I'm not doing anything with the pool at the moment, but posting this now to make actual posting easier when the time comes.
First, the background. I inherited my pool last year when I bought my house. I took ownership of the house in the middle of July, turned off the pump like an idiot and went back to San Diego until my move date of August first. I came home to a deep green pool and fought algae and ammonia for a month or so until we were finally able to swim in it once. It got super cloudy afterwards, and by that time it was well into September and the trees were losing leaves, so I drained it down past the skimmers and returns, but wasn't able to get a cover on it until there were piles and piles of leaves in it and the poor water was an extremely murky brown. Oh, lets not forget the 10" salamander that I pulled out of the skimmer basket just before I covered it...
So it finally got covered, but it was murky brown, and now I'm waiting for the weather to warm up to attack the algae while it's still cold enough for me to get ahead of it. I plan to take the following steps - if anyone has any suggestions on my method, they'd be greatly appreciated.
1) Wait for water temp to get between 50 and 60.
2) Uncover and hope that it hasn't turned into the La Brea Tar Pits.
3) Skim out as much of the Crud as I can - but that's difficult because it's all settled at the deep end and it's hard to scoop out of 9' deep water when you can't see - and I'm DEFINITELY not getting into it until it's cleared up.
4) Say a few prayers to the pool gods that my partial draining was enough to keep the lines and pump from catastrophic freeze bursting.
5) Put everything back together (drain plugs, pump, etc) and lube/teflon all seals and connections.
6) Fill back to normal levels.
7) Prime and turn on pump.
8) Follow normal BBB methods to get it back to sparkling oasis, hopefully WELL before it's warm enough to swim in.
Step ALL: Post pictures of the carnage and cleanup as it goes.
I'm going to keep a running track of all tests, chemicals, and money spent so that I have a decent reminder of why it's imperative to close your pool before the leaves start falling. I'm also considering getting an SWCG this year too - we had one with our last pool and never had issues like this one has had and I think the SWCG had a lot to do with that. I'll see how goes the normal BBB (ie: non emergency mode) method for a month or so though first.
First, the background. I inherited my pool last year when I bought my house. I took ownership of the house in the middle of July, turned off the pump like an idiot and went back to San Diego until my move date of August first. I came home to a deep green pool and fought algae and ammonia for a month or so until we were finally able to swim in it once. It got super cloudy afterwards, and by that time it was well into September and the trees were losing leaves, so I drained it down past the skimmers and returns, but wasn't able to get a cover on it until there were piles and piles of leaves in it and the poor water was an extremely murky brown. Oh, lets not forget the 10" salamander that I pulled out of the skimmer basket just before I covered it...
So it finally got covered, but it was murky brown, and now I'm waiting for the weather to warm up to attack the algae while it's still cold enough for me to get ahead of it. I plan to take the following steps - if anyone has any suggestions on my method, they'd be greatly appreciated.
1) Wait for water temp to get between 50 and 60.
2) Uncover and hope that it hasn't turned into the La Brea Tar Pits.
3) Skim out as much of the Crud as I can - but that's difficult because it's all settled at the deep end and it's hard to scoop out of 9' deep water when you can't see - and I'm DEFINITELY not getting into it until it's cleared up.
4) Say a few prayers to the pool gods that my partial draining was enough to keep the lines and pump from catastrophic freeze bursting.
5) Put everything back together (drain plugs, pump, etc) and lube/teflon all seals and connections.
6) Fill back to normal levels.
7) Prime and turn on pump.
8) Follow normal BBB methods to get it back to sparkling oasis, hopefully WELL before it's warm enough to swim in.
Step ALL: Post pictures of the carnage and cleanup as it goes.
I'm going to keep a running track of all tests, chemicals, and money spent so that I have a decent reminder of why it's imperative to close your pool before the leaves start falling. I'm also considering getting an SWCG this year too - we had one with our last pool and never had issues like this one has had and I think the SWCG had a lot to do with that. I'll see how goes the normal BBB (ie: non emergency mode) method for a month or so though first.