{
"title": "Treat Your Pool Before The Rain Hits",
"subheading": "Why this weekend is your best chance to keep your pool swim-ready through a full week of wet weather.",
"slug": "treat-pool-before-rain-raymond-terrace",
"intro": "The sun is out, the water is warm, and a week of rain is heading straight for Raymond Terrace. Here is exactly what to do this weekend before that window closes.",
"body": "Look, most pool owners in Raymond Terrace do it the hard way. They wait until the rain has already rolled through, the water has gone cloudy, and the kids are standing at the edge wondering why they cannot jump in. Then they spend a fortune on chemicals and three or four days trying to drag the water back to where it should be. It does not have to work like that. When you treat your pool before the rain arrives, you are working with your water, not against it. And right now, with warm clear conditions sitting over the Hunter region, you have got a genuinely brilliant window to get ahead of it.

Here is what rain actually does to your pool chemistry, because it is worth understanding before you grab the test kit. Rain is naturally acidic, and even a moderate downpour will push your pH down while simultaneously diluting your sanitiser levels. Every litre of rain that falls into your pool is a litre of untreated water that your chlorine now has to work harder to cover. Add overcast skies on top of that, and you lose the UV exposure that normally helps burn off organic contaminants. By the time next Friday's sun returns, an untreated pool can shift from perfectly balanced to genuinely problematic. Algae does not need much of an invitation, and a week of grey, diluted, low-sanitiser water is practically a welcome mat.

The good news is that two solid hours across Saturday and Sunday can change everything. Start Saturday morning with a full water test, ideally using a proper kit rather than just the strips. You want your pH sitting between 7.2 and 7.6, your total alkalinity between 80 and 120 parts per million, and your chlorine between 1 and 3 parts per million. If your pH is drifting high, bring it down with pH reducer before you do anything else, because shock treatment works significantly better in balanced water. High pH is one of the most common reasons shock does not do what people expect it to do.

Once your balance is dialled in, check your filter. Run your hand along the pressure gauge and make sure it is operating within its normal range. If it is running higher than usual, give your filter a backwash now, before the rain hits. A partially blocked filter during a wet week is not going to do your water any favours. After backwashing, run the filter for at least an hour before your next step.

Saturday afternoon is your shock treatment window, and timing here genuinely matters. Shock your pool in the late afternoon or early evening rather than the middle of the day. Chlorine-based shock is sensitive to UV light, and dosing it during peak sun means a significant portion breaks down before it can do its job. Late afternoon application lets it work through the night when the pump is running and the sun is not burning it off. Use a non-chlorine shock if you want to swim the following morning, or stick with a granular chlorine shock if you are happy to leave it overnight. Either way, run your filter continuously for at least eight hours after treatment.

Sunday morning is your follow-up check. Re-test your water, confirm your levels have held, and top up your chlorine if needed. If you have a saltwater pool, check that your cell is clean and your salt levels are sitting between 3,000 and 4,000 parts per million. Add a stabiliser dose if your cyanuric acid is below 30 parts per million, because that stabiliser is what protects your chlorine from UV degradation during any breaks in the cloud cover. A well-stabilised pool holds its chlorine significantly longer than an unstabilised one, and that matters when you are heading into a week where conditions are unpredictable.

What To Do Next

Here is your practical checklist to action this afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning before the rain arrives.

Saturday afternoon, start with a full water test. Check pH, total alkalinity, chlorine, and cyanuric acid. Adjust pH to between 7.2 and 7.6 first, then address alkalinity if it is outside the 80 to 120 parts per million range.

Backwash your filter if the pressure is elevated. Run it for at least an hour after backwashing before you move to the next step.

In the late afternoon, between 4pm and 6pm, dose your shock treatment. Follow the product label for your pool's volume in litres. Run your filter on continuous for a minimum of eight hours overnight.

Sunday morning, re-test your water. Top up chlorine if levels have dropped below 2 parts per million. If you have a saltwater system, check your cell for scale and confirm your salt reading.

Add a dose of algaecide as a preventative measure. This is not about

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