Oak tree seeds and ways to skim them.

[Bassist286]

Hi all-

I'm in New England and it a prime pollen and seeding season for trees. I'm surrounded by oak trees and have a ton of the strands as well as individual tiny seeds. The seeds stick to the sides and are too small to manually skim off. They don't sink so being patient doesn't help. Ant tips on getting this stuff out of the water?

[BigDave]

Not helpful, but, I hear you. My pool will stay covered until the oak pollen strands have stopped.

[Watermom]

We sometimes recommend for people to use 'skimmer socks' to help catch smaller stuff in their skimmer. Do they make something similar that covers a pool skimmer net? If not, can you use some type of cloth to cover it that would allow you to skim them off the water surface and get caught on the cloth? Maybe cheesecloth or something similar?

[Bassist286]

That's a good idea watermom. I'll have to look around for a fine mesh skimmer head. I may be able to make something with an old tee shirt or some large sheets of cheese cloth. I'll let you know what I come up with.

[Bassist286]

Does anyone know of the strands, pollen and other organic material create a chlorine demand? I've been dropping between 3 and 4 points every two days lately but my cya is at 40. I run between 3-7 FC.

[BigDave]

Yep. Chlorine will be used up on any organic material in the pool.

[CarlD]

I get a lot of maple "wings", pod strands from my neighbor's gazillion evergreens, and, this time of year, amazingly disgusting amounts of bird poop. I put out rubber snakes on the fence to try to discourage them. It all raises chlorine demand.