New natural pool with infinity portion.

[earthship]

wonderful forum. new here.
question:
* going to use the auto levolor K2300 unit that works on two separate pools. one will be the main swimming pool and the other will be for the catch-basin/overflow area after the infinity fall... My questions is, does the levolor hook up to one good 3hp pump? or am I looking at one pump for each 'pool'? I also have the 3HP pentair intelliflo.

or do we need more pumps?

note: the catch basin CAN overflow into the landscape... to trees, etc.


thank you!

 

[earthship]

ps: we are building now, so advice is highly appreciated.

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!

Can you be more specific on how you are intending to build this pool and keep it sanitized?

This forum is devoted to teaching the tfp method of pool care which generally involves the use of chlorine to maintain the safe clear water.

We do not recommend or teach how to maintain so-called "Natural Pools" as they generally cannot be guaranteed to be pathogen free and safe.

 

[Bama Rambler]

going to use the auto levolor K2300 unit that works on two separate pools. one will be the main swimming pool and the other will be for the catch-basin/overflow area after the infinity fall... My questions is, does the levolor hook up to one good 3hp pump? or am I looking at one pump for each 'pool'?

The Levolor doesn't connect to the filter/circulation pump as a rule. It normally connects to a pressurized water source (i.e. city water) and opens a solenoid as needed to maintain the pool(s) level.

Unless you're planning on using a pump to pump water from a reservoir into either of the 'pools' you won't hook the Levolor to a pump. Even if you're planning on pumping from a reservoir you won't hook to a pump directly. There's a way to do it with one pump, and it's not too complicated to do that for two bodies of water.

 

[tim5055]

The 2300 series has two level sensors, so if either "A" or "B" are low it will call for water.

As body of water "A" spills over into body of water "B", I would assume the fill from the Levolor would go "A". This will be important if the water source is a "city" source of chlorinated/treated water. You would probably want the fill water to get diluted before it got to teh "natural" filtering area. A chlorine source going here may mess up the biologics, but that is just my guess as I have no experience wit them. I just surmise this from a previous "Natural Pool" question answered by one of our experts:

I consider an NSP, and the effort needed to care for one, similar to that of a fish tank - a lot more complicated! With a "natural" body of water, one needs to measure and control for many chemical parameters that residential swimming pools don't need to - phosphate levels, nitrogen levels (nitrate/nitrite/ammonia), all the usual swimming pool parameters (pH, alkalinity, calcium hardness) as well as turbidity (NTUs), dissolved oxygen (DO) and bacterial levels (fecal coliform and other bacteria). All of this would be to ensure that the natural, biological filtration system is working correctly. If this is not properly monitored and maintained, then it would be exceedingly easy for a small body of water to become eutrophic and cause either a "red tide" or "green swamp" effect - essentially the unrestricted growth of harmful bacteria or algae.

Now I recognize that the vast majority of NSPs (however many that is) probably don't go to that level of analysis in everyday application simply because it would be seen as overkill and unnecessarily complicated. But, for me and my family, knowing the health of the water and it's chemical balance is an absolutely necessary prerequisite before anyone is allowed to swim. Anything less than that and I would consider it negligence on my part as both a parent and a pool owner.

 

[earthship]

@jblizzle:
excellent... I understand.
cleaning the water:
- UV light 'filter'
- 65' of a meandering stream we will build
- 'natural pool' regeneration area, same sf of swimming area.

my hope at this time is to find guidance on the construction of the pool.

- - - Updated - - -

@bama rambler:
understood.

well water from the city is already under pressure. I was going to have the levolor handle that and the catch basin after the infinity via a 2HP pump. the line from the catch basin to this 'autofill' 2HP pump is about 40 and will be pressurized. catch basin is about 3k gallons.

the catch basin will receive water from the infinity. when the catch basin rises, the levolor auto open the valve and water moves from the basin up to the pool. yes?

I have a separate, dedicated 3HP intelliflo pump moving all pool water to beginning of a 65' long stream that ends in the pool. this runs all the time.

@tim5055:
Body of water 'A' is the main swimming pool.
Body of water 'B' is the catch basin after the infinity.

'A' overflows into 'B'.
'A' is filled from the city. We are in Costa Rica. This city water is potable. Based on the sf of about 1200 sf total pool, we are looking at about 1" of new city water per week due to evaporation (more from stream, but that is just from the pool). Note that we are also going to use a UV light 'filter'.
When 'B' fills to a certain level, the levolor opens the valve to send the catch basin water back into the pool. The catch basin is about 40' in length, bottom 18" filled with gravel on top of a 2" line with perforations to receive the water. and send it up to the 'A'.

Good point about the city water. thank you.

This entire system is part of a catch water system that has two cisterns. these two cisterns overflow into the 65' long stream we are building and into the pool... then overflow to 'B' catch basin, then overflow onto landscaping, land, orchard, etc. so the entire yard area has landscaping, stream, pool ringed with awesome water plants, rock features, etc.

as a side note, we are also using earthship greywater planters and blackwater planters for the 3 bedrooms house.

Will post images soon. We are starting day 4 today. 15 more days of construction.

VERY grateful for the advice and guidance here. I haven't gotten to lights to possible water bubbler... also, the pool sides are slopes to the deep end, no vertical walls... a nice 'natural' slope to the deep... so we are plastering the pools, a lot of concrete first, then plaster, then swimming pool plaster.

;-)

--
current pool project:
natural swimming pool with infinity edge (about linear 30').
bean shaped pool, approximately 50k gallons.
zodiac k23000 levolor (autofill for two pools)
Pentair Intelliflo 3HP
- large 'regeneration zone' to clean water.
- 65' long artificial stream (can be valved off)
- connected to cisterns, catch water & well.