Satan’s Bathtub – Part III

The never ending battle between me and the possessed swimming pool in my back yard continues this week. I tried something different this winter and closed the pool. Closing a pool seemed simple enough, just drain some of the water out of it and open the valves in case there is a freeze so any water in the pipes can expand. Then put the pool cover on it and that’s it.

I thought this would be better than running it all winter long. It would save electricity, and save me a lot of time checking chemicals and cleaning traps. Then at the beginning of the summer all I’d have to do is pull off the cover, close the valves and crank up the pumps. After a few days of balancing the chemicals it should be good to go! Right?

Wrong.

The first problem was that the pool cover wasn’t a true cover. It didn’t overlap the sides to keep out stuff, it’s just a large, industrial bubble wrap material you put on your pool to help keep the water warm. I didn’t think it would let leaves get through, but it did. It also let anything else through that happen to venture out on the cover… like a very unfortunate Possum. It must’ve been in there for several months because it was very, very dead. The stench when the cover was pulled off was horrendous, and the poor animal was so water-logged that it broke apart when it was fished out.

I finally got the cover off, and of course the water was dark green. I knew this would happen, but I didn’t take into account that the cover would let leaves get in. It let in A LOT of leaves, too. The leaves made the water even worse. It was like a stagnant pond. I scrapped leaves off the bottom for 3 days. There was about five large garbage bags worth.

I cranked up the pumps and dumped in a ton of chemicals, and after four days of cleaning traps, backwashing filters, and dumping in chemicals the water has finally reached a light green hue. It’s slowly getting there, but I learned my lesson. I will just run the pumps next winter!