Pump green off cover first?

[Normajean]

Hi! Green scum in water on top of pool tarp cover (could not buy the expensive cover yet!). The wind is fierce on our hill and threatened to blow the tarp off all winter so we had to keep a water level on the surface to keep it from sailing away.

So now we have 1-2 feet of green scum water blooming on top of tarp. Here's the question: should we pump it off first, shock the remainder on top, then have it opened? I am thinking if we shock the top before opening, the treated water drained off will kill the grass...

Thanks for any tips!!!

Norma

PS-- To get off water off tarp (we were siphoning it off when it was low levels), what type of pump/vacuum set up do you recommend??? I am open to suggestions!! Bailing it off will take to long....

 

[Husky25]

Yes. Pump it off. Water is heavy. The only reason why I would shock the water above the cover is if you were going to just slide the cover from underneath and allow the water to mix with the pool water, but it sounds like you don't want to do that. Plus it would take a lot of chlorine and circulation (you would need a pump anyway) to clear the standing water up to begin with. With concentrated bleach, you risk compromising the integrity of the cover, even if it's ever so slightly.

You can find pool cover pumps on Amazon. I've had something similar to this for about 7 years.

 

[Casey]

I've never heard of anyone wanting to SLAM the water on top of a cover. Get a sump pump or syphin it off with a hose and remove it. Fill the pool, hook the pump n filter up and start it up. Test the water after a half hour and adjust the pH if necessary and start the SLAM if it's green.

 

[Husky25]

I've never heard of anyone wanting to SLAM the water on top of a cover. Get a sump pump or syphin it off with a hose and remove it. Fill the pool, hook the pump n filter up and start it up. Test the water after a half hour and adjust the pH if necessary and start the SLAM if it's green.

The only reason that I can think of is to save well water. In that case though, I would just slide the cover from underneath and let the standing water combine with the pool water and SLAM it once the filter is up and running. Probably going to use the same amount of Chlorine, but you would be a lot more certain about how much to use at any given time.

 

[Casey]

The only reason that I can think of is to save well water. In that case though, I would just slide the cover from underneath and let the standing water combine with the pool water and SLAM it once the filter is up and running. Probably going to use the same amount of Chlorine, but you would be a lot more certain about how much to use at any given time.

I've heard of people pumping water off cover into pool to save water just not SLAM'ing on the cover.

 

[Normajean]

Thank you! Not looking to save well water, but don't want to send all this algae into the pool water under the cover! Trust me, it's a SWAMP on top. My son wanted to know if we we were going to find fish in it. It is not a great cover, just a heavy duty tarp the pool company gives you. I didn't want to mix the 2 waters if there was some left on top after we drain the top off.

 

[IrishEyesSmiling]

This is what I use on top of our cover. Only $10 and it does the trick. http://a.co/62RHA1j

 

[Normajean]

i might get that for next year, thanks! However, i have a little too much swamp water to drain off this time.

 

[Husky25]

Thank you! Not looking to save well water, but don't want to send all this algae into the pool water under the cover! Trust me, it's a SWAMP on top. My son wanted to know if we we were going to find fish in it. It is not a great cover, just a heavy duty tarp the pool company gives you. I didn't want to mix the 2 waters if there was some left on top after we drain the top off.

In that case, you'd do well with a pump akin to what I linked. Another piece of advice would be to pump off as much water between closing and the first freeze in November. The swamp next Spring won't be nearly as bad.