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. Run the pool for about 24hrs after the shock treatment to allow the treatment to make its way throughout the entire pool.
Use shock treatment on your pool one or two days before the storm. Add chlorine levels significantly during the treatment and let it run for 24 hours to allow the treatment to fill the entire pool. Make sure all furniture or items around your pool are safe to prevent injury to persons or property.
Rainfall does not contain chlorine. As well, rainfall brings with it small amounts of contaminants that are washed into the pool. Leaves, dust and debris also creates a higher chlorine demand and uses up your chlorine.
Heavy rains will deplete many of the chemistry levels in your pool. Generally your alkalinity will drop significantly. It is a good idea to have Alkalinity, Muriatic Acid, Chlorine (or Salt), and Shock on hand to be able to test your water and treat your pool immediately after the rain stops.
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.
So shock your pool and keep the pump running.
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.
The most important factor though is the size of the pool. You'll need about 52-104 oz of liquid chlorine per 10,000 gallons of water. This amount should get the chlorine level to between 5 and 10 ppm.
"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.
If your pool pump manufacturer has declared your pump is rain safe, you can leave it on in rainfall. Nevertheless, during a thunderstorm, it is highly recommended that you switch off and unplug your pool pump to prevent any costly and irreversible damages to your pool equipment.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It is recommended to wait at least 20 minutes to an hour after adding water balancing chemicals. You should wait 2-4 hours (or one full cycle through the filter) to swim from the moment you use calcium chloride in your pool. It is safe to swim once your chlorine levels are around 5 ppm or after 24 hours.
The procedure for adding granular chlorine is pretty much the same as adding calcium chloride or sodium bicarb to a pool. Measure the dry chemical, pre-dissolve in a bucket, and pour around the perimeter of the pool (never into the skimmer directly).
Sodium hypochlorite (also known as liquid chlorine) is another frequently used option for shocking pool water. This is a common choice in pool shock because you can pour the solution directly into the pool without having to dissolve the chlorine in water beforehand.
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.
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.
Excessive levels of pool chemicals can cause your water to become cloudy. High pH, high alkalinity, high chlorine or other sanitisers, and high calcium hardness are all common culprits.
If the chlorine smell is very strong, however, you may soon spot “red-eyed” swimmers emerging from the pool. That's when the pool water is assumed to have “too much chlorine” in it. Ironically, a strong chemical smell around the pool and “swimmer red eye” may be signs that there is not enough chlorine in the water.
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.