Rainwater can make your swimming pool cloudy in a hurry. We just had a big storm today due to a “tropical depression” here in the North Texas area and have a number of swimming pools that were flooded in Flower Mound, TX.
Get your water to a proper level.
I would first suggest that you make sure you drain off any additional water in your swimming pool to bring the water level back down to the center of the tile or skimmer throat. Note: If you have a working swimming pool overflow line then this won’t be necessary.
Ensure you have good circulation and filtration.
Also be sure to check your circulatory system and make sure that the water is flowing smoothly through your equipment and back to your swimming pool. This means having clean skimmer baskets and that your filter pump basket is not blocked with debris. Also check your filter pressure to make sure it is not higher than normal. If it is you will want to backwash it and add DE if necessary.
Test your Chlorine and pH.
Once all your equipment is in good working order you will want to test your chemicals. The key chemical item that might be moved significantly out of line is the pH. It is important that the pH be close to 7.4 or 7.5 to ensure that your chlorine is effective and has not “fallen asleep”. pH of rainwater could be 8.0 or higher. A pH of 8.0 will render 90% of your free chlorine useless at fighting algae and clearing the pool water. If your pH is high you will need to add acid to lower the pH and “wake up” your chlorine. Also make sure you have enough free chlorine working in the water. I would suggest 2-4 ppm minimum. If the swimming pool water is really cloudy you may need to shock or super chlorinate to “zap” or oxidize the algae starting to form in the water.
Note: You will need to have your TA between 80-120 for your pH to be stabilized.
Leave your equipment running.
Once you have good circulation, filtration, and chemistry in place you should be able to clear your pool water with your equipment assuming the equipment is working properly and your pool water has not been cloudy for too long.
It is important to note that the time for your filter to clear the water will depend significantly on the type of filter that you have.
DE Filter: If you have a DE filter it could be a matter of hours (1-4 micron filtration).
Cartridge Filter: If you have a cartridge filter it could be a couple of days (12-18 micron filtration).
Sand Filter: If you have a sand filter it can be several more days (20-30 micron filtration). A cartridge or DE filter that clears slowly is often overdue for a teardown; see our filter cleaning service.
