Natural Swimming Pool Photo Gallery

[PoolDoc]

I'm getting tired of all the "natural" pool stuff that we end up answering questions about.

So I thought I'd create this thread to show folks that there ARE such things as real natural pools, but that they don't involve devices from "EcoSmarte" or "Eco-matic" or "Caribbean Clearwater", or chemicals from "ChlorFree" or "PristineBlue". (Somebody needs to give those guys a lesson in basic chemistry: ozone, electrolytically generated copper and silver ions, copper sulfate blends, and SWCGs are ALL non-natural technology driven -- even bad technology is STILL not Mother Nature -- chemicals or chemical producers!)

And -- for the record -- I have always thought, and said, that copper/silver ionization seemed to make sense to me, for recirculating bodies of water, like fountains, that didn't have people and people goo in them, but did need to stay algae and bacteria free.

But, none of those devices, chemicals, technologies, or what-not are part of true natural pools. So I thought I'd create a thread, and ultimately some web pages to show you what a true natural pool is.

The genuine 'natural' pools are NOT sanitized or disinfected, but are heavily filtered and mostly clean, in the same way that a beaver-free mountain stream is mostly clean. Some, but not all, do use UV lamps on water returning to the swimming area. Many, but not all, involve a sort of a swamp on one side of the pool, that cleans up pool water the same way real swamps clean up river water. I think all involve some sort of bio-reactor where 'good' bacteria are encouraged to grow, and digest various pool and people 'goo', and get rid of 'bad' bacteria.

There was a pretty good article in the NY Times a few years ago, on this topic. It's still available here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/ga...pagewanted=all

And, the wikipedia article is not bad:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_pool

The two most interesting sites I found, for natural pool vendors were these:
http://www.clear-water-revival.com/, in England
http://www.biotop-natural-pool.com based in Germany, but with a US distributor. The first three pictures below are all from their site.

I snarfed pictures from their websites, to use in this thread. I don't have permission, but I'm guessing they won't mind, since I'm 'promoting' their products. Both companies seem to have produced some amazingly beautiful pools.

But . . . natural pools are a different beast. Beautiful or not, they tend to be green, rather high maintenance, and VERY expensive. For a variety of reasons, they are not for everyone. And, I'd be VERY reluctant to get into a public natural pool, if anyone else was there. Apparently, there are some in Germany. But I haven't seen any research that looks at whether they offer a safe way to swim, when the guy next to me may be a carrier for something I really, really don't want. It might only be a norovirus (makes you leak at both ends), but some forms of hepatitis and worse can be transmitted via water . . . and I want some good old chlorine, and plenty of it, between me and the next guy, when I'm in a public pool!

Still, if I had an unlimited budget, and could afford a good pool man -- who was NOT me -- I'd definitely look closely at one of these pools for my personal use! My wife and younger son thought so, too. But when he saw the third picture below, my son noted that it looked like it was in an area where, like Vermont, the seasons are winter, July, and August. Maybe there's staff at that house or castle, that would serve me morning coffee by the pool. I think I'd enjoy that. I might even be able to afford Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, if I owned that h-astle and pool. Sitting by a pool like that at 7am, with a cup and a small pot of Blue Mountain coffee . . . and a book NOT about pools -- I think I'd enjoy that!

I did have to laugh at an headline I found in a Hanley Woods homebuilder's trade rag (http://www.customhomeonline.com/gree...next-wave.aspx). Here's the quote that cracked me up: "The newest pools are awash in bacteria-eating microbes, not chlorine." Put into a little more clearly, that sentence reads, "The newest pools are awash in bacteria-eating bacteria, not chlorine.".

Yep, folks, we're getting rid of all the bacteria, by adding bazillions more bacteria! Of course the added bacteria, are better than the other bacteria. I mean, the bacteria added by people are better than the . . . Wait, I mean the bacteria added by the pool builder people are better than the bacteria added by the swimming in the water people.

Uhm, really.

Anyhow, here are some very cool pics from Bio-Top:







More later . . .