Help w' Opening 24' AGP w' Mesh Winter Cover - Green Afloat

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J

Jepman

0
Sep 20, 2012
9
Massachusetts
I'm into my second year with a pool and basically my first pool opening (last year a pool installer put a new liner in so I didn't have to deal with removing a pool cover - I never put one on the year before).

The pool is covered with a micro mesh winter cover (no pool pillow). As per provided instructions, I let the mesh cover be slack over the pool, so some water seeps above the cover. I'm looking at opening the pool this week and green algae / pollen is floating in the water you can see above the mesh and I'm strategizing how to get the cover off without dumping the green floating stuff into the pool. I haven't yet looked under the cover for the current state of things. That will happen soon of course.

I was thinking of a pool pump to siphon off the green stuff with a hose out to the yard. That might work but I might also lose some decent pool water as the pump will suck water through the mesh.

I'm looking for any input from others who've faced this problem and what worked (if anything) and what didn't work (secret tips on getting such a cover off, etc). I called the company I bought the cover from and basically the tech said (paraphrasing) - "Some of that stuff is just going to get into your pool. That's what happens with those above ground mesh covers. We have great chemicals to get your pool clean in no time."

I do think the cover being left slack was a good thing over the winter as we got blasted with plenty of snow / blizzards during Feb and March. The pool walls never looked stressed as the ice that formed on top and below the pool provided nice support. But I don't want to regret using a mesh winter cover if I dump that green stuff into my pool.

Thanks much.
 
Re: Help w' Opening 24' AGP w' Mesh Winter Cover - Green Afl

Welcome!

Welcome! :wave:

Let me be the first to say

Can you post a complete set of test results? :lol:


In all seriousness, if you're not open yet and you don't have a good test kit, take care of that right now so you'll have it when you need it. If you do have one, add that to your signature. You did great so far with it!

Now..... on to your question:
It will take a while, but if you search through old threads you might find something useful.

I don't pay a lot of attention to these threads since I never close my pool, but I've read of people hanging bleach bottles around the perimeter to let them pull the cover up to drain it. I think I also read of someone using a shop vac as a leaf blower to push all the crud off.
 
Re: Help w' Opening 24' AGP w' Mesh Winter Cover - Green Afl

Was my first year opening our pool that was new to us last year. Same situation as yours...we used a small pump to siphon off water, leaf skimmer to get as much debris off. Yes we also took the pool water level down with the siphoning but that is normal from what I've read on here. Used no pillow, wanted to see how it went this first year with just putting a bit of water on top at closing (also used shrink wrap around edge of winter cover to keep air out). Once we got most of the water and debris off, let it dry up then took it off. Hope this helps!
 
Re: Help w' Opening 24' AGP w' Mesh Winter Cover - Green Afl

Covers are very difficult to get off an above ground pool IMO but not impossible. I've never dealt with a mesh cover but my brother's girlfriend and I got his solid cover off his pool this year by ourselves. I had her pump the water off the cover. Then I took the leaf rake and started netting the leaves off which went into a big curb side garbage can. We pumped more water off and released the cover. We started by pulling the cover out of the pool on the side where we would dump the rest of the crud and pull it out. We then worked from the opposite end and pulled the cover to our starting point by folding it over and not dumping the leaves into the pool. Eventually, we were faced with a very heavy cover with debree that was too heavy to pull over the wall. I plugged the sump pump back in, pumped more water off and started pulling the remaining leaves out of the pocket that we had created. Once I got most of the junk, we were able to lift the cover over the pool wall.
 
Re: Help w' Opening 24' AGP w' Mesh Winter Cover - Green Afl

Thanks for all the help.

We got the pool cover off 10 or so days ago and just as the pool tech said, some of the green stuff got in the pool. Didn't do anything fancy, just took the cover off as best we could. And really overall, besides some settled debris and a few leaves at the bottom, the water was in pretty good shape. Fished out the leaves, skimmed, dumped in 5 gallons of shock, and ran the filter for 24 hours and we were on our way.

Unfortunately, we've been having bouts of 3 or 4 days of rain (heavy at times) and I had to drain the pool 3 times to keep it from overtaking the skimmer. I've mainly been adding chlorine and some algaecide and not trying too hard to balance due to the rain / drain cycle. I've added baking soda to push up the alkalinity and added about a pound of stabilizer recently to up the cyuranic and ph levels and a stretch of nice weather is starting today so now I can finally finish off the balancing and start actually using the pool. I still need to up the cyuranic, ph, and alk levels (cyuranic and ph first).
 
Re: Help w' Opening 24' AGP w' Mesh Winter Cover - Green Afl

Hopefully you already have a TF-100 or K-2006. I stopped using algaecide when I switched to LC. No need for it.
 
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