Just Closed Pool - Am I In Trouble?

[DEPontius]

We wanted to close over the holiday weekend, and the regular pool store was closed, so we got a "closing kit" from Lowes. Right before covering, I took a water sample, and checked it later. The kit was a 3-parter, and eventually I got around to looking up the chemicals involved:

Part 1 : Sodium Hexametaphosphate and Citric Acid - Wait 8 hours after adding Part 1.

Part 2 : Sodium Bromide

Part 3 : Sodium Peroxymonosulphate - Wait 2 hours after adding Parts 2 and 3.

So part 1 removes calcium and metals, respectively. My calcium was just over 100ppm, but didn't get significantly affected post-test. I had a little staining, but have never tested metals, and don't know. But I wouldn't mind seeing some metals removed.

It looks like Part 2 is trying to move me to a bromine pool, and Part 3 "activates" it. I did a little more searching, and it appears that sodium bromide is most readily gotten rid of, to go back to chlorine chemistry.

However my post-closing test was done with OTO, and there are separate scales for chlorine and bromine. I've got just about nothing showing, maybe 0.5 ppm on the chlorine scale or 1.0 ppm on the bromine scale. They said to wait 2 hours for circulation. I had trouble blowing out the lines - ran out of teflon tape, had to buy more, and that put me past lunchtime. So I ended up waiting about 4 hours in the sunshine before covering.

Either my OTO kit really isn't measuring bromine, or I'm in a heap of trouble come next spring. I've got 3 gallons of leftover pool shock, (12%) should I be pulling back a corner of the cover and adding some of that? (slowly)

How do people here close? I've never been truly happy with one of my pool closings. The guy who put the pool in, in 2001, closed with 5 gallons of shock and it was good the next year. But I tried closing with just shock and had a mess.

Help.

[Seahunt]

I have an in-ground pool and these are the best instructions for closing:

http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school..._in_ground_pool

If you have an above ground I suspect these are good as they are from the same folks:

http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school...%20group%20pool

[DEPontius]

I found the closing instructions you cite - after I closed my pool using the Lowes kit. I certainly consider it worth trying next year, given that I haven't really been happy with any of my closings yet - on the following Spring.

Right now I'd just like to know if I'm in trouble, how much trouble I'm in, and how to get out of trouble. I'd really rather not reopen and reclose, especially now that leaves are starting to fall. I've found in past years that Labor Day really is it - wait after that and there's enough debris falling from the trees that it's impossible to get/keep things clean. (This is in the US Northeast, by the way.)

My impression is that the algae preventive in my closing kit is the sodium bromide. Yet when I use the OTO test, there's no significant amount of bromine/chlorine registering. I don't know if that's because there are several forms of bromide, and OTO doesn't detect sodium bromide well, or if sunshine, bromine, and chlorine all had a fight to the death, leaving me with nothing in the pool. That's the case I fear, which would leave me in some real trouble.

Because there may or may not still be bromide in the pool, I'm really reluctant to add more chlorine, especially without removing the cover to let things gas out. (Searching just now with terms "swimming pool bromine polyquat" gives this thread : http://www.troublefreepool.com/polyquat-60...mide-t9277.html

My best guess right now would be to treat the pool with polyquat as advised in your link, circulate with an auxiliary pump for a few hours/days, and decide that that's the best I can do for now and have plenty of shock on hand for the Spring.

(Sorry it took me so long to respond - things have been a real zoo at work, lately.)

[Seahunt]

I assume you don't have algea now? If so, Polyquat 60 added would be a good thing (it's really of no help after algae is already present). If you don't want to add chlorine now, I recommend adding some liquid chlorine in a month or so. Just some Chlorox is fine. I add two gallons for my 20k gal pool. If you have an auxuilary pump to mix it, even better. Also, add the chlorox in the spring as well. I basically do this in November and March (I close/open in Oct/May). This helps keep the algae from starting/growing.

Just my $.02.

[DEPontius]

I assume you don't have algea now? If so, Polyquat 60 added would be a good thing (it's really of no help after algae is already present). If you don't want to add chlorine now, I recommend adding some liquid chlorine in a month or so. Just some Chlorox is fine. I add two gallons for my 20k gal pool. If you have an auxuilary pump to mix it, even better. Also, add the chlorox in the spring as well. I basically do this in November and March (I close/open in Oct/May). This helps keep the algae from starting/growing.

Just my $.02.

The pool was in good shape when I closed. I'll scout around and see where I can find Polyquat 60 in my area.

I wouldn't mind adding chlorine now, but was just worried about chemical battles playing out underneath a winter cover. I have 3 gallons left over, which would handle 27,600 gallons nicely. Do I not need to worry about chlorine/bromine reactions when covered?

Do you have any feel for why my OTO test showed no chlorine/bromine, right before closing? I'm assuming/fearing that combined with a little sunlight, they nullified eache other, in which case there should be no problem at all adding more chlorine.

[Seahunt]

Do I not need to worry about chlorine/bromine reactions when covered?

Do you have any feel for why my OTO test showed no chlorine/bromine, right before closing? I'm assuming/fearing that combined with a little sunlight, they nullified eache other, in which case there should be no problem at all adding more chlorine.

No I don't. I'm a BBB guy. I recommend you search google or start a seperate thread asking that question exactly. Don't want to give you bad info.

Good luck.

[DEPontius]

I'm normally approximately BBB, though this summer I sort of went off that plan.

In past seasons I've run borax and pool shock - I generally have more problems keeping my TA down, and don't need to add baking soda. I've also been a bit nervous about my borax levels, (This pool was originally set up in 2001 with ProTeam Supreme (borax)) and need to get some sort of test method for it, which tends to keep me over in the washing soda some, too. As mentioned before, this pool is in the US northeast, and there's a general tendancy for the pH to creep downard with acid rain.

This past season, I realized that my Calcium Hardness was quite low, and though it shouldn't matter too much on a vinyl pool, it seemed to me to be a good idea to boost it up a bit. At WalMart I found some calcium hypochlorite pucks, about the same general size and shape as the traditional trichlor pucks. Since I needed calcium anyway, it seemed a good way to kill 2 birds with on slug - boost my hardness and chlorinate the pool.

I thought I started this thread asking about chlorine/bromine interactions - maybe I didn't phrase it well. I guess I could start by putting that in the title instead of "closing".

I've been happy with mostly-BBB. I would be happier with some sort of borate test kit, and I feel more comfortable using pool shock instead of bleach, because I don't trust the possiblilty of additives in the latter, and pricewise pool shock is cheaper. I have a 5 gallon container for it, and dilute 1 gal shock with 4 gal water. Then 1 gal of that gives me about 1 ppm chlorine in the pool. Because it's diluted it holds its chlorine better.