It is a fact that rain will decrease your Total Alkalinity level in the pool over time, requiring a pool owner to raise the alkalinity. Rainwater has a Total Alkalinity near zero. Heavy rains will dilute your pool alkalinity level, causing it to fall by 5-10 ppm a day.
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.
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.
Shocking your pool isn't necessary, although, it's not a bad idea either. If you get an extremely heavy rain fall, you could shock your pool for good measure. This will help fight off any contaminants that the rain may have brought to your pool.
And if you're wondering if you can shock a pool IN the rain, the answer is yes. Just remember that rainwater adds more contaminants, so it won't be as effective as shocking during dry weather.
Swimming pool owners can add disinfecting and stabilizing chemicals as they please when it rains. However, continuous rain will adversely affect the water's chemical balances. This is because rain picks up atmospheric contaminants, such as organic materials and even algae spores, when it falls.
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.
Normal, clean rain has a pH value of between 5.0 and 5.5, which is slightly acidic. However, when rain combines with sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxides—produced from power plants and automobiles—the rain becomes much more acidic. Typical acid rain has a pH value of 4.0.
Why Your Pool Turns Green and Cloudy
This can alter your pH levels and dilute the chlorine or other sanitizers, allowing algae or other contaminants to gain a foothold. Once the algae spores have the proper conditions to grow, they multiply very quickly, which is why your clear pool can turn green overnight.
Remember, rain is acidic. Hence, pool overflowing from rain causes the Alkalinity and pH levels to lower. Very low pH causes pool water to turn very clear and acidic, which destroys your pool surface and equipment.
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. ... You should also make sure you run your pump after rain.
Pool water turns green because of algae in the water. Algae can grow rapidly, particularly when it's warm like Summer, which is why it can surprise you overnight. This generally comes down to an imbalance or lack of chlorine in the water.
In theory, if you have a cloudy swimming pool, you can add chlorine to “shock it” and clear things up. Chlorine will get the job done. But, the amounts may vary and you may have to really pound the pool with chlorine to get the water totally clear.
Should the green be due to pollen, there may be little to do in the way of minimizing the discoloration short of erecting a building around the pool. Fortunately, assuming there are no allergies to the pollen, it is safe to swim in a pool with that as the cause for green water.
If the pool overflows, now only will the pool chemicals be diluted, but they may contaminate the pool deck and surrounding landscape. Removing excess water quickly is important to prevent this.
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.
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.