Day after storm testing

[paulmaz]

Hi all,

Sorry for asking so many questions, but man, this site has the answers, and I want to know!

So yesterday my pool was beautiful, clear, chemistry good, clean, etc. Added some LC to keep the FC right around 9. Then last night we had a pretty good thunderstorm roll through the area, wind, good amount of rain. Went to look at pool before heading to work, and of course, pretty dirty. Lots of debris, leaves, sticks, basically stuff from the trees. Also the water was a little cloudy. Filter was not scheduled to kick on till like 10am, but I went ahead and turned it on, and added some extra time for the Polaris to run, and scooped out what I could from the surface. Then went to work. Dang work!

I would have run a full battery of tests this AM, but had no time. Should I do it when I get home? With the new rain water, will that totally throw off everything? Will the tests be accurate later? Guess what I am asking is, this will happen often where I live. What should my protocol be the day after a storm? Always test and adjust right away? Is there a waiting period for accurate results because of the rainwater?

Thanks for any guidance.

 

[Razorhog]

Depending on the amount of rain, it can affect the chemistry but generally not much unless you have runoff going directly in the pool somehow. I've had a pristine, balanced, and well maintained pool go cloudy after a rain storm. I tested the water and everything checked out but the water was a bit cloudy and not "sparkling". I've read that there is some sort of speculation that lightning is a factor in that cloudiness, but I doubt that. After a thunderstorm, just test and do as you normally do. If the water is cloudy or has a green tint, bring FC up to shock level and then let the sand filter do its job.

 

[duraleigh]

Rain is overrated! I look at it like this (an oversimplification but close) If your pool averages 5" in depth (60 in), then your pool chemistry will be 1/30th off from where it was the day before......3.3%.

Rain creating havoc in a pool just simply doesn't. (unless you get a lot of dirt, etc where the RUNOFF water goes into your pool)

 

[jeffchap]

Rain doesn't have much affect on your water chemistry. Consider how deep your pool is, and then what, maybe an inch of rain at most added to it? The volume is negligible.

 

[pooldv]

Besides throwing tree stuff in your pool the biggest impact it usually has is raising PH through aeration.