Pre-Opening Preparations

Steve-D · Apr 11, 2024

Greetings all!
Our pool is scheduled for opening on 5/2 and I'm looking for advice on what I should and should not do to treat the water between now and then. At closing we drained to below the inflows and with rain and snow melt (mostly rain) this winter I have had to drain 2x to keep the water below the tile line. I tested yesterday (Pool Math log available) and as expected the water needs a significant amount of treatment.

With the safety cover still in place I am limited in where I can dispense any chemicals, and until opening I won't have the pump/filter available to disperse things. Am I good to pour in liquid bleach to start to raise the Chlorine level? I have 1 or 2 Stabilized Chlorine pucks...is it safe to drop those in knowing that they would sit on the bottom? What about other solid chemicals like dry stabilizer, calcium chloride or salt? The CYA sock technique won't work for obvious reasons, but I do have a submersible pump I can drop in at 1 end and feed it back into the other end to get at least some circulation going if that would help.

Please note that the 50 degree water temp is an arbitrary estimate...the drop-in thermometer I used apparently went kaput. We have only had 2 or 3 days in the 60's recently and nights are still going down into the 40's and 30's so I am confident that the water temp is still well below 60. I have only just begun to calculate what I need to start getting the water back in shape and have not yet stocked up on any of the chemicals that I expect to need. Advice? Suggestions?

Thanks!

Texas Splash · Apr 11, 2024

I wouldn't do anything until the system is running and the water can mix for a few hours. Then take a test sample and go from there. Hang in there and try to be patient. Sounds like your ready for some summer fun. :swim:

Steve-D · Apr 12, 2024

Texas Splash said:
I wouldn't do anything until the system is running and the water can mix for a few hours. Then take a test sample and go from there. Hang in there and try to be patient. Sounds like your ready for some summer fun.

Thanks Pat.
Yeah, I guess I'm being impatient! I've restocked my test kit and stocking up on Salt, Calcium Chloride, MA and CYA is next. I have a few pounds of dry shock leftover from last year so I'll use that up before I buy any more bleach (or Cal-Hypo). With CYA at zero I'm not concerned about using "stabilized" products to get started.

Do you have any suggestions as to order-of-processing with attending to the specific chemical levels (assuming my current test levels are close to where it will be on start up)? My recollection is that last year it took about a week to get the salt level up to where the SWG could take over. I also made the mistake of raising PH, then had to deal with bringing it back down.

The "fun" part is going to be cleaning the physical debris. We closed later than I would have liked last year and keeping up with falling leaves was a losing battle. We have lots of Pines, too, and a windy winter/spring looks like it has worked a a fair amount of pine needles under the edges of the safety cover and the slots for the ladder and railing.

It will be happy work, though,

Texas Splash · Apr 12, 2024

Steve-D said:
Do you have any suggestions as to order-of-processing with attending to the specific chemical levels

Not until you have a chance to run those first water tests. That will tell you/us everything. Generally our first concern is for algae at opening, so that requires a careful review of the pH, CYA, and FC in preparation for a SLAM Process. Once in a while an owner opens to a crystal clear pool at which point they may do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to be safe. If they pass they could avoid a SLAM altogether. Depending on the amount of water exchange you may have encountered from winter prep and such, you'll want to ensure your CH didn't fall too low (below 25 for example), but all in good time.

Once the system is running and you are able to run those numbers, feel free to post back here and we can go over them closely. Have a great weekend.

MITBeta · Apr 12, 2024

Steve-D said:
Our pool is scheduled for opening on 5/2

Why not open it yourself this weekend?

Steve-D · Apr 15, 2024

MITBeta said:
Why not open it yourself this weekend?

Installing the pool was my wife's project paid for by her, and she insists on having the pool opened and closed by a local service. My job is to keep it clean and balanced. Opening looks like it would be a good deal less complicated than closing so MAYBE I'll be able to take that on eventually, but it's her money and for now that is not a battle worth fighting.