How to Care for Pools after Heavy Rains

Rain, rain, go away…so the children’s song goes. In honor of the heavy rains in our area, we’ve put together a few care tips for your pool.
Heavy rains inundate the pool with debris that can cause cloudy pools are act as a food source for algae.  It’s important to chemically treat the pool to prevent little problems from becoming big ones.
Tips
1)    If the pool’s water level is too high, up to or over the skimmer opening, run sand filter on “waste” until the water is at least 1 inch from the top of the skimmer opening.  The water will be discharging out your pool’s backwash hose, make sure to have the hose completely un-rolled and pointed to an area that you want to discharge a couple hundred gallons of water.  If there is debris in the pool vacuuming to waste it a great way to clean the pool and lower the water level at the same time.
2)    Test the pool water’s pH, Total Alkalinity and Calcium Hardness or take about a pint of pool water to Pettis Pools for a computerized water analysis. Make adjustments as needed.
3)    Chlorine Pools will need to be shocked with a chlorine based shock like Turbo Shock. One bag per 10,000 gallons.
4)    Pools with a salt chlorine generator should  make sure the salt level is in range and then “boost” the pool.
5)    Baquacil pools should add the weekly dose of Oxidizer followed by the week dose of CDX. Make sure to top up the sanitizer if necessary.
If you have further questions, don’t hesitate to call or stop in either one of our Pettis Pools & Patio locations—helping you is what we’re here for!