Questions about how to start
Every year I have to open my pool late in the season (as to why, there's a different reason each year- this year its because we weren't sure if we were staying in this house through the summer), and every year I open it up to a murky green/brown mess.
In the past, I dumped tons and tons of chlorine and/or bleach only to find that I couldn't manage to bring FC levels up to readable levels. After days of scooping out debris and trying again, I usually end up getting it to stick, finally able to shock and maintain healthy levels, and the water clears up.
My question now, is perhaps there is a better way to do this this year (I know, opening in July, of course there's been time for algae and things to grow). What I've been doing in the past is removing the winter cover, connecting pipes etc, adding DE to my filter (after running a quick rinse and backwash to make sure everything is ready to go), and then running the filter while I drop tons of chlorine and/or bleach to the deepest parts of the water.
What I think is happening, is that there are a lot of leaves that fall in when I remove the cover, and they are eating all the chlorine. Should I be trying to filter out as much as I can and scooping out debris with a leaf rake BEFORE adding chlorine? Or am I just wasting filter time this way? Should I add bleach right away like I usually do, or wait until the water looks clearer first? Or will it not clear up until I add bleach to kill whatever is there first?
Every year I have to open my pool late in the season (as to why, there's a different reason each year- this year its because we weren't sure if we were staying in this house through the summer), and every year I open it up to a murky green/brown mess.
In the past, I dumped tons and tons of chlorine and/or bleach only to find that I couldn't manage to bring FC levels up to readable levels. After days of scooping out debris and trying again, I usually end up getting it to stick, finally able to shock and maintain healthy levels, and the water clears up.
My question now, is perhaps there is a better way to do this this year (I know, opening in July, of course there's been time for algae and things to grow). What I've been doing in the past is removing the winter cover, connecting pipes etc, adding DE to my filter (after running a quick rinse and backwash to make sure everything is ready to go), and then running the filter while I drop tons of chlorine and/or bleach to the deepest parts of the water.
What I think is happening, is that there are a lot of leaves that fall in when I remove the cover, and they are eating all the chlorine. Should I be trying to filter out as much as I can and scooping out debris with a leaf rake BEFORE adding chlorine? Or am I just wasting filter time this way? Should I add bleach right away like I usually do, or wait until the water looks clearer first? Or will it not clear up until I add bleach to kill whatever is there first?
