Matt Hudson 
Key takeaway: The average Australian backyard pool holds around 48,000 litres, roughly 50 times smaller than an Olympic pool’s 2,500,000 litres. Work out your own pool’s volume with length × … Read more
Pool party ideas for kids and adults: themes, games by age, food timing and the supervision rules most guides leave out.
Key takeaway: Every Australian state and territory requires a pool safety barrier at least 1200mm (1.2m) high, measured from finished ground level. That part is consistent nationally. What differs by … Read more
Key takeaway: Five numbers run every backyard pool: pH 7.2 to 7.6, total alkalinity 80 to 120 ppm, calcium hardness 200 to 400 ppm for concrete or tiled pools (100 … Read more
Key takeaway: Cloudy pool water almost always comes down to one of two things: sanitiser that can’t keep up with what’s in the water, or a filter that can’t catch … Read more
Total alkalinity should sit between 80 and 120 ppm. Here’s how to raise it or lower it correctly, with real AU dosing and the mistakes that overshoot it.
Key takeaway: Raising a pool’s salt level by 1,000 ppm takes 1 kilogram of pool salt per 1,000 litres of water. But the target you’re dosing to depends on your … Read more
Key takeaway: shocking means temporarily pushing free chlorine to roughly 10x your combined-chlorine reading — about 5–10 ppm for routine upkeep, 20–30 ppm for a genuine algae bloom — to … Read more
Key takeaway: a green pool means your sanitiser lost the fight against algae — almost always low chlorine, high pH, or both, with poor circulation piling on. Fix pH first … Read more
Raising pool pH the wrong way swings it too high. Here’s the AU-dosed soda ash method, the maths behind it, and the mistakes that cause overshoot.