Testing after tropical storm Imelda

[Jbrillo]

First off, we were fortunate to not get hit with the worst parts of the storm. East and northeast of Houston were hit the worst. Some to the east received more flooding and damage than during Harvey. I pray for all those affected.

Prior to the storm, this what the water looked like:
pH 7.8
FC 7
CH 275
TA 80
CYA 70
Salt 3100(from SWG)

Afterwards:
pH 8.2(not reliable since FC >10) Retested the next day when FC dropped and it was 7.5
FC 10.5(No sunlight for two days and I guess I don’t lose a lot of FC)
CH 225
TA 70
CYA 50
Salt 2500(from SWG)

Since I don’t have an overflow drain, I have to switch a valve to drain it. I personally drained off at least 10-inches of water plus however much overflowed during the night. It’s not surprising that almost everything dropped. I was initially shocked to see my FC higher than normal, but the not getting sunlight for two days made sense. My pH being 8.2 was unreliable since my FC was >10. The next day I retested my pH when my FC dropped and I was kinda surprised to see it 7.5. It was 7.8 before the storm. I don’t know what the pH of rain water is, but I’m guessing it’s less than 7.8.

The lesson I learned from all this is to buy the chemicals you’ll need to replace what you’ve lost before a storm hits. I had to go to three different stores to get calcium hardener, CYA, and salt.
It could’ve been two stores but I was hesitant to buy pool salt that didn’t have its purity percentage listed on the package or online. I attribute the lack of supplies due to stores carrying less because summer is over and because everybody around here that has a pool(there are a ton) had to replace their chemicals.

I didn’t have a pool yet during Harvey, but we had 48-inches of rain where I live. That would’ve been like completely refilling my pool! I can’t even imagine that.

 

[ajw22]

I always keep some CYA and salt in inventory. They are stable and can last years unlike liquid chlorine.

 

[ncbart]

First off, we were fortunate to not get hit with the worst parts of the storm. East and northeast of Houston were hit the worst. Some to the east received more flooding and damage than during Harvey. I pray for all those affected.

Prior to the storm, this what the water looked like:
pH 7.8
FC 7
CH 275
TA 80
CYA 70
Salt 3100(from SWG)

Afterwards:
pH 8.2(not reliable since FC >10) Retested the next day when FC dropped and it was 7.5
FC 10.5(No sunlight for two days and I guess I don’t lose a lot of FC)
CH 225
TA 70
CYA 50
Salt 2500(from SWG)

Since I don’t have an overflow drain, I have to switch a valve to drain it. I personally drained off at least 10-inches of water plus however much overflowed during the night. It’s not surprising that almost everything dropped. I was initially shocked to see my FC higher than normal, but the not getting sunlight for two days made sense. My pH being 8.2 was unreliable since my FC was >10. The next day I retested my pH when my FC dropped and I was kinda surprised to see it 7.5. It was 7.8 before the storm. I don’t know what the pH of rain water is, but I’m guessing it’s less than 7.8.

The lesson I learned from all this is to buy the chemicals you’ll need to replace what you’ve lost before a storm hits. I had to go to three different stores to get calcium hardener, CYA, and salt.
It could’ve been two stores but I was hesitant to buy pool salt that didn’t have its purity percentage listed on the package or online. I attribute the lack of supplies due to stores carrying less because summer is over and because everybody around here that has a pool(there are a ton) had to replace their chemicals.

I didn’t have a pool yet during Harvey, but we had 48-inches of rain where I live. That would’ve been like completely refilling my pool! I can’t even imagine that.

I'll chime in here and add that I live northeast of Houston, just north of Kingwood. Besides the Beaumont area, we were probably the hardest hit. We didn't take on water, but the water came up halfway our yard. We got hit with 20 inches of rain on Thursday morning in the span of about 5 hours. I drained the pool about 4 inches below the coping at 7am, and at 8am, my wife called to tell me it was overflowing. That's well over 4 inches of rain per hour! We tried draining it, but it was filling up as quickly as it was drained, so we literally had it draining for 4 hours.

After the storm, my CH went from 600 to 350. I would approximate with the CH almost halved and the 20 inches I know we got, I wouldn't be surprised if at least 1/4 of my total pool volume was replaced. My pH was also surprisingly on the lower end, so I'd support the idea the rain was slightly acidic. The TA almost completely disappeared, measured at about 20ppm.