Natural Pools discussion

[Caco]

ME109 . I would really really like to see a pic of your pool (or 3 or 4 or 5 hint hint)

A natural pool is not for me, although I like the idea. I used to be heavily involved in aquariums and combining my love of fish, water plants and swimming sounds great, but I lack the room.

I second the fact that it is likely chloramines that cause skin issues. As far as I know chlorine intolerance or reactions to are pretty rare. Since moving to TTP pool care my skin (excema) and my partners skin (extremely bad psorasis) is significantly better than it has been in previous years (medically documented with a pronounced reduction in PASI scores)

To my mind if they stay chemically balanced keeping the CYA/FC ratio appropriate removes the drying effects of the chlorine. ph monitoring is also critical and i notice the smallest ph swing on my skin. I run salt at 3000ppm for softening, 50ppm borates and starting trialling magnesium this year as well running along balneotherapy dead sea salt guidelines.

 

[ME 109]

ME 109 I didn't mean to make you feel attacked
So stick around

Thanks gwegan, no such feelings felt.
I'll aim to make my natural pool posts as clear as possible, (no pun intended) so as not to be confused with TFP's methods for maintaining sanitised pools.

 

[ME 109]

Caco, this is my first natural pool, started April 2006. I had to build my concept pool at home to show that it worked. The bio filter pool isn't well seen in this pic, although the two pools are side by side.
I can see the stars reflected on the pool surface at night.
I can keep my pool walls and floor as clean as I want, it's not a priority, although I usually keep the shallow end floor and walls nice and clean for summer.

This is the clarity, basically every day of the year. The foreground depth is 10'

 

[duraleigh]

In Australia, natural pools are considered 'swimming pools' in every state and territory and will need to comply with every 'Australian standard' as for conventional swimming pool construction.
My local council has approved my pool for swimming.

That confuses me. Are you saying Australia does not require any form of sanitation in a "swimming Pool"?......surely not.

 

[ME 109]

That confuses me. Are you saying Australia does not require any form of sanitation in a "swimming Pool"?......surely not.

Confusion understood.
The 'Australian Standards' says all private swimming pools shall comply with the appropriate sanitiser levels as indicated in table 1, etc, etc.

There is no consideration in the Australian Standards of biological pools like mine, so that says no natural pools. I think......

The five different local councils that I've dealt with regarding construction permits for my five pools have had no issues with a non sanitised natural pool.
They are actually 'on board' and supportive.
Because the Australian Standards are not laws, there is no law requiring a private pool to be sanitised and maintained to any level, as far as I'm aware.

The local councils are only interested in the structure, construction, and child safety barriers, conforming to at least the minimum Australian standard.
It will be interesting to see what, if any, amendments or recommendations are made in future to the standards regarding unsanitised pools.

I should correct what I previously posted about my pools having to comply with "every Australian standard", that's not true.

They have to comply with every Australian standard and council by-law, applicable to swimming pool construction, except for sanitisation.
I don't know if a council can introduce a by-law requiring a pool to be sanitised and maintained to a minimum level?
It will be interesting to see what the future of natural pools is, and how it is dealt with.

I imagine the situation will be the same for most of the US.

 

[ME 109]

This is my shallow end after a thorough brush down and vacuum. I do this maybe twice over my 5 month swimming season and it stays looking quite good.
I vac the entire pool usually two times a year, with another three or four partial vacs of floors and/or shallow end. There's other maintenance as well, and sometimes it's a pain, but the rewards are good.

 

[Caco]

Thanks very much for the pics, really like the look

Duraleigh / ME
The councils in NZ are not required to check if the water sanitation in a private pool meets the standards, the pool owner has to ensure that the standards are complied with. I assume it is the same in Australia. The Australian standard is AS 3633:1989 Private swimming pools Water quality

 

[ME 109]

Thanks Caco, there are three fish in my pool at present. A 16" Japanese koi that has been there for ten or eleven years, a 15" golden perch and an 8" goldfish.
I have had a much heavier fish load in there for a six month period with no apparent water quality change. That would be to do with 15 tonnes of gravel in my bio filter. I don't make them that big nowadays. About 7 tonnes is sufficient for my purposes.

Gravel for the bio filter should not adversely affect the water chemistry. Much buffering capacity can come from gravel in water, so research needs to be done to find a suitable gravel. Gravel high in quartz is ok as quartz is inert. I'm fortunate to have a local gravel that is 73% quartz, the remaining 27% is a mix of unremarkable rock types. But it buffers my water to most usually pH 7.3 with very low total alkalinity.
For those interested, the sole purpose of 15 tonnes of gravel in my bio filter systems is to provide a surface area for bacteria to colonize. The bacteria sought are those to do with nitrification, the same as found in aquaculture and aquaponics bio filters. I'm yet to read of these bacteria being harmful to humans, as they are found in lakes and rivers etc and help to produce high quality water in mountain streams.
The main job for these bacteria in my bio filter is to convert ammonium to nitrate. Nitrate is a plant food. That's why most of these pools have plants growing in them..