Sheila, Hi and welcome!
Ben, Lisa and Janet are all in Southern climates, you are more like me, in NJ. I would hold off till early to mid-April, when you are pretty sure you are past the last snow. I've opened to blooms in the last couple of years, but being a mod here, I'm pretty fearless about hammering it with liquid chlorine and getting the algae dead in 24-48 hours. I think you should wait.