Yes, we can have clear, gorgeous swimming pools without it costing nature!

Natural systems can keep pool water clear!

Jenny Louw’s beautiful, bio-diverse swimming pool is a wonder to look at. Like a natural lake it lies transparent amongst the rushes and reeds, home to many garden creatures.

Unlike chlorine pools, natural swimming pools work with the nature around them. They require no chemicals whatsoever and a quarter of the amount of electricity needed for normal swimming pools.

The idea is to make use of the nutrients in the water so that algae won’t grow to feed on it. The slow circulation of a precise pipe system allows the water to pass through micro-organism rich gravel and the root network of various water plants, which is turn consume any nutrients. When a pool is free from nutrients, algae growth is prevented.

Now six months old, the water of Jenny’s pool is crystal clear, although the sides of the pool are still covered in a thin layer of algae. Apparently it takes a year to get the eco system fully functional.

‘I was concerned for my children’s skin,’ Jenny says of her previous pool system. Chemicals in the water were causing irritations and she was concerned of the damage salt water pools could wreck on the environment. A landscaper by profession, Jenny loves how her new pool encourages biodiversity, as well as forming part of the garden design.

Natural pool technologies were developed in Austria and local expert Gerome Davis helped Jenny construct her bio-pool. Together with his company aQua-design they adapted the existing pool by adding the same amount of surface area for the special natural filter system and pipes in the right places for perfect circulation. Jenny warns that a professional approach is very important, as getting it right can prove tricky. Renovating a new pool is easiest, and the bigger it is the better it will work.

Whereas keeping normal pools free of algae is high maintenance because of chlorines short shelf life, pipes in the walls of a bio pool gently push the water through a natural filter system and then back into the pool, now free of nutrients. Dealing with the cause of the problem, rather than battling against the side effects, the natural filtering system can even make municipal water completely pure!.

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