Pre Close Cleaning

I have read Watermom's sticky about closing an AG pool and I feel like an idiot asking this but will anyway....

If the first step in closing is to clean the pool very thoroughly and THEN add the chems and balance the water, all over a period of a couple of days so the chlorine gets a chance to vent before I put the solid cover on it....

How do I keep it clean while all of the above is going on so I don't have to clean it all over again and unbalance the water? We have leaves and blowing dirt that will wind up on the bottom. I am using a solar cover now to keep the heater's heat in the water which helps some but stuff still winds up on the bottom.

And if I'm using a solid cover - not the nasty black mesh tarp thing - do I need to use Polyquat?

Thanks.

CoffeeBean

coffee, your question deseves an answer. I believe that the 'cleaning' talked about is a thourough one and subsequent 'mini' cleanings are to be done while doing the final adjustments to the pool. The whole idea is to have a clean and swimmable pool before throwing the cover on. You can use your net to clean out large debris. I've always said that 'If you don't close clean, you'll open green' - it's an exaggeration, but is so close to being true ;). If your pool has no large debris and you have added some algicide and a 'shock level' of bleach, you shouldn't have a problem, come next spring.

I got your pm, it's cool :cool:

stupid question here (or so I feel) but what exactly IS "shock level"???

Shock level is the level you have to take your chlorine to so that anything organic that is growing in your water (algae) is killed. How high your chlorine needs to be to be shock level depends on how high your cya level is.

Thanks Waste, for the clarification. I thought "mini cleanings" were probably in order but wanted to make sure I did it right. This spring's pea soup wasn't pretty.

Still the question remains...

If I'm using a Hugger solid pool cover, do I still need to use Polyquat before closing? Winter water won't get into the pool and it's solid so neither will sunlight.

CoffeeBean