When heavy rain hits, your swimming pool can fill up quickly and overflow, creating further issues. Rainwater can also introduce algae, dirt, and debris, throwing off your pool's chemical balance and making it murky. If you DON’T HAVE MUD in your pool, to keep your pool sparkling clean, here are our top 5 tips:
Lower the water level: When there is a lot of rain forecast, we suggest lowering the water level to halfway up the skimmer box opening to ensure it doesn’t overflow.
Clean the debris: Skim out leaves, twigs, and other floating material. Empty your skimmer and pump baskets to prevent them from clogging.
Clear away debris from equipment and drains: Removing built-up debris from around your pool pump, heaters, as well as drains will allow rain water to escape freely.
Pack up loose items: cleaning equipment: Remove loose items from around the pool area, such as umbrellas, toys, chairs, etc, so they don't end up in the pool.
Run the pump: Keep your pool filter running for as per normal hours to circulate & filter the water, UNLESS large amounts of debris/dirt enter the pool.
AFTER THE RAIN
Adjust the chemical levels: Depending on your test results, you may need to add chlorine, shock the pool, or adjust the pH and alkalinity.
By following these quick initial steps, you can help your pool weather the storm and stay swim-ready.
Read the extended instructions and download your own factsheets.
LOWER YOUR POOL WATER LEVEL
A lot of the fresh rainwater will sit on the top of the pool water so ideally when you lower your water level, you send that ‘fresh water’ to waste by disconnecting a suction cleaner (which sits on the bottom of the pool). By lowering the water level to halfway up the skimmer box, this will also allow for proper skimming of the pool surface of any debris.
If your filter has a multiport valve, lower your pool water level to prevent overflowing by following these steps:
Turn off the pump,
Change the filter multiport valve handle from "filter" onto "waste" (not backwash),
Open any valves on the waste line,
Disconnect suction cleaner & remove vacuum plate from skimmer box,
Then turn the pump back on to lower the water level,
Wait until the water level is halfway down the skimmer box opening then
Turn the pump off,
Return the multiport valve handle to "filter",
Reconnect the vacuum plate and suction cleaner and
Turn the pump back on (or set time to auto).
*If you have a large amount of dirt in the water and the pool requires floccing, DO NOT lower your water level, you will need all the water to vacuum to waste.
Click to download the factsheet
CLOUDY POOL
Cloudy pool water is usually a relatively easy fix and is generally caused by one of only a few things.
Use a clarifier and your filter to remove the fine particles from the water. This is typically the choice for pools with slightly cloudy water when you can see the bottom of the pool.
A product like Miraclear Liquid Pool Clarifier is 20% stronger than some other brands which is why it can clear your water much faster. Simply balance your pool water and add the required dose of Miraclear Clarifier, then let your pool filter run continuously for at least 24 hours or until clear.
For further instructions to help clear cloudy water, use our guide below.
A pool after a clarifier used to clear.
GREEN POOL
The solution is to make sure that the rate at which the algae in your pool are being killed is faster than the rate at which they are reproducing.
This means raising the sanitiser (chlorine) level up, much higher than the ideal range, balancing the pH level, adding an appropriate algaecide, clarifier, and oxidiser.
By adding these chemicals and running the filtration system for a minimum of 24 hours, should return the pool to crystal clear again.
BROWN POOL
With very heavy rains, runoff from gardens and surrounding areas of the pool can add large amounts of dirt, garden soil, and even mud into a pool.
This will turn the pool into a messy brown soup with the inability to filter out.
This is where a floccing agent is used to bind the suspended particles together and drop them to the floor of the pool to make it easier to remove by vacuuming directly to waste.
See how one of our clients tackled a brown pool cleanup.
They came in for advice & the right chemicals, then used our pool floc treatment guide to do it themselves. From start to finish this process took almost 5 days.
Request help cleaning up your muddy pool after Cyclone Alfred
Please note that we will try to accommodate all requests as soon as we can. This form is for SEVERELY flood affected pools only - any rebalancing or minor clean ups can be booked via our regular service request form HERE.
