Hi all,

I'll first apologize because brevity isn't one of my strong points. I covered my pool early this year--a couple of weeks ago--although here in Alabama I'd be covering it about now anyway because with shortening days and cooler nights the water temps become too cold for me. I'd taken a hard spill off my bicycle and cracked a couple of ribs, and although on the 10th day after the fall I went through an amazingly quick recovery I expected it to be much longer and didn't want the burden of maintaining the pool, especially because we were heading into a prolonged rainy period.

It's still been very hot, however, and so I'll typically turn the pump on every day for an hour or two just to keep the chlorine somewhat distributed.

For the heck of it last night I checked my pH in addition to the CL after running the pump. Instead of moving a couple of water bags and taking a sample at the skimmer, I put the multiport to closed and took the sample at the pump basket.

I covered the pool at 5 ppm and with the pH spot on. My CL had dropped to 4.5 over these past two weeks (totally acceptable), and the pH, well, it was an anemic color that didn't match anything on the color-charted pH tube.

My newer liner is only a couple of seasons old, so I have more invested in staying on top of things. I'm hoping that this odd coloration is benign - that it has something to do with the lack of sunlight on the water?

I know a lot of people in the south who are surrounded by lots of trees close their pools during the winter, but I just cover mine and run the pump during the handful of winter nights the temps drop below 28 or so and are sustained. My pump is in a protected lower elevation of the yard, right next to the door to my heated crawl, so I don't worry about any temps between 32 and 28; if a power failure I can open the crawl or run a space heater if need be.

Therefore, I do have the capacity to keep my chem numbers in line. But it just seems really really strange to be adjusting my pH during the long time it's covered when it's covered (9 months because of very messy springtime budding of trees) in order to protect my liner from an inappropriate pH. Those who do close their pools, but whose water doesn't freeze here in the south, don't have the capacity to adjust their pH and you don't hear about liner ruination because of it…?

As I recall, when I uncover my pool June 1st, the pH is an off color as well, but within a couple of days it pinks up all on its own. For my pool--except with the new fill water when I got the new liner--I have to add a bit of acid throughout the summer to keep it in line; the pH is never too low.

So, I look forward to the expert minds *hopefully* telling me I don't have to adjust the pH during the next 9 months (please…). I haven't done so the last two winter seasons and at least don't perceive any liner damage therefrom.

* * *

On another matter, I have a new pool cover this season. 15-year warranty; it's not a cheap cover (although my covers never seem to last more than two or three seasons because of the hordes of debris from trees that fall on them), but experience has taught me that a cheap cover is good for about one week before seams begin to pull apart. I only see one seam, and it's going down the middle, long- to long-end, and it's seeping pool water. Indeed, a paper that arrived with the new cover said "do not pump water off your cover during the fall, leave it on until you reopen the pool as a cover pump will pump water seeping from the seam(s)."

It surprises me that with today's technology some type of adhesive cannot be added to any seam to keep water from seeping, but you'd assume if it were pool cover manufacturers would be using it? It would be ludicrous for me not to pump water off my cover. It would eventually turn into a swamp, and the debris from trees would be so deep I'd have to hire an entire a crew of workers to clean it off in the spring. I brush, rake and blow debris off my cover every week from Fall through Spring. Without keeping the debris off, one can't effectively pump the water off because debris will clog up the screen at the bottom of my Rule automatic pump. And, I would abhor looking at a cluttered, dirty, swampy cover in any case as the pool is only 15 feet from my patio door. So I have moved the pump off the seam (which continues to seep) to the side (I'll have to brush copious amounts of rainwater to the pump) and I guess will just have to add water as needed so I can run the pump during frigid winter nights. At least now I know why in seasons past my water level would curiously drop from time to time. I always worried about liner leaks but it was cover seam seepage. Blows my mind they can't create cover seams that don't seep.