Right now, this Sunday afternoon, the sky over Raymond Terrace is clear, the temperature is sitting at a comfortable 15°C, and your pool is giving you one last chance before the week goes sideways.

Right now, this Sunday afternoon, the sky over Raymond Terrace is clear, the temperature is sitting at a comfortable 15°C, and your pool is giving you one last chance before the week goes sideways. From Monday morning, the Bureau is forecasting an 82 per cent chance of heavy drizzle rolling in, and it does not stop there. Seven straight days of rain, cloud cover and overcast skies are sitting on the forecast like a wet blanket. If your pool chemistry is not locked in before that rain arrives, you are looking at a genuinely difficult situation by next weekend.

Here is what most people do not realise. Rain is not just water falling into your pool. It is dilution. It is runoff carrying dirt, debris, organic matter and contaminants straight into your water. It strips out your chlorine, knocks your pH off balance, drops your alkalinity and leaves your stabiliser too low to do its job. On top of all that, seven days of overcast skies means UV exposure is almost completely blocked. UV is what helps break down chlorine-consuming compounds. Without it, your sanitiser burns through faster, your water has nowhere to recover, and algae finds exactly the conditions it has been waiting for.

So here is how to use this afternoon well. Start with a proper four-point chemical check: pH, free chlorine, total alkalinity and cyanuric acid, which is your stabiliser. Your pH should be sitting between 7.2 and 7.6. If it is creeping above 7.8, your chlorine becomes significantly less effective, even if the reading looks fine on the test strip. Free chlorine should be between 2 and 4 parts per million going into a wet week, ideally towards the higher end of that range because you are going to lose some of it fast once the rain starts. Total alkalinity should be between 80 and 120 parts per million. Alkalinity is your buffer. It is what stops your pH from swinging wildly every time conditions change, and conditions are about to change a lot. Stabiliser, or cyanuric acid, should sit between 30 and 50 parts per million. In a week with almost no UV, it matters less for sun protection and more for holding your chlorine in the water long enough to do its job.

If any of those readings are out, adjust now. Do not assume the pool will be fine and deal with it next Sunday. By next Sunday, you could be looking at green or cloudy water, a sharp algae bloom, or a pool that needs a full shock treatment and several days of recovery before anyone can swim in it again. A week of wet, warm, overcast conditions with unbalanced chemistry is genuinely one of the most reliable ways to lose control of a pool. Algae can take hold within 24 to 48 hours when conditions are right, and a full week of rain with no UV window and diluted chlorine is about as right as those conditions get. Getting the water balanced this afternoon, and adding a slightly higher chlorine dose as a buffer, is not overcautious. It is just sensible.

What To Do Next

If you have your test kit out and the readings are all where they need to be, good. Adjust what needs adjusting, top up your chlorine a little higher than usual, and you are giving your pool the best possible chance of coming through the week in reasonable shape.

But if your test kit is somewhere in the shed and you are not completely sure of the last time you ran a proper check, or if the readings you are seeing are out and you are not confident about how to bring them back into balance, then this is the afternoon to make a call rather than guess at it.

Poolside Coastline services the Raymond Terrace area and we are available for same-day service visits today. We can come to you, run a full four-point chemical check, adjust whatever needs adjusting, and make sure your pool is properly protected before Monday's rain arrives. If a full service visit does not suit, we can also arrange a chemical drop-off so you have exactly what you need on hand to treat the water yourself this afternoon.

The honest reality is that the next realistic treatment window after today is next weekend. You can top up chemicals during the week if you need to, but doing a proper rebalance in the middle of seven days of rain and overcast is harder, less effective and more expensive in product than doing it right once before the weather closes in.

A pool left untreated through a week like the one coming is not just inconvenient. It is a cost. Green water needs shock doses, clarifiers, sometimes an algaecide, and several days of filtering before it clears. In some cases it needs a professional clean before the chemistry will even hold. All of that is avoidable if the water is balanced today.

Get in touch with Poolside Coastline right now. Call us, send a message, or book directly through our website. We will sort out a same-day visit or get a chemical drop-off organised for you this afternoon. Do not leave it sitting until the rain is already here. Today is the window, and it is a good one.

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