Opening a green pool with a lot of leaves in the bottom- to shock or not to shock?

[practicecactus]

Some context: We just bought our house with a pool a year ago so we're still new to this. We purchased a safety cover last summer but it was backordered until after we closed the pool. The pool company that we bought it from showed up out of the blue in February without telling us and installed the safety cover, which would have been fine except they dumped all the leaves from the old cover into the pool.

So when we went to open our pool last weekend, the whole pool was green and we can't see the bottom at all. I tried to net out as many leaves from the shallow end as I could, but the pool is so green that I can't even tell where they are. The pool shop person told us that we can't shock our pool until we vacuum the heck out of the pool because it will make everything worse. But I feel like I'm vacuuming blind! Should I keep going? Start the balancing and shocking process?

 

[Strawberryshortcake]

Stay out of the pool shop

You're going to have to slam, yes. SLAM - Shock Level and Maintain

First, yes, you will need to get as much organic matter out as you can, as it will eat up all the chlorine. I recommend using a net and just being methodical about it. This is my favorite net. It helps to have a longer pole, too. Net until you aren't really getting anything, and then leave it alone for a couple of hours. You'll stir stuff up and think you've gotten it all but then it will settle and the areas you netted will have stuff again. It takes time...
It also goes faster to have two nets and two poles and both of you do it at the same time

You'll need a test kit once you begin the slam. You cannot start until you have one. You can't use the pool store, or strips. I recommend the TF Pro (get the speedstir) or the Taylor k-2006

You'll need liquid chlorine for your slam. Typically lots of places you can get it from. Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Atwoods, and grocery stores typically have household bleach that is at least 6% which will also work but you'll need many more bottles.

What kind of equipment do you have? What size pool? What type? Pics?

You can start adding some chlorine now to keep things from getting worse now that it is warming up. Add 5ppm per day until your test kit arrives. You can find out how much that is by using the Pool Math phone app. Just put in your pool size and it'll let you know how much of whatever chlorine method you use to add.

Everyone here will be happy to help you!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

You could try something like this -

Poolmaster 28300 Big Sucker Swimming Pool Leaf Vacuum, Blue

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0007PZN9Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_3CWF8VDD0YE6MRT6EXHZ

But the recommendation from Pros is to not use the tiny bag that comes with it but rather get a big mesh bag, like the kind you put soccer balls in, and ziptie that to the vacuum. Then you can bag up all the coarse debris and save the smaller bags for the fine stuff. If you use a submersible pump to drive water to the bagger, then you don’t have to worry about the water level changing. Alternatively, you could siphon drain the pool with a garden hose and then run the leaf bagger off an outdoor spigot and the pool volume shouldn’t change much. Then you’ll be exchanging fresh water for green pool water. Doing that will make the SLAM go a lot quicker.

 

[MITBeta]

Check Ocean State Job Lot for liquid pool chlorine.

 

[practicecactus]

Stay out of the pool shop

You're going to have to slam, yes. SLAM - Shock Level and Maintain

First, yes, you will need to get as much organic matter out as you can, as it will eat up all the chlorine. I recommend using a net and just being methodical about it. This is my favorite net. It helps to have a longer pole, too. Net until you aren't really getting anything, and then leave it alone for a couple of hours. You'll stir stuff up and think you've gotten it all but then it will settle and the areas you netted will have stuff again. It takes time...
It also goes faster to have two nets and two poles and both of you do it at the same time

You'll need a test kit once you begin the slam. You cannot start until you have one. You can't use the pool store, or strips. I recommend the TF Pro (get the speedstir) or the Taylor k-2006

You'll need liquid chlorine for your slam. Typically lots of places you can get it from. Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Atwoods, and grocery stores typically have household bleach that is at least 6% which will also work but you'll need many more bottles.

What kind of equipment do you have? What size pool? What type? Pics?

You can start adding some chlorine now to keep things from getting worse now that it is warming up. Add 5ppm per day until your test kit arrives. You can find out how much that is by using the Pool Math phone app. Just put in your pool size and it'll let you know how much of whatever chlorine method you use to add.

Everyone here will be happy to help you!

We have a very similar pool net so I can definitely start with that. I will also pick up the test kit.

We have a 22k vinyl gallon pool with a Hayward sand filter and pump.

We also have some liquid shock on hand (12%) so it looks like the Pool Math app says that one gallon will raise FC by 5.7.

Fingers crossed that we can get it back to a good place once the test kit arrives! Thank you for the advice!

 

[practicecactus]

I just wanted to say THANK YOU so much for the advice/support. The pool people who came out were so rude that I literally cried after they left.

It took about a week but our pool is now crystal clear and ready for swimming thanks to this forum. And I feel like I have the tools I need to keep it healthy without relying on the rude people at the pool shop to tell me what my pool needs or doesn't need.