Green to Clean by Memorial Day?

[tcasto]

Hi all -
We opened our pool and it is green - it was more of a brownish green until I put the Polaris vacuum in and brushed and skimmed as much as I could. It looks much better in the picture - I think the reflection of the sky gives it the blue.
I did a mini test this morning and there was no chlorine and the PH was 7.6 I put 5 gallons of pool store liquid chlorine - I know I know - but I wanted to start the slam asap. I have 3 gallons of Clorox on hand and will pick up more tomorrow morning After 4 hours I tested again:
FC 22
CC .5
PH 7.6
TA 40 CH 30
CYA 65

Question
1 Is it possible to open a pool and not have it be green? We have lots of trees and a winter cover that an elephant can stand on. LOL
Is there something we can do in March/APril to prevent this? Or is it inevitable?
2. My gauge is headed toward the "clean me" range - does this mean it needs a backwash? I have never done this before- advise?
3. The water level is above the skimmer - this reduces the effectiveness of the skimmer - should I drain some tonite or tomorrow or just concentrate on SLAM and vacuum/brushing

 

[Casey]

You should definitely clean the filter! It's definitely possible to open to a crystal clear pool as many members do it every year! If you drain some water off, the skimmer will do a better job of cleaning the surface of the water.

 

[woodyp]

Definitely doable by Mem Day. But you gotta stay on top of it.

 

[tcasto]

Thanks! And by cleaning the filter - you mean backwash, right? I have never done it but I had the pool guy write the instructions on the inside panel of the control box -so I think I can do it I am assuming the backwashing can wait until tomorrow morning - I promised my son buffalo chicken wings out tonite!
Can/should I leave the Polaris vacuum running all night or just switch it over to regular run of the filter?
And - now that the vacuum and the skimmer and brush and pole have all entered the murky water, how do you prevent the algae from reinfecting the pool once slam is done? Do I leave the tools in there during the slam? Do I dunk them in a Rubbermaid bucket of bleach solution after? Kind of reminds me of when I have to change the kids tooth brushes after a cold

- - - Updated - - -

Definitely doable by Mem Day. But you gotta stay on top of it.

THanks - I will have the time this week to do it and the weather here in PA is supposed to be beautiful most of the week

 

[chem geek]

Question
1 Is it possible to open a pool and not have it be green? We have lots of trees and a winter cover that an elephant can stand on. LOL
Is there something we can do in March/APril to prevent this? Or is it inevitable?

Yes, you can minimize the chance of opening to a green pool by doing the following:

1. Close the pool as late as possible so that the water is as cold as possible (preferably 50ºF or lower).
2. Add chlorine to get to around half shock level when closing (an FC that is roughly 20% of the CYA level).
3. Use a mostly opaque cover for the closed pool to prevent sunlight from breaking down chlorine.
4. Open the pool as early as possible before the water warms up too much (preferably 50ºF or below).

 

[tcasto]

Yes, you can minimize the chance of opening to a green pool by doing the following:

1. Close the pool as late as possible so that the water is as cold as possible (preferably 50ºF or lower).
2. Add chlorine to get to around half shock level when closing (an FC that is roughly 20% of the CYA level).
3. Use a mostly opaque cover for the closed pool to prevent sunlight from breaking down chlorine.
4. Open the pool as early as possible before the water warms up too much (preferably 50ºF or below).

Thanks! I will do that! We were worried about leaving it open too late and were busy with family issues and paid the service to close the pool. This year I will do it myself.

 

[tcasto]

Just wondering if anyone out there with lots of trees on their property has any tips for dealing with the "lovely debris" mother nature drops all year long. I love the trees and the shade but it is challenging to keep the pool clean in the middle of it all. Does anyone out there use those leaf net covers? Under what circumstances would one use one and do they really help? We usually use the solar cover when the pool is open and we are not using it. Then we blow the leaves off of the solar cover with a leaf blower before we take it off for the day.

 

[Casey]

My brother has an above ground pool with a big tree over top of it that dumps leaves in his pool daily. Personally, I'd cut the tree down if it were mine but it's not so I have told him he needs to clean the pool daily. His GF despises the pool but... I told him to use his leaf net cover on it if they aren't going to use the pool daily. Other than that, I guess it'll be a love/hate relationship with the leaf rake. Me on the other hand.... I love that I have no trees around my pool!

 

[tcasto]

My brother has an above ground pool with a big tree over top of it that dumps leaves in his pool daily. Personally, I'd cut the tree down if it were mine but it's not so I have told him he needs to clean the pool daily. His GF despises the pool but... I told him to use his leaf net cover on it if they aren't going to use the pool daily. Other than that, I guess it'll be a love/hate relationship with the leaf rake. Me on the other hand.... I love that I have no trees around my pool!

We have removed 10 trees from the property and there are dozens more. They are large 40plus feet tall trees -pines and a variety of others that are really expensive to remove. I am stuck with fishing leaves from the pool

 

[tcasto]

Progress! The shallow end is blue and the deep end is greenish blue! I can see the bottom! Thanks to you guys on this wonderful site! Otherwise I would be spending my days riding back and forth to the pool store emptying my pockets and not really sure if the water is safe. By reading your info and following directions, I know what gunk is or isn't in my pool - so thanks so much for that!
This mornings numbers FC 20 CC .5 PH 7.7 CYA 65 Adding 1 gallon of bleach now - going to the store for more

Funny thing- I had planned on draining some water out of the pool today to make the skimmer more efficient - it was above the skimmer intake. The Polaris vacuum flipped over and sprayed for I don't know how long and did the job for me!

 

[Richard320]

Progress! The shallow end is blue and the deep end is greenish blue! I can see the bottom! Thanks to you guys on this wonderful site! Otherwise I would be spending my days riding back and forth to the pool store emptying my pockets and not really sure if the water is safe. By reading your info and following directions, I know what gunk is or isn't in my pool - so thanks so much for that!
This mornings numbers FC 20 CC .5 PH 7.7 CYA 65 Adding 1 gallon of bleach now - going to the store for more

Funny thing- I had planned on draining some water out of the pool today to make the skimmer more efficient - it was above the skimmer intake. The Polaris vacuum flipped over and sprayed for I don't know how long and did the job for me!

Keep going!

Don't waste your reagents testing everything. WIth high FC, pH reads wrong, and you don't want to be adjusting anything but FC right now anyway. For that matter, I don't think I'd even bother with testing CC as long as it's still cloudy.

 

[tcasto]

Keep going!

Don't waste your reagents testing everything. WIth high FC, pH reads wrong, and you don't want to be adjusting anything but FC right now anyway. For that matter, I don't think I'd even bother with testing CC as long as it's still cloudy.

Thanks so much - I was thinking the same thing about saving the reagents - will do. Off to walmart for more bleach

 

[tcasto]

Latest numbers : FC 23 CC .5 Pool is looking much better - There aren't really any leaves left that the Polaris vacuum can scoop up. So should I disconnect it and leave it in there floating around so it gets the benefit of the slam too and wont reinfect the pool and just run the filter? Or should I leave the vacuum connected to stir up the algae that keeps settling on the sides and bottom in places? I have been brushing the sides and bottom every few hours. It stirs things up and then it resettles.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Richard320]

Latest numbers : FC 23 CC .5 Pool is looking much better - There aren't really any leaves left that the Polaris vacuum can scoop up. So should I disconnect it and leave it in there floating around so it gets the benefit of the slam too and wont reinfect the pool and just run the filter? Or should I leave the vacuum connected to stir up the algae that keeps settling on the sides and bottom in places? I have been brushing the sides and bottom every few hours. It stirs things up and then it resettles.

Thanks again for your help.

If the Polaris is grabbing algae off the floor, leave it in.

 

[Isaac-1]

I would leave the vacuum connected to keep things stirred up so the filter can do its job. Looks like it is going great, you should be done in no time.

Ike

p.s. please add your location to your profile so we can give you better advice

http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/115-read-before-you-post?

 

[tcasto]

Thanks again! Sorry about the location - I did not realize it was missing. I will fix it. I am in Southeastern PA

 

[Tim/oh]

Just wondering if anyone out there with lots of trees on their property has any tips for dealing with the "lovely debris" mother nature drops all year long. I love the trees and the shade but it is challenging to keep the pool clean in the middle of it all. Does anyone out there use those leaf net covers? Under what circumstances would one use one and do they really help? We usually use the solar cover when the pool is open and we are not using it. Then we blow the leaves off of the solar cover with a leaf blower before we take it off for the day.

I use a net in fall and spring, lots of helicopters from maple trees. Trust this method, it works. I started using the BBB mid last summer because of pool store inflicted problems they had my stabilizer 120 and I kept getting slight algae and rust stains because chlorine levels needed to be so high. I did what i could to finish out last season, closed pool when water was about 55. I closed it with no winterizer kit or algecide, just got chlorine level up, covered with factory cover, then tarped with cheap plastic tarp, and put net on last(lot of leaves in area). Last weekend drained cover, pulled net and all covers off and the water was slightly green with a little gunk on the bottom. Water had risen to 65 due to our lovely Ohio weather pushing 90 for 3 days...then(close to frost this morning). Drained about 2/3 to lower CYA, refilled. I started shock last tuesday and only ran filter when I was home, you never know if a hose will blow or what issue will arise just starting back up. Pool looked pretty good by Friday but was cloudy. Filter has been on since Friday night and water has never looked so good....cold but good.
My numbers were

FC 0
CC 0
PH 7.0
TA 60
CH175
CYA over 100

a week later

FC held at 14 overnight
CC 0
PH 7.4
TA 65
CH 175
CYA 45-50

BBB works inexpensive and quick. You should be fine within a week. just keep chlorine up to shock til it holds overnight and keep filter clean. Oh and pray for sun.

 

[tcasto]

I use a net in fall and spring, lots of helicopters from maple trees. Trust this method, it works. I started using the BBB mid last summer because of pool store inflicted problems they had my stabilizer 120 and I kept getting slight algae and rust stains because chlorine levels needed to be so high. I did what i could to finish out last season, closed pool when water was about 55. I closed it with no winterizer kit or algecide, just got chlorine level up, covered with factory cover, then tarped with cheap plastic tarp, and put net on last(lot of leaves in area). Last weekend drained cover, pulled net and all covers off and the water was slightly green with a little gunk on the bottom. Water had risen to 65 due to our lovely Ohio weather pushing 90 for 3 days...then(close to frost this morning). Drained about 2/3 to lower CYA, refilled. I started shock last tuesday and only ran filter when I was home, you never know if a hose will blow or what issue will arise just starting back up. Pool looked pretty good by Friday but was cloudy. Filter has been on since Friday night and water has never looked so good....cold but good.
My numbers were

FC 0
CC 0
PH 7.0
TA 60
CH175
CYA over 100

a week later

FC held at 14 overnight
CC 0
PH 7.4
TA 65
CH 175
CYA 45-50

BBB works inexpensive and quick. You should be fine within a week. just keep chlorine up to shock til it holds overnight and keep filter clean. Oh and pray for sun.

Thanks for the encouragement! It is lovely but a little on the cool side for May here in Southeastern PA - but I don't mind while I am SLAMMING.
I understand your hesitation to leave things running while you are not home. I left the Polaris running overnight last night and it flipped over and sprayed several inches of water out of the pool. Although it helped me out this time, I think it was a warning not to leave it unattended.

You say you put a tarp AND the Leaf Net on top of the regular cover? Why a tarp and net? I have one of those winter covers that they advertise an elephant can stand on - I think it is a fine mesh? I blow the leaves off as often as I can and I have to because my backyard is a mini Yosemite Park of sorts. To give you an idea -we have to bag leaves in our township and we put a hundred at a time out at the curb during the fall. I am thinking I should invest in a leaf net if fellow tree owners find them advantageous.

 

[tcasto]

More Progress! Woke up feeling good about the prospects of giving the all clear for cannon balls on the holiday weekend! The blue is back! At 8pm the numbers were FC 19.5 CC .5 I put in enough bleach to make it get to slam level plus some because I wanted to sleep last night. 8am the numbers are FC 21 CC barely .5 The sample was ever so slightly pink. The water looks so much better. Need to do some brushing and cleaning - but its not bad at all. Feeling good for a Monday morning!


After 2 days of SLAMMING:

I added enough bleach as per Pool Math to bring it up to SLAM again - will check after my morning errands

 

[timerguy]

Looking good!!!