What to check after heavy rain

After Heavy Rain…What to Check for in Your Swimming Pool

Here in Australia, it can rain for days or even weeks so now seems like the perfect time to talk about what to do to your pool after you have had heavy rain in your area.

Light rainfall or minor showers usually don’t have too much of an impact on your pool, however we still recommend checking your pool water chemistry either way. After heavy rains though, do yourself a favour and take a little time to correct any imbalance levels.

You might already know, and otherwise it won’t surprise you, rain can sometimes have a major effect on your pool water chemistry. Not only can the heavy rain dilute your pool water, rainwater is usually alkaline (and can even be acidic at times) which would have an effect on the pH level of your pool water.

To make sure your pool bounces back perfectly after (heavy) rainfall we have a five step guide that we recommend following:

Step 1: Clean your pool

If you have had heavy rainfall this could have been combined with winds or storms which might have blown debris and dirt in your pool. The first step is to get rid of the debris in your pool so your Bionizer (or other sanitiser), filtering and pumping system’s performance won’t be affected by this.

Check out this blog post for tips and tricks on pool maintenance and cleaning.

Step 2: Check your water level

The rain has likely caused the level of the pool water to raise. If needed, you can drain your pool by activating your filter’s ‘backwash’ setting until the pool water has reached the desired level. We recommend doing this before testing your pool water.

Step 3: Check for phosphates

Rain brings phosphates to your pool, which is food for algae. In order to prevent algae attacks, you will have to remove the phosphates. You can simply do that by adding a phosphate remover to the pool water. We recommend using our effective and super concentrated Bionizer PFP that will quickly and safely rid your pool of phosphates.

Step 4: Test the pH and total alkalinity levels in your pool water

In case of alkaline/acidic rainfall, the pH level and especially the total alkalinity level in your pool will have changed. Make sure to balance your pH and total alkalinity levels according to your pool balance snap chart before continuing to the next step.

Do you have Bionizer’s pH controller ‘pH Boss’ to monitor and balance your pH level? You will still need to test the levels and likely add some buffer or sodium bicarbonate to aid with the total alkalinity levels. With a pH Boss, however, maintaining the pH levels at the right setting will be automatically taken care of.

What about the calcium levels?
Your calcium levels shouldn’t have been affected much because of the rain. If you haven’t tested your calcium levels recently, we recommend doing it now that you are balancing your pool water anyway. Low calcium level can result in a lower copper reading than the actual copper level. It is better to be sure about your readings before adjusting the copper levels to prevent over-ionising your pool.

Step 5: Test the copper levels (or other sanitiser levels)

Now that you have balanced your pH and total alkalinity levels, it is important to check the copper ion level (or chlorine or other sanitiser levels) in your pool.

Rain often brings contaminants to your water, not just from the rain itself, but also from runoff from your pool deck or surroundings. The copper ions in your pool will work hard to get rid of these contaminants that have been introduced to your pool during rainfall or possible storms. This will probably have caused your copper levels, or any other sanitiser levels, to drop.

What to do when copper levels are down?
Are your copper levels down? Enter the measured copper level to activate the boost function on your Bionizer to increase the copper level to the desired level (page 18 of your Bionizer instructions).

Optional step 6: Oxidise the pool water

Does your pool water still look a little bit hazy or cloudy? We recommend oxidising your pool water to get rid of the hazy look. There are several methods to oxidise your pool water. The cheapest way of oxidising is adding a cup of chlorine for every 10,000 litres of pool water. Chlorine free solutions such as Potassium Monopersulphate and Hydrogen Peroxide are also very suitable. Use as per instructions on the packaging. Add the oxidiser of choice to your pool late in the day and run your pool pump for several hours. Your water should be sparkling the next morning.

Or for a potent and hands free solution, consider an Eco-Oxidizer for your pool to keep your pool water sparkling and free of contaminants that make your pool look hazy.

Do you have a chlorine pool? Instead of oxidising your pool water, shock your pool to get rid of chloramines in your pool.

After the rain, back to swimming

Now that you have brought your pool balance back to the correct levels you can go back to swimming in your nice pool. If you have followed the steps as mentioned above you won’t have any rain fall related troubles such as algae attacks or cloudy pool water.

Enjoy your pool!