opening our pool this weekend, whats the one thing you wish you knew your first time

M

MattB

New member
hey everyone, this is going to be our second spring with the pool but last year my dad did most of the work and im going to try and do it myself this time. already pulled the cover (big mistake apparently, should have vacuumed the water off first, oh well) and the water looks like green swamp juice.

what is the one thing you wish someone told you before your first opening? im reading a bunch of guides but they all say different things about what order to add chemicals, whether to shock first or balance first, and how long to run the pump before anything even looks like water again.

i grabbed the aquadoc pool opening kit because it seemed like everything in one box and i dont trust myself to pick out the right stuff yet. any beginner mistakes to avoid would be huge. thanks.
 
First thing, dont panic about the green water. Green just means chlorine got eaten up over the winter, it doesnt mean the pool is ruined. Sounds like youre already past step one by pulling the cover, even if the cover removal wasnt pretty. Next steps id suggest: run the pump 24/7 for the first few days, brush the walls and floor once a day, and get a baseline test once water has circulated a full cycle so you know what youre actually dealing with.

Get TA and pH in range before you start chasing chlorine, otherwise youll burn through shock faster than you need to. Then push chlorine up to shock levels and hold it there until the water clears. Retest after about 12 hours, not 20 minutes, the numbers right after adding anything are unreliable.

Opening kits arent required but they save the guesswork on ratios. I usually point first timers toward the aquadoc pool opening kit since the shock, algaecide, and clarifier are matched up for standard pool sizes and you dont have to read three different bottles. If you already have chlorine and algaecide around the house use that first though, no reason to buy stuff you already have.

One last thing, the biggest mistake I see new openers make is adding multiple chemicals at once. One adjustment, let it circulate, test, then decide the next move. Slow is faster in the long run.
 
oh man the green swamp opening is honestly a rite of passage haha. best thing i learned was to not dump a million chemicals at once in the first day. its tempting because the water looks awful but if you just run the pump nonstop, brush daily, and get the chlorine up steadily over a few days it usually clears up faster than the kitchen sink approach. also if you have leaves and gunk really focus on getting that out before you start dosing because the organics will eat your chlorine instantly. take a baseline test like Hartley said but dont obsess over the first numbers, fresh water from winter is always a little weird
 
adding to what others said, the biggest thing for me was learning to be patient. first opening i did i kept dumping shock in every day because i thought the green wasnt clearing fast enough and all i did was waste money. now i shock once, run pump 24/7, brush twice a day, and just let the filter do its job. usually clears up in 3-5 days even from full swamp. also clean your filter way more than you think you need to during the clearing phase, like every day or every other day, gunk builds fast
 
adding to what others said, the biggest thing for me was learning to be patient. first opening i did i kept dumping shock in every day because i thought the green wasnt clearing fast enough and all i did was waste money. now i shock once, run pump 24/7, brush twice a day, and just let the filter do its job. usually clears up in 3-5 days even from full swamp. also clean your filter way more than you think you need to during the clearing phase, like every day or every other day, gunk builds fast
 
oh man the green swamp pic in my head is super accurate haha. mine was the exact same color last april and i was convinced id have to drain. nope, just patience and a lot of brushing and the chlorine eventually caught up. you got this. one thing that helped me last year was just being ok with the pool looking gross for a few days instead of trying to nuke it overnight
 
man i feel this. last spring was my first time too and i was completely lost on what order to do things. ended up just buying the aquadoc opening kit because it had the basics in one box and i didnt have to guess what i needed. cheaper than buying everything individually i think. the brushing thing is real, i did not brush enough my first year and the steps still had algae creeping back two weeks later. patience and brushing, thats what i would go back and tell myself.
 
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