Degreening a pool - In winter
 

Bought a house that has an existing pool, filter, etc that have been winterized. Pool less than 10 years old.

But the cover is torn, unused for approximately 2 years, water green.

Give up, dump, power wash and refill?

Nuke with large quantities of chlorine?

Any other ideas?

Closing end of October, would like to clean up pool as soon as possible after, but nights may get cold so I'd rather not start up equipment.

I'd leave it until next year if you don't want to start up the equipment. To properly clear up the water after slamming it with Chlorine you need to run the pump and get some filtration happening.

If there's not a lot of debris, I would super chlorinate the pool and add phosphate remover. Keep the system running 24hrs, assuming you have a sand filter you will need to keep the filter backwashed n rinsed. If cartridge or de filter the grids n paper cartridge will need to be kept clean. If the pool is linear be careful adding chlorine, if it sits on the linear
it will bleach the linear. DO NOT ADD A BUNCH OF COPPER BASED ALGAECIDE... IF ITS A PLASTERED POOL THE METAL GETS ABSORED IN THE PLASTER..Steve

If you plan on dumping the pool make sure you know where the water table is..to much pressure on the shell will pop the shell n you'll have a boat..Steve

Closing is usually pretty straight forward. With holes in the cover you'll get lots of debris and that will degrade and you'll have green water again. To me you either clean it out now and fix the cover or wait until spring and do the same thing. Once or twice is your call, has to happen in spring.

Due to layout I have a few small gaps in my cover, pool has tons of leaves every spring. Just thinking of it now is frustrating :)

I would leave it alone, wait until you want to open it next year, then drain and refill. It's cheaper and less hassle.

JR

Solar powered copper anode. Works to kill without the pump circulating. Of course the detritus will settle on the bottom, but you can deal with that in the spring. You would have to leave the cover off, however.

Throw some fish in. Boom, now you have a pond!!

I just got done clearing mine up after some pump issues let it turn green. What works for me is bombing the **** out of it with chlorine and running the pump for 24 hours and the backwashing the filter and disassembling it and washing all the **** off the grids. Then I brush the whole pool and run it another 24 and the reclean the filter again. Keep the chlorine level high for a few weeks or it will go right back to green!

https://www.troublefreepool.com/content/125-slam-shock-level-and-maintain-shockingl

This works from first hand experience. No other affiliation, etc.

I tried this tactic with our above ground, but SWMBO said no. :(

The wife wanted the place with the pool, she did the maintenance, pool exploded mid August when wife was 6 months pregnant with #2, replaced it, but when kid #2 got to be a year old, there it went...

Wanted to set up multiple smaller pumps for just moving water, not really worry about filtering, and doing it up wtih plants and natives. Rig some webcams with ethernet/usb extenders or use wifi and view on 'puter, tablet, tv, whatever...

No go :(

Not a lot of options if you don't want to fire up the pump. I'm a TFP member and the slam method works but you need some testing equipment in order to do it effectively. If you really want it cleaned up, fire up the pump, use the Slam method, get it clear, then keep it going until the water temps get into the 50's and close it. Then if you don't want to fight it in the spring, open it early and you'll enjoy a crystal clear pool all year long.
The trick for closing is get it up to shock level and keep it there for 24 hours. Then close the pool while the chlorine levels are still elevated. Don't let the sun degrade the chlorine. You'll know when you have the algae dead when you can pass an overnight chlorine loss test (OCLT) and combined chloramines are at or below .5 ppm

I pay a guy.

More than worth it.

Thanks Guys, Abandoned property fixing for resale, so I want to make it presentable asap.

I'll slam it.

Key is, to keep the chlorine levels up for an extended period of time. Start the slam in the evening when the sun is going down to prevent the sun from consuming the chlorine. Make sure you test for stabilizer so you know how much chlorine to add to bring it to slam level. If after about 48 hours, you don't see a noticeable difference, I'd go to mustard algae shock levels. I have helped a lot of people clear pools using the knowledge I have gained by being a TFP member.
The other things you need to be aware of are what your PH level is before you start the slam and what type of liner you have. I high chlorine level can bleach a vinyl liner.

Start the equipment given your stated time constraints.

Get your PH numbers dialed in as stated with or without without scrubbing.

Shock or use atom bomb chemicals. I cant remember what the bomb stuff is called but on the pool that I did, underwater insects started floating to the top immediately.

Wait a day.

Scrub "blind" like a fool with the nylon brush.

Fill the pool to the max, bypass the filter and vacuum to drain. Perhaps repeat filling to the max.

Then you have a starting point.