Getting a pool from green to blue

I swear the pool looked fine 2 weeks ago! 

But last week, I noticed it getting greener and greener.  During the week, I did do a manual vacuum of the whole pool, but it didn’t make much difference.  I think when I manually vacuum, I tend to be impatient and do it too quickly which results in the particles churning back up into the water instead of being sucked through the filter.

So, on Saturday morning, I was faced with trying to recover a green murky pool.

Pool on Saturday

First I checked the whole filtration system.  Yep, the Klever Kleena hadn’t been doing its job.  It seems that it was stuck on the incline down to the bottom of the pool.  I cleaned out the filter baskets and did a backwash.  Checked the timer settings on the automatic filter and seems that it was set to run for only 4 hours a day – my winter setting.  I bumped it up to 7 hours a day.   OK – that bit done.    Unfortunately I didn’t take a “before” photo, but just picture the pool above BEFORE the cleaner went through it – gross!

My home water test kit seemed to think the levels were all fine, but I took a sample to my pool shop just in case and the guy said the same thing.  I bought a container of Chlorine to shock the pool anyway.  So in theory, any algae that’s floating around should be killed and then sink to the bottom of the pool, and then the Klever Kleena should suck it up.

So, back home, poured in the Chlorine, then turned on the filter to run for the rest of the day.

By Monday morning, the pool was starting to look better.

Pool on Monday morning

And this morning, it was looking much better.  Visibility was great, but there’s stil a bit of sediment at the bottom of the pool in sections – might need to do a manual vac.   Chemical levels still seem OK with chlorine on the high side.  

Now the challenge is for me to keep it this way so the kids can swim through summer!

Pool on Tuesday morning (today)

Swimming carnival

Oh how I was NOT into swimming carnivals when I was a kid. Actually, being a not sporty type, I didn’t like vacation swimming. I didn’t like swimming carnivals. I remember the nervousness, being half naked at the end of the lane ready to swim, thinking how far it is to the other end, the whole school watching…. I just didn’t like water when I was young. I blame it on an incident when I fell into a friend’s pool on a trike when I was too young to remember.

So our girls had their swimming carnival this week. A note came home confirming what events our kids would like to swim. They’re not really strong swimmers, but our 9.5yo had put down 50m backstroke, 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke. I thought to myself – OMG, can she even swim that far without stopping? So last weekend I brought them to Beatty Park… not really to train their stamina or speed.. but just to make sure they can swim the distance!

Last year wasn’t such a great year for my 9.5yo. She came nearly last in everything but it was ok – we encouraged her and it’s the taking part and being part of the team that matters right? Psychologically, it really isn’t that fun when you are always last. She just didn’t have the motivation to swim fast even though we said “Swim faster!”

Cheering friends on

Well this year was different. Maybe she’s more motivated… or we just kept hammering into her to try to swim faster, as if something was chasing you 🙂 Our 9.5yo’s first race was a 25m novelty noodle race. And she came second! Woohooo!! She was really excited and happy! But the best was when she came first in the 50m backstroke. When she finished, she looked around at the other lanes quickly to figure out what she had come, and the joy on her face was worth it all..

Winning joy

But the surprise was our 8yo who took part for the first time in the swimming carnival. Really only an optional thing for the Year 3’s, our 8yo daughter has a more sporty physique than our 9.5yo, and it showed – she just powered through the water and won 2 events! Thanks to her “man muscles” as she describes herself 🙂

Cold, but first!

In the end, we told the girls it’s all about participation…   but there’s no harm celebrating getting a place or win!

Nothing like swimming

So we pulled the kids all over Sydney and Melbourne during the holidays.  We didn’t really plan much kid oriented activities – just shopping and some sight seeing.  And did they get bored.  I think there’s only so many Melbourne arcades a kid can look at.  And it’s hard to motivate kids to walk somewhere when there isn’t an enjoyable end goal.  Nup, no museum, zoo, It’s a Small World ride…  I guess we could’ve done the Taronga and Melbourne Zoos or Luna Park, but us parents wanted to explore the shops and cafes that are unique to Sydney and Melbourne!

What brought the most joy on our trip?  The hotel pool.  An hour or so of splashing around in the hotel’s heated pool brought instant laughter, smiles and energy that definitely was missing when walking up and down Chapel or Smith Street.

I think our next holiday will have to be back to a South East Asian resort.  They definitely love those the best 🙂

Pool worries

By the pool

So we moved house and in the process, we’ve acquired a swimming pool.   When we told family and friends about the pool, we heard all sorts of mixed responses from “Wow! Cool – parties at your house in summer!” to “Good luck cleaning it!”.

The very first week we were here, the kids were overjoyed and so enthusiastic about the pool that they scooped up all the leaves, even going in up to their waists even though it was absolutely freezing in winter.  But that enthusiasm has waned, and as I had suspected all along, it was left to me to do the good old clean.

Coming back from our holidays, all the leaves in the pool had sunk to the bottom, the sides of the pool are looking a bit brown, and I feel that the Kreepy Krauly doesn’t seem to suck as much.  Time for some professional help 😦  Can’t wait till we can actually use it.

I’m considering getting it heated when we saved up enough money.  Is it worth it?