8-20 inches of rain in west/NW Houston

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tstex

Silver Supporter
Aug 28, 2012
2,177
Houston, TX
Well, pool flooded from backyard...going to be netting 2-3 lbs of earthworms and already netted a bunch of floating mulch from the top of the pool...I was clearing off the tops of the 4 drains where the mulch was blocking them. First flood ever.

Ok, in prep for this, I upped the FC bc I knew it was coming...once the rains stop, I will do a punch list and below is that list.

1. Keep pump from coming on at 8am CST...I am sure the top 4-6 inches of pool water are almost all rain.
2. Net out all solids on top and bottom of pool
3. Make sure skimmers are cleared
4. Fire-up pump when waters are below the drain line
5. Take measurements and then I am all ears....at least my CH should be dropping, as well as CYA levels and FC too. And, then pH rising...I did not think any silt went into the pool, but I cannot be sure bc it is still dark outside - at least we have power.

I hope all our NW, Katy N of I-10 and all Waller & NW & N & Central Montgomery County folks are all doing ok.... N of 1-10 on Hwy 6 has had over 20+" since late last night early this am....I am sure folks will be reporting soon...God Bless, tstex
 
When it rains in Texas, it falls in buckets. Much like last year's flooding, I'm sure you'll get it wrapped-up. Yes, once the heavy stuff passes us, adjust water level to skimmer, remove any large debris, let pump start circulating and adjust chemicals. Easy stuff. :) Be safe!
 
MarkTX said:
No flooded pool, we have an overflow drain. But Cypress Creek is over its banks. Some of my co-workers have four feet of water in their homes. Not good.
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We have an overflow too, but I could not keep the water from the landscaping/mulch/etc from flowing into the pool. At one point, it was 2+ inches over coping and on deck and same water was at edge of landscaping. I need to buy more river rocks and line the edges so water can run out but mulch will not. The smaller pieces of mulch blocked the drains and then the very fertile/fertilized light brown water drifted into pool..a lot of mulch went in pool. I scooped out what I could when lightening stopped, but earth worms and mulch at bottom now too...I cannot see the bottom....

However, all of this is NOTHING compared to those that have 4ft of water on their houses...I wish I was there to somehow help them...Prayers to them all....
 
Over 13" of rain here in Katy. My yard drains well so no debris in pool. Water level went to top of skimmer, but overflow drain is working and level has started to drop. When shopping for home last year I would not consider any home in FEMA flood plains. Drove the Realtor crazy because I refused to look at homes that were in flood plains.
 
"Over 13" of rain here in Katy. My yard drains well so no debris in pool. Water level went to top of skimmer, but overflow drain is working and level has started to drop.."

Glad to hear you are in good shape WASP. I think the pitfall of our drainage solution is that even though our main drain line is 4" PVC, we have 4 downspouts from the gutters feeding into it, then 4 drains on the decking. There are also 2 more surface drains that are btw the landscaping and the decking too. These are 9"x9" and they are at the remote end. It rained so hard at one time, that water was coming over the gutters bc the drains were full. When we had an 8" rain last May, it never flooded into the pool bc the rain, although it rain hard some, it never rained as hard as it did this time during a very short period. Thus, the pool overflow is also tied into this system. Too much water from too many feed-ins and both the pool and decking merged such that is was an inch or two in equilibrium.

If I did not clear the 4 deck drains of the smaller pieces of mulch that were impeding them, it would have been a lot worse. I am going to have to build-up the height of the river-stones at the edge of the landscaping so the mulch will be block, yet the water can filter thru.

I am patiently wait for the rain to cease so I can start the slam. I bought 8 gallons of 8.25% bleach, for a total of 9 in the garage.
 

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Texas Splash said:
I think my CH level drops a few points today. :goodjob:
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That's a positive for sure Pat...how long should I wait until I start my SLAM ? My water is turning greener by the moment. They are predicting only 1/2" more rain for the rest of the day...

Also, with real high CL levels, is it safe to run my Robotic Shark? Or, should I just be patient and wait until the CL start to be filtered and clear?

Finally, I am going to be concerned that since I was going to soon clean my 4 filters, that they could fill-up pretty quickly. I have to monitor the pressure closely.

Thanks, tstex
 
Once you know your area is out of the heavy stuff and perhaps only receiving light rain/sprinkles, I'd go for it. The big adjustments are verifying CYA and pH at 7.2-7.5, then cranking-up FC to your SLAM level. Sooner the better I suppose unless of course you expect the zipper in the sky to open again on us like it did this morning/last night. :) If your weatherman is anything like ours, it's hard to tell. :confused:

Many folks run their robots and such during a SLAM. More than anything, I'd be concerned there was not heavy debris at the bottom is all.
 
" I suppose unless of course you expect the zipper in the sky to open again on us like it did this morning/last night. :) That's funny !!!

Pat,

First, need to run the pumps first for 20-30 mins to get a true pH. I also want to drain some from the pool too, below the drain line...then I'll be ready to go
 
Just one question.

I fertilized my landscape pretty heavily w triple 13. there's N P K. W the phosphorous, I used to feed my lakes in spring w a heavy P to get an algae bloom. Is this what could have happened? If so, is there anything else I need to do?

I took a quick ph & FC...the pH was above 7.5, but below 7.8. maybe 7.6-77...the FC was above 5 w the quick test kit... I have not done my CYA. but I wanted to let some muratic acid circulate bc I just added some to bring pH down closer to the 7.2-7.3 range. My filter pressure is really good and only even below the green marker at 80% operating speed.

After I run the pump for another 30, I'll run the CYA, but at 40-50 or less CYA, my max FC slam is 16-20 respectively.

Thanks, tstex
 
I wouldn't try to read too much into it all just yet. Just keep it simple with the regular SLAM instructions for now. If anything was to run-off into the pool, the chlorine will eventually take care of it. I would however wait until the sky clears-up before taking another CYA test. With all the cloud cover, your black dot may disappear prematurely, leaving you to believe your CYA is higher than it actually is on a bright day.
 
My pool did not fare too poorly. A layer of dirt, but not mulch or mud. The Dolphin is cleaning it up nicely, after I used the net to get the leaves and twigs.

My chemistry readings are interesting. Chlorine came in at 1.0, CC at 0. That wasn't too surprising, considering the amount of rain I got. But, my pH is at least 8.2, when yesterday it was 7.2. Is that to be expected with a lot of rainwater? I am not testing anything else for a day or two. I added a gallon of 8.25% bleach.
 
Ok, I started the SLAM bc the rain stopped and the sun is coming in and out.

Here's where I am:

CYA = 43 to 44
pH was 7.8, now it's 7.2
FC is now 20, CC = 0
CH [this is good now] is 250
TA = 50, maybe even a little lower, it started to change colors just a bit w 4 drops, but 5 drops nailed it.

Running the shark and pulled out TONS OF EARTH WORMS., some leaves and dirt. I have never had dirt wash out of my filters before, but they did this time. I cleaned the filters again real well, washed out inside and everything...she's back in working again and I will let her run 2-3 hrs and clean filters again and keep repeating until nothing else. The filter gauge is still looking very good, almost no rise in normal operating pressure.

Typically, how long does it take to clear?

I am going to run the pump all night, correct? If there is anything else I need to know, pls advise.

Thank you very much, tstex
 

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