As I mentioned on Friday in my post How to Surf: A Quick Guide to Riding the Waves, Elizabeth is sure to be wanting to go into the swimming pool sometime soon.
That sometime soon happened on Saturday, just one day after my prediction. A friend came round to play and at about 1:30 in the afternoon, they both excitedly asked if they could go in the pool. Well, the temperature was nudging 28°C.
No need for me to tell you what the answer was.
As you can see from the pictures above, the pool has been in better shape, like this…
… And every year, when winter is over, it’s time to rebalance the water. That’s a pretty straightforward thing to do.
Testing your pool water
- Collect a small sample of pool water in a bottle and take it down to the local pool shop.
- Wait while the local pool man in the local pool shop tests your water.
- Listen intently while the local pool man in the local pool shop explains what you need to put into your pool.
- Hand money over to local pool man in the local pool shop.
- Return home and put stuff suggested by and purchased from local pool man in the local pool shop into your pool.
In my case, I handed over $51 for 3 kg of stabiliser and a Focus Pool Sparkler to place in my skimmer box to help to make the water crystal clear again. The stabiliser is, I’m told, to prevent the sun from burning off the chlorine in my pool.
Other stuff that is most commonly suggested to put into your pool is salt, chlorine and hydrochloric acid.
My swimming pool isn’t exactly crystal clear yet, but it is getting clearer by the day. I turned up the chlorine production by running the chlorinator for longer and I have also now removed the barracuda; that’s the squiggly blue tubes with the vacuum like device attached to the end.
I’m just wondering if the water might not be filtered better without it attached. Time will tell on that one.
Swimming pools are great source of fun, especially for the kids. If you’re wondering whether to have one or not, and need more information about the costs of running one, or if you are interested in some additional swimming pool statistics, check out my post called Swimming Pools in Australia.
On that same post you will also see that my pool has been in much worse shape, and how to fix it, by watching my video “When Swimming Pools Turn Green”.
And no, as I did explain on Friday, you can’t go surfing in a swimming pool, but you won’t get attacked by a shark in one either.
Hi Bob,
I realise this is an old post but it seemed like the right place to ask this question. Does having a pool create a problem with mozzies?
Martin
No, it doesn’t cause any problem whatsoever. It’s probably the stench of chlorine that puts the mozzies off, but I’m sure the pool pump that filters the water for six hours a day is a bit off putting for them as well. They prefer stagnant water.
And we prefer them to stay out of our swimming pools, so all is good.
Yey, I’m here!
I’m staying with my uncle in the Gold Coast at the minute, and it’s so beautiful and very family orientated! I’m going for a bike ride tomorrow so will hopefully get to see a lot more (:
I’m not suffering from jet lag as much as I thought I’d be? But I guess that’s a good thing! The only thing I’ll probably have to get used to is the lingo, been here less than a day and I have had to ask what many words mean!
But first impressions so far are great, seen no spiders or nasty things yet either 😛
Well, I can’t believe you haven’t seen any spiders yet, you’ve been here almost a day! Just kidding.
Not too bad here is it, and I see you’ve already picked up on the lingo, all true Australian words end with an ‘o’, and no proper Australian would ever bother with the word as long as language. See, you’re like a native already 🙂
Enjoy your bike ride!
Hi Bob!
Guess where I am? In transit at Hong Kong airport waiting for my flight to Brisbane!
Thank you so much for all your useful blogs and information that have helped and encouraged me to move (: Even from when I first emailed you, you were more than happy to help me and put my mind at rest about the move.
I can’t wait to actually see some sunshine! The English weather recently has been horrible!
Thanks again! Kayleigh
Hi Kayleigh
Congratulations! You’ve probably arrived at Brisbane by now, I hope you get to love this city as much as I do. I also hope this country lives up to everything I’ve said about it, otherwise you might be sending me different kinds of emails 🙂
Do let us all know what you think of it here and how easy or hard it has been for you to adjust. But of course, do settle in first.
Cheers
Bob