What about readings in cold water?

[ShelleyAnn]

We've had the new pool up since Saturday now and I've added some bleach, some Borax, some Arm and Hammer, and some CYA, according to what I've read on this fine forum, so now, of course, the weather has turned to...well, you know. I was wondering when it was going to turn from weeks of unseasonably warm weather to the coldest/wetest summer on record as a direct result of us putting in a pool!

So the rainy days are in the 40s and nights in the 30s here in Denver and the cover has been on for 2 days, do I really have to be that on top of the chlorine? There won't be humans in this bag of water till it's waaaaaaaaay warmer. When does algae begin to grow? This being our very first year with a pool, I don't even know when people around here open a pool. When do you really need to begin playing around with the chlorine/ph/alkalinity etc?

Thanks.

[Watermom]

There is no magic temperature where algae begins to grow. We had kind of always told people that as long as your water was under 50 degrees, it was probably unlikely that algae would start. But, this winter, a couple of us (Poconos and me) both had a very slight streak of algae in our pools and our water temps were in the mid-40s. So, who knows! As long as your ph stays above 7.0 and you just keep an eye on things, you can wait a little longer to actually have to begin testing every day. Maybe just visually check the water and test a couple of times a week for now.

[bbb]

There is no magic temperature where algae begins to grow. We had kind of always told people that as long as your water was under 50 degrees, it was probably unlikely that algae would start. But, this winter, a couple of us (Poconos and me) both had a very slight streak of algae in our pools and our water temps were in the mid-40s. So, who knows! As long as your ph stays above 7.0 and you just keep an eye on things, you can wait a little longer to actually have to begin testing every day. Maybe just visually check the water and test a couple of times a week for now.

I agree - I'm in the same situation with the cold weather. I took my safety cover off last week and added some bleach and baking soda. My CYA was 35 so I didn't touch that. I also added some more polyquat algaecide and put my solar cover on, and I'm checking the water 1x per week until things warm up.