Hurricane Matthew Help for New Pool Owner

[TransformD1]

Hello, my TFP friends. We have been so blessed with our pool this summer after an early Spring installation. Unfortunately, we were slammed by Hurrican Matthew yesterday and without power today and possibly for the rest of the week, given the extent of the damage to the area. I have spent several hours cleaning the debris out of the pool, but it is very cloudy as the leaves had already started to decompose. We may be out of luck anyway without a pool pump, but thought I would ask if there was anything we can do to save the pool before the bloom starts. Current (uncirculated) readings, using the Taylor K-2005C kit, are:

FC 1.0
TC 1.0 (using DPD reagent, not the powder, to test for CC)
TA 70
CH 210
CYA 50

My awesome husband has rigged up a trolling motor with a boat battery to get some circulation going ( I know, right.. he takes such good care of me). I was wondering if that is enough circulation to throw some bleach in there to protect the chlorine level. I have relied on the SWG all summer, so I did not even think about stocking up on chlorine, but I do have a couple of gallons I could poor in. Would that + brushing the pool to stir it up help?

One more question (don't laugh) but I do have a unopened, unused bottle of commercial grade Phosphate Remover. Would that help any at this point or would it even do any good without a pump to circulate it?

Time to go help my husband cut up the four huge oaks / gums that are blocking our drive and the road out of the neighborhood. Our largest downed tree took down the transformer and has blocked access to the rest of the neighborhood. Gotta go be a good neighbor.

Shalom and thank you for being here!

 

[woodyp]

Short of a small generator to run the pump, that's a pretty good idea. I'd add chlorine but not the phosphate remover.

 

[ned8377]

If you pour the bleach in one gallon at a time while also using a net to get leaves off bottom and using brush to brush the sides you could probably circulate enough for chlorine and buy some time. Here is an important lesson. Always put a couple of gallons of bleach or chlorine in just before something like Matthew and leave the pool running. I live in Wake Forest NC and it rained hard all day yesterday - at least 20 hours. Now all I have to do is get all the leaves out.

 

[kimkats]

You can also add the chlorine and walk around your pool with a straw broom to help mix it in. If you can stand it you can also get in and mix it from inside the pool..........might feel good after all the tree work you need to do

We helped three of our neighbors cut a tree that was blocking their end of the. We cut the tree back as much as our household saws could handle. It was just enough they could get in and out.........the bulk of the tree was ON the wires. They were "off" but we were NOT taking any chances. We waited for the "professional" tree crew and lines men to come do the rest.

Keep us in the loop and let us know how things are going. I cooked eggs on the grill and they were wonderful! YUMMM

Kim

 

[Isaac-1]

You have to love creative solutions, here is a thread on my creative solution to a lightning strike a few years ago Keeping the water moving

Ike

 

[TransformD1]

Thank you all! Added the bleach that we had on hand and got the chlorine up to 4 and the PH fell to 7.4 by the end of the day. The trolling motor did a fantastic job churning the water but we had to cut it off for the evening to charge the battery while the generator is still on. The circulation was so good that it was pushing the tiny leaf particles to the center of the pool to make them easier to get to. I will be able to get out tomorrow (to work unfortuntaely) and will get more bleach to continue with the trolling motor. I unfortunately did not get back to the forum before I decided that it couldn't hurt to add the phosphate remover. Mistake! Now it it is really cloudy and hard to see the tiny particles of remaining debris on the bottom. At least the other chems continue to look good. Oh yeah, so very glad I saw the "leaf net" at Lowes when picking up salt in anticpation of the storm. I am sure it saved a lot of time in getting the 3 wheelbarrels of debris out of the there!

Will keep you posted.

 

[mdrejhon]

Good that the trolling moter worked!

Regardless, pour the bleach anyway even without the pump. You can manually stir for 15 to 20 minutes -- that's all is needed to get useful algae-boom-prevention.

For vacations, I have intentionally kept my pump turned off for 7+ days with no problem Total Chlorine of ~20ppm (measured while pump running. took nearly two jugs, or nearly one full yellow 10L container, from near-zero FC, to get it to shock level league) That's what I did before my vacation. Covered up to keep the debris out. Saved electricity. Preserved my pool perfectly even without a floating puck dispenser (though now we use one too in this situation, just to be safe). Was back to swimmable FC (usually on the high-ish side) when we arrived home. Make sure the water is well balanced, though. And definitely stir (use pump or manually) for accurate re-measurement of FC level...

My pool only needs an hour or two pumping a day (usually aim at 4 hours or so a day) but the water quality stays fine even after 48 hours. So I can skip days unpumped if the chlorine is high enough, my default is pump-turned-off whenever I am away. I just have to watch the FC like a hawk if it's not in the double-digit level I use for unpumped pool statsis during vacation.

 

[TransformD1]

Thank you! So far it is doing great and found yesterday a.m. that once the water settled, the cloudiness was coming from the sand that blew in during the storm, so I sure look forward to getting that vacume up and running. Looks like it may be Sunday before power is restored. Thanks for the peace of mind!

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[TransformD1]

We went 8 days without power and the water returned crystal clear after the sand settled and the PR finished its work. I really need to do some reading on pump run times and other pool care matters. After a really rough start getting pool chems balanced from the new build this spring, I have been really scared to run the pump less than 8 hours a day. Of course, guess what we did all summer instead of reading up on pool care? ?

On a more serious note, there have have been so many in our area devastated by flooding with rivers cresting at record levels, affecting homes that would never have thought of carrying flood insurance, including several people in my office. It will be a long time before the lives of those affected by Matthew are restored and I hope all the readers on this forum are on their way to a full recovery!

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