

This Winter has been milder than normal - less snow-fall, more freezing rain-thaw cycles. Now in Mid-March we are are experiencing a run of record high's (into the 20oC's), which is predicted continue for the next 4 days or so, before returning to more normal temperatures. At this rate, it looks like that the ice on the pool might completely melt in the next few days.

I did have one of these mesh covers (with elastic support system) on last fall, primarily as a leaf catcher - worked beautifully.

http://www.toilesoleil.com/documents/to ... ernale.pdf

But I was a bit dubious about it holding up under the weight of snow and ice, and so took it off after all the leaves had fallen, before the hard frost set in. What I do expect to find though is a lot of catkin seeds and small twigs from a nearby birch tree that peppered the pool and yard during a series of high wind storms in December.

Of course, there is no guarantee that we might not experience some more freezing and/or snow, but even if milder-than-normal temperatures continue, I'm banking on the pool water temperature holding below 10oC, at least until mid-April. Currently, the water level is about 8" below the skimmer, and will probably rise another inch this week with the melting ice and anticipated rain. Assuming the ice does completely melt, I'm wondering if there might be any benefit in attempting to clean the pool up a bit (i.e the twigs and larger debris), to reduce the 'organic load' or should I just leave it all until 'opening' mid-late April, when I hook-up and can use the skimmer-plate to vacuum ? I do have one of those floating oxidizers in from winter closing, but probably all the chemical has dissipated now.

 

[257WbyMag]

If you can be reasonably certain that you will have a freeze hard enough to hurt things still, I would delay opening until you were sure that you are in the clear. Lots of people have green pools right now that may get a little greener yet before it is time to open but they can all be cleaned up.

 

[AnnaK]

The ice on my AGP has thawed and I would love to hook up the equipment but we, too, may yet have some very cold nights ahead of us and a damaging freeze is a possibility unless we keep the pump running all the time.

To prevent the greening of the water I've scooped out the leaf-and-sticks debris, added some chlorine, and brushed the bottom to mix it in. Water temp was 56 F which is warm enough for algae growth, albeit slowly. Adding chlorine and manually mixing it in will hold me until mid-April.

 

[WorBry]

Thanks for your replies.

Yeah, I'm probably being a tad paranoid - first-year pool rookie and all that - "the other mans pool is always cleaner.......or greener!"

If all the ice does melt this week, I guess there would be no harm in scooping out some of the larger twigs etc, but otherwise I'll leave it be until mid-late April.

I was toying with the idea of putting the mesh cover back on, but the only potential benefit would be to help protect the exposed liner from UV and I'm not sure how effective that would be - the manufacturer claims 88% vertical shade. In addition, if anything were to encourage growth around the pool inner rim, it would probably be a mesh cover, especially with more wet weather coming in. The mesh itself (when dry) is really light weight, but it only takes a little dampness to stretch down and water does not exactly pour through it; so on rainy days it would probably be down at water level (now 7" below skimmer) for the most part. Plus, I hadn't completely solved the problem of wind gusts getting up under the cover when I put it on last fall - I'll maybe try the plastic stretch wrap solution this year.

Cheers.