Natural Swimming Pool

Check this out, it is amazing!! http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/12/how-to-build-a-diy-natural-swimming-pool.php This guy made a natural swimming pool for his family and it is incredibly beautiful, and healthy for swimmers and wildlife. It is AWESOME!

I love natural swimming pools!  But a lot of people might be creeped out by "swimming with the fishes"! 

for 40 years we have had ponds available to swim in..my son learned to swim in a pond

Brenda Groth wrote:
for 40 years we have had ponds available to swim in..my son learned to swim in a pond

If you haven't looked at the web site, you should.  There is alot of difference between a normal farm pond and a natural swimming pool.  They stay warmer and should not be muddy.

Most farm ponds, at least here in my locale, are kind of gross slimey places.    Not like that beautiful clean clear water!

great idea,

not exactly natural but good integration and might just work here

What is "natural" exactly? 

Maybe "natural" could loosely be translated here as "healthy"?

I  believe that the "natural" refers to the natural filtering of the water to clean it as opposed to using chemicals to poison the water.  The plants, gravel, and sand filter out the little particles of algae.  The plants use up the nutrients that algae uses to grow.

I am planning on building one, hopefully this summer.

Is the pool a little elevated to avoid contamination or disturbance from surface run-off?

I don't really know, I would think that a plant barrier would keep out most solids.  And I would rather have rain water filling the pool instead of paying to pump water in.  The swimming area will be higher than the rest of the pool to avoid swimming with the fishes and water moccasins.

Sure would be nice on a hot summer's afternoon.  Siesta time!

Shawn Bell wrote:
The swimming area will be higher than the rest of the pool to avoid swimming with the fishes and water moccasins.

If you have water moccasins, they will probably get in there unless there is quite a high barrier, which wouldn't work with the natural filtration concept, probably. 

I watched your video and I don't see how this is so much different than my pond other than I don't have something separated by wooden frame for swimming..

I have oxygenating plants growing in my pond to keep the water clear, fish to keep the mosquitos eaten, water lilies and lotus and marginal and in the ground plants as well as floating plants for my pond..

I have used solar circulators in the past as well as solar water fountains in the pond and have some different systems coming for this year, but the water stays perfectly clean with out them..I have no algae build up or problems like that in my pond.

I do leave the edges really wild, as the fish spawn does better with some wild edges including decaying bits of things..naturally ...on the edges like the dead cattail leaves and stuff, the critters eat those.

sure their pool is nice, but I'd rather have my pond.

I think the main advantage of the natural swimming pool is that it can be quite small compared to a pond.  Otherwise there probably isn't a whole lot of difference except the shape, where the swimming pool has vertical sides, most ponds have sloping sides.

Ponds are great if you have one.  If you don't then you can build one and have a natural swimming pool as a main feature of it.

Also if you just want a dedicated swimming hole, you can build more to suit that function.

Here is a picture of one I like.

I think it is the possibility of swimming without having to walk through squishy mud that is the appeal of the natural swimming pool - to me at least! 

Also, probably a lot fewer leeches.

the ones in the video were made with a liner and either blocks or wood to frame it out..

if you are walking around on the liner you are likely to tear it..sure it isn't squshy mud but it won't last very long being walked on, some of the pools are made with cement..or framed in wood and lined..can't see how that is much different than a swimming pool with a planting bed for marginals around the outside..can't say that is really Natural swimming..

it is a swimming POOL..with plants around the outside.

and really fairly costly to build

Brenda Groth wrote:
the ones in the video were made with a liner and either blocks or wood to frame it out..

if you are walking around on the liner you are likely to tear it..sure it isn't squshy mud but it won't last very long being walked on,

Good point. 

If you have access to old carpeting (especially indoor/outdoor), put it in, first layer nap side up, then liner, then another layer of carpeting, nap side down.  You now have the liner sandwiched between two cushions.  Tear resistant.

The big question in the complexity with which you make it, and its final appearance, will be whether the tax accessor will look at it as a pond, or a swimming pool.  That could have a major impact on how much property tax you will need to pay next year.

Now in Florida I have fought with algee in my swimming pool 20,000 gallons of chemical war fare. I am sick and tired of it. I am really looking for options for the one I have now to make as a adult type pool to enjoy and swim with fishes! I wonder if any of these will work for me? Because I am close to turning this hole in the ground into a garden!!

Above ground pools and many in ground pools have liners, and people walk on those all the time.  I am inclined to think that a pond liner would be made even tougher.  I would like to have a swimming pool.  But since I don't want one that is full of chemicals, then I need one that is filtered using natural elements like plants and sand and gravel.  I suppose a better "title" for this type of pool would be "more natural swimming pool" or "naturally filtered swimming pool".

Here is a non-chemical way to control algae:

http://www.howeseeds.com/specialitygrains.htm

Freshwater clams are supposed to be especially good at clearing the water.  One clam cleans 10-20 gallons of water, so you can imagine with a swimming-sized pool you would need a lot of clams! 

i didn't mean to sound negative, however, the photos and video seems to be more of a regular swimming pool with a planter around the outside edges..and very costly to build..and maintain, even with natural filtering.

if you have the money to put into it and maintain it that is one thing but if you haven't you can swim in a well maintained pond which will save you thousands of $.

my sister put in a pond with a liner several years ago and she is removing it this year..she hates the maintenence involved with a liner pool..but she lives on top of a gravel lode so she can't put in a regular clay pond.

she tried, and she has done it for about 10 years..but is ready to give up.

I don't do ANY maintenance to my in ground pond, I let the plants and animals do all the work, as I said I had a solar filtration and fountain ssystem, but the tend to break down faster than the electric ones, ..unless you buy the very expensive ones, and they do require maintainence also.

my solar ones barely lasted a year..so good luck with that.

also if you live in an area of very little sun as I do, they only work part of the time, when the sun is really out..here they wouldn't work for several months out of the year..as we can go for weeks at a time with no sun...or very little sun..also they don't work at night.

i count on my oxygenating plants, fish and critters to keep my water clean.

The video is great though. It shows you there is many a different way in which this could work. I could keep my pump running for the airration and use it to circulate the water. And DE is natural but not sure if it is renewable. So many different ideas pop in my head from this mans creation. But in Florida with all the heat I wonder if it would ever be swimmable? There is a algee that has killed kids here. Kinda scarey! Would be a whole scientific process.

ecopepper wrote:
But in Florida with all the heat I wonder if it would ever be swimmable?

I think it would be, if you were able to get the plants and other life balanced in there, and have sufficient aeration with a pump or with plenty of oxygenating plants. People are able to raise healthy fish and plants in aquaponics systems, I think one could do the same with this kind of swimming pool.  You could even combine swimming and aquaponics, if you don't mind swimming with the fishes. 

P.S.:  No spear fishing allowed if you have a plastic liner.  LOL

I can't help thinking about a bussiness opportunity. A waterpark, complete with waterslides and everything. Wouldn't that just be the mother of all waterparks?

Oh totally:)

I think there are some fish that nibble on your feet. And they use them for pedicures! Two in one deal! Everyone would have soft feet too.

ecopepper wrote:
I think there are some fish that nibble on your feet. And they use them for pedicures! Two in one deal! Everyone would have soft feet too.

Totally soft nibbled bodies. 

Set up a Sushi Bar, so you can nibble on fish while the fish nibble on you.

LMAO!!! Love it! I could charge a fee!

ecopepper wrote:


LMAO!!! Love it! I could charge a fee!

You could call it the "Circle of Life Spa" 

I am already labeled as a tree hugger! LOL

We have natural swimming pools. We swim with the fishies. For years ours consisted of a  12' diameter 1,800 gallon kid's pool (plastic liner, fiberglass wall, pump) that I picked up on sale in the fall for $29. I never chlorinated it - just used dihydrogen monoxide in it. Completely safe unless inhaled.

To heat the natural pool we had a coil of 1" black water pipe that went from the pump up onto a shed roof. This greatly extended our swimming season.

See photos at:

http://flashweb.com/blog/2007/06/hot-cool-natural-pool.html

Now our swimming is in our upper pond which is also the water storage for our farm livestock during the dry season. There are fish in that one too.

See:

http://images.google.com/images?q=site:flashweb.com+upper%20pond

which includes construction photos. It isn't very big and if (when) I do another I'll make it bigger. We actually have a whole series of ponds. That one the livestock can't get to but they are allowed to use some of the other ponds. Pigs look like hippos in the summer in their pig ponds.

The full DIY article appeared in Permaculture magazine, no. 66 for those interested in the how-to.