Lessons Learned and Best Practices (hopefully)
Prior to storm, ensured FC was on high side using SWCG and LC. Also ensured pH was in low 7’s. CH, TA, CYA, SALT all set as before.
Set SWCG at 90% to create some added insurance as I knew would need to drain some water. Due to high heat conditions before the storm, the pool water evaporated and I let it go down to bottom of skimmer inlet and ensured main drain was full open. No sense adding water when the storm would bring plenty. There is no auto fill or auto drain on the pool.
Day of storm, Started about 3am. Just at daybreak the coping was starting to be over flowed (my rain gauge read 5 inches but my weather station reported over 6 inches). Still had power so weathered the storm and drained pool back down to skimmer inlet.
About 2.5 hrs later, as eye was passing over, pool had filled to almost the level of coping. So drained again. This was easier as virtually no wind and rain in the eye of the storm.
Did a quick test and chlorine level was still in range, but added 1 gal of LC plus 3 pucks in a floater as insurance knowing my CYA was dropping as well with the water draining.
Thought I had managed this well then at 11:20am the power went out. Did a quick test and FC level was definitely on high side but did not test CYA but knew that was lower then where I started the day before. I let the pool sit idle hoping power outage would be short duration.
Got busy packing Yeti ice chest with fridge stuff. I had purchased ice the day before so ready for use with the Yeti if needed.
Packed another with frozen foods. Stayed night with friends who had power.
Next day (1st day after storm), power still out, however Pinch A Penny was open - cash purchases only. Bought 5 gals of LC. I should have purchased this 2 days before the storm but forgot. Current levels all good so did not add any MA or LC. Hoping power to come on.
2nd day after storm - still no power - Put in some LC and also put in the Betta surface skimmer and the Aiper S1 bottom cleaner. I had charged both the day before the storm hit.
Ran both bots to clean what they could and also stir the water as added LC and acid throughout the day and doing spot checks of levels as I was scooping up big debris.
About 60 hrs of no power, the power returned. We are the fortunate ones as many to the east of us who had the brunt of the storm is still without power. Checked SWCG and turned it down as still plenty of chlorine.
3rd day after storm - had power so pump running and tests values were OK. Low CYA, Low CH and Low Salt as expected.
Ran bottom vacuum again (the Betta surface skimmer stays in pool full time) and added stabilizer to increase CYA. next will be CH and SALT adjustments. Also did a backwash on the DE filter just to remove any crud from the time pump was running during the storm.
Definitely no algae and the bots did a great job on the debris after I removed the large items.
www.troublefreepool.com
