Algae prevention alert for pool owners in the snow belt

[Water_man]

Hi all,
Long time no see. Hope you recovered from the winter (sigh..)
When I closed the pool at the end of last season I drained about 2 feet of water but now I discovered that the water level is reaching the winter safety cover because of all the snow and rain we’ve had. I started pumping out water immediately. When I closed the pool last season I set up at the bottom two pumps with garden hoses hooked up and now the extra draining is a piece of cake. At the end of the season before that I hadn’t done it and I opened a green pool because the leaves and the organic debris on top of the winter cover got in touch with the pool water. The water temp in the end of May was warm enough for an algae bloom. Yuck! This extra work could have been prevented.

It’s now about seven weeks before next season opening and as the weather gets warmer I’ll keep an eye on the water level and make sure it doesn’t reach the cover.

I’ve seen pools in my neck of the woods with plenty of water and leaves on the cover. One owner wasn’t concerned because they open in early April when the water is still cold. Others have had green algae in the past when they open. I call this pre -season pumping a stitch in time which saves nine.

 

[waste]

Now that is a great approach to the problem of stuff on a mesh cover contaminating a pool that would otherwise be ~ clear, if the cover wasn't making 'algae tea' by soaking in the pool water

This is just 1 more example of how people who truly care for their pools (ie. the folks here at TFP) can circumvent the problems that less caring or informed pool owners frequently encounter.

Hats off to you Water_man :bowdown: &

 

[Water_man]

Thank you for the encouragement, waste. We still have a couple of weeks before opening- in our neck of the woods people do it in the last week of May. While the water is still cold and the pool is still closed I'm completing now another algae prevention task. The pool bottom isn't 100% clean. It has some blackened leaves as a closing "souvenir" from last year fall season. I'm having my robotic pool cleaner run a few cleaning cycles. Moreover, since the cleaner circulates water, I can get some meaningful water testing numbers way before I open and start pumping. Although these numbers won't be perfect because the pool's water hasn't been thoroughly mixed, they will provide some initial meaningful information. For example, if I find a high level of CC, I'd know that I should be prepared to shock on opening. So all in all, doing a pre-opening prep isn't a bad idea.