Rain scenario question

[DanaSC]

Rain can cause pH to change, right?

Here's my scenario. I just finished the shocking process on Monday. My FC level is still high so I haven't checked pH. We got some SERIOUS rain yesterday. I checked FC this morning and it was still above 10 - like 11.5, so I didn't check pH, but I was concerned about the effects the rain may have had on the pH. I decided to wait until tonight to check FC and see if I could do pH, but of course we had company and now I'm headed to bed. I'll check it in the morning.

My question is just how would you have handled the situation? My husband says tonight that he thinks he saw some algae in the spa (hoping he's wrong as we just finished the shock process!). I'm wondering if after a rain like we had if I should have just brought FC up to shock levels just to be on the "safe" side of things.

What do you recommend?

 

[woodyp]

Never a bad idea to pump up FC a little before you know a big rain is coming. No reason for shock level though. I got sneak attacked by a big wind/little rain at 5 this morning. Some things you just can't plan for!

 

[Bama Rambler]

I never notice a change in pH after a rain but your area may be different. At a FC of 11.5 with the TF-100 the pH wouldn't be off very much and you can test it if you'd like.

Did you run the water through the spa during the shock process?

 

[DanaSC]

My pH was last at 7.5 (on 5.24) and today it was at 8.0. TA went from 100 on the 24th to 90 today. We did run the spa during the shock process...basically the spa is always running when we have our pump on. I did post a question in one of my other posts regarding how to tell if the returns in the spa are working efficiently. Here's what I asked:

We are concerned that we're seeing slight algae in our spa maybe due to poor water circulation in there. It has a spillover feature into the pool and that is running just fine, but is it possible that the returns in the spa may not be pushing water very well? Just wondering if there's anything there we should be concerned about.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Float something in the areas you suspect and see if it moves out relatively fast and if it does then the circulation should be fine. Are you keeping the FC above the minimum level for your CYA all the time?

 

[DanaSC]

Thanks Dave. We are keeping FC above minimum. I'll make sure I continue to do that.

 

[LisaM]

In my area the rain drops my PH like a rock. PH can be a perfect 7.6 a good rain comes through and 6.8 it will be when its done. Its extremely frustrating because if you know Cleveland at all you know it rains A LOT!!! +

 

[DanaSC]

So yours drops...mine went up...is that weird? I really don't know much about the effects of rain on pH. But at least I feel better that I'm not alone that it did mess with my pH...SC gets a lot of rain too...and I haven't been doing BBB long enough to know what my trend is.