Give your pool a good shock treatment 1 to 2 days before the storm hits. You can bring the chlorine level up pretty high to prolong the pool being depleted of chlorine.
A small amount of rain will have little to no effect on your pool. However, when a storm dumps 1 to 3 inches of water in a short period, it could take a toll on your pool water.
If you have some fair warning for the storm coming, add pool shock to your pool to keep your sanitizer levels high. You want your water at the ready to fight off new bacteria introduced by the rain—and this will minimize the work it'll take to restore your water later.
When preparing your pool for a storm, leave it uncovered. Installing any kind of cover across the pool will not do much to protect against dust and contaminants because storms often bring strong winds and heavy rain that can cause the cover to lift off your pool.
Rainfall dilutes pool chemistry levels and lowers the readings for pH, alkalinity, hardness, stabilizer, and chlorine. Rainfall does not contain chlorine.
Give your pool a good shock treatment 1 to 2 days before the storm hits. You can bring the chlorine level up pretty high to prolong the pool being depleted of chlorine.
At the first sign of an incoming storm, you should turn off and unplug your pump. If this is left running during a storm, the motor may suffer electrical damage and short out.
The extra filtering will help clean out the impurities rain has introduced into your pool's water. Pool pumps are made to withstand rain and it is beneficial to run your pump during or after rain.
The Department of Environmental Health recommends avoiding activities such as swimming, surfing, and diving for 72 hours after it rains. Research has shown that the risk of infection is the highest during and the day after rain, and declines to around normal levels after three days.
Effect on Pool Water pH
Since rain is diluting your pool, you may expect that it will reduce the acidity of your pool water. However, all rain in the US is acidic due to pollution, so rain actually decreases your pool's pH – in other words, the pool water becomes more acidic.
Rain delivers algae spores and debris to pool water and it is these things that cause problems. Algae spores are usually present in the air. Riding the air currents hither and yon in order to sometimes land in hospitable locations is part of algae's reproductive strategy.
If you have a typical rainfall, or even several inches, your pool should be fine, since drains and skimmers are designed to remove the excess water. In most cases, your pool can even handle rain from most tropical depressions and hurricanes.
Covering a heated swimming pool at night will reduce heat loss. That means warmer water, which is what anyone who has ever gone swimming in a chilly pool can tell you is very important.
After it rains, you should remove standing water as soon as possible. To do this, you'll want to use a siphon or a water pump. An automatic pool cover pump is one of the most useful pool supplies in New Haven County, CT because it can remove standing water from your cover without you needing to do the work.
With a rain storm, any number of contaminants can be washing into your pool – acid rain, pollen, insects, tree droppings, dust, sand and even phosphates. Any one or combination of these things in rain can make your pool cloudy.
"Heavy rain dilutes pool chemicals, especially salt and chlorine, which causes the pool to turn green. This means the water is not sanitised or healthy, so it's vital to address this.
Shock Your Pool with Chlorine to Kill Algae
This is the main event in clearing a green pool—killing the algae. Pool shock contains a high level of chlorine that will kill the algae and sanitize the pool. For the best results, use a shock that contains at least 70% available chlorine (calcium hypochlorite).
Keep your pump and filter running. Give the shock a good 12 to 24 hours to work it's magic. If the algae hasn't cleared up after 24-48 hours, clean and brush the pool and add another shock treatment.
A pool filter should be run for a minimum of 6 hours after shocking a swimming pool. This is to allow the filter to clean the water and give the shock enough time to fully mix with the pool water. Running the filter after shocking for 24 hours to 7 days is necessary if the pool has a large amount of algae.
Can you put too much shock in a pool? SKIMMER NOTES: It's unlikely but it could happen. It would take a lot of shock to really make the water unsafe for swimming. The best way to make sure you're safe to swim is to test your pool water and make sure free chlorine levels are between 1-4ppm for healthy swimming.
Algaecide should be used after each shock treatment, so it has a better chance to support your chlorine as it works its magic. Be sure to shock your pool first, then when the chlorine levels of your pool return to normal, add the correct amount of algaecide to several places around your pool while your pump is running.
What's important for you to know: You shouldn't swim in a pool that's green until you test the chemical levels, like the officials in Rio did before the diving event began. It's the balance of things like chlorine, pH, and alkalinity in a pool that keeps it sterilized.
ADD POOL CLARIFIER
The change in your pool water colour means that you have successfully eliminated the algae and can now clean it out of your pool. If your water is still green, wait another 24 hours and redo the steps from Days 1 and 2.