Our pool is surrounded by trees that are making my life miserable right now because I have no pool cleaning robot to get the leaves out. I can't keep going outside 4 times a day to get leaves out of the pool with a net so I found someone who can come winterize it on Monday afternoon and put the mesh cover on. I'm going to get the pool ready for closing on Sunday by vacuuming out the pool and adding polyquat 60 the night before. I know that a SLAM is recommended before closing but FC will be too high in 4 days if I do this for adding the polyquat since I'm losing very little chlorine right now. I passed a OCLT yesterday and we are only losing 1 ppms of chlorine per day or less because of the colder water. The water looks clear and water temperature is 62 degrees but there is a dirty substance on the floor of the pool that is worrisome. It is probably just dirt or leaf residue but I'm afraid it could be algae. Because of this unknown substance, should I add extra Polyquat 60 to my pool? I normally add 24 oz to my 19000 gallon pool at closing but I could add more if that might help without decreasing the FC too much.
I also need to know if it would help to lower the phosphate level like my pool guy recommended since there has been so many leaves in the pool during the past few weeks and our phosphate level is 400. I know that TFP doesn't normally recommend phosphate removers if you are keeping your pool clean and balanced but there has been a lot of leaves in my pool this month and I know from experience that leaves will blow past the cover and get into the pool over the fall and winter. When I called to schedule the closing, my pool guy suggested that I add phosphate remover before closing because he knows that my pool has lots of close trees so I wanted to see if this might help.
Any other advice that might help me prevent opening to a swamp with this mesh-covered pool would be appreciated. I intend on adding some chlorine in late winter with a sump pump and was thinking about doing a "soft opening" in late March after the threat of freezing weather has passed by unwinterizing the pool equipment and returns, adding chlorine regularly, and running the pump with the cover on until the trees stop dropping seeds and pollen in early May. I'm wondering if it would also help to add some chlorine to my closed pool in the late fall if ends up being warmer than usual or if this would be discouraged since it will interact with the polyquat. Last year, I had a terrible time clearing up our swamp when we opened it so I'm open to any suggestions on how I can prevent this from happening again.
I also need to know if it would help to lower the phosphate level like my pool guy recommended since there has been so many leaves in the pool during the past few weeks and our phosphate level is 400. I know that TFP doesn't normally recommend phosphate removers if you are keeping your pool clean and balanced but there has been a lot of leaves in my pool this month and I know from experience that leaves will blow past the cover and get into the pool over the fall and winter. When I called to schedule the closing, my pool guy suggested that I add phosphate remover before closing because he knows that my pool has lots of close trees so I wanted to see if this might help.
Any other advice that might help me prevent opening to a swamp with this mesh-covered pool would be appreciated. I intend on adding some chlorine in late winter with a sump pump and was thinking about doing a "soft opening" in late March after the threat of freezing weather has passed by unwinterizing the pool equipment and returns, adding chlorine regularly, and running the pump with the cover on until the trees stop dropping seeds and pollen in early May. I'm wondering if it would also help to add some chlorine to my closed pool in the late fall if ends up being warmer than usual or if this would be discouraged since it will interact with the polyquat. Last year, I had a terrible time clearing up our swamp when we opened it so I'm open to any suggestions on how I can prevent this from happening again.