Aren't pools always green when they are opened?

[wayner]

On the doc here on opening your pool (Opening your pool- An easy to follow guide) it says:

You want to open before the water hits 60° to help reduce the chance of opening to green water. Algae tends to grow much slower in cold water so opening early will help reduce the odds of having to fight algae.

My pool was just opened with the water at 53F. I live in Toronto and the pool was closed in mid-October. I have a mesh cover.

Every year when my pool is opened it is pretty green and gross, and I don't have a ton of trees with debris nearby.

The pool is shocked, vacuumed and brushed a bit, and after 3-4 days or so the water clears up.

Is this document implying that most people have pools that are clear and the water is relatively clean when opening? That has never been my experience. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Newdude]

You need to stay open late enough that the FC does its thing until algae goes mostly dormant. Some have luck bridging that gap with algecide if they have to close early. Then you need to open before the algae starts growing exponentially again.

You can open very early but if it went green in the fall, it's already long shot.

 

[wayner]

I am pretty late in closing and pretty early in closing. Lots of people here close in early Sep and don't open until late May or early June.

The problem with opening earlier is that you may have more risk of below zero temperatures.

 

[ajw22]

Here is the way my pool looked at opening on April 16 with a water temp of 53F.

I believe a solid cover and use of PQ60 help get a clean opening.

Pool was closed in late October with water temp of 60F.

 

[SecoSteve]

I also believe that a solid cover is the key. But, it must be properly sealed to the deck or pool so it limits what gets in, whether that be an anchored spring loaded cover or proper water bags .

 

[Bperry]

On the doc here on opening your pool (Opening your pool- An easy to follow guide) it says:


My pool was just opened with the water at 53F. I live in Toronto and the pool was closed in mid-October. I have a mesh cover.

Every year when my pool is opened it is pretty green and gross, and I don't have a ton of trees with debris nearby.

The pool is shocked, vacuumed and brushed a bit, and after 3-4 days or so the water clears up.

Is this document implying that most people have pools that are clear and the water is relatively clean when opening? That has never been my experience. Am I doing something wrong?

I didn’t cover my pool over the winter, but I did net leaves and sticks out every week. Stayed clear all winter and opened clear in March. Only time it’s ever been green is when we bought the place and the first month or so when the pump died. I did leave a trichlir floater in over the winter.

 

[borjis]

My pool doesn't ever go green. Going on ten years.
Close on Thanksgiving, open on March first. No chlorine nor algecide added while closed, no cover used either. I do brush it and vac with a battery powered hand vac on a pole to keep it clean though. One year I opened in April and I saw a tiny area where algae was just starting. Always March 1st after that happened.

 

[Newdude]

The problem with opening earlier is that you may have more risk of below zero temperatures

I had a dozen nights near or below freezing after opening. The 50 degree water which had quickly warmed in the sun barely dropped any.

Running the pump kept the equipment pipes from freezing.

 

[rcs29]

I always bring my FC up to SLAM level the evening before I close and don't open to green. This year I opened pool and the next day was swimming in perfectly balanced water (heater made it tolerable enough for me and the kids couldn't have cared less).

 

[AUSpool]

In theory if you block out the light algae won’t grow. But with a possible nutrient broth at opening I would bring it up to slam levels as the cover comes off.