well, my point is it's pretty safe to swim in the ocean, no? High salinity kills almost all pathogens you have to worry about. There's red tide I guess, but I don't think that's very likely to show up in one's back yard (then again, maybe I'm wrong?) What harmful or unsightly organisms do you think I'd have to worry about with ocean level salinity?

My research has revealed that there is a "swimming pond" industry, but this appears geared towards fresh water solutions, with plants used to create a balanced ecosystem. Some people might consider this "safe enough", but at least down here in sunny FL we have a nasty little amoeba called Naegleria Folweri that, while it infects swimmers only very rarely, has a mortality rate of over 98%.

Salt kills that critter and just about any other free roaming water critter that can harm you. You don't even have to limit yourself to ocean salinity... you could go all the way to dead sea salinity (~30% salt) if desired... which will kill all microscopic life, period. My research has revealed that pretty much every nasty thing that will *spontaneously* grow in the water does not do well at all if you dump salt in it. There might be a couple halophilic algaes, but I've yet to find out if they are likely to spontaneously arise and if they are, whether I can kill it by simply increasing salinity by another couple percentage points.

>Using a quality test kit and swcg, how is that not practically maintenance free?

Because the swcg can break and I'll probably be lazy about testing. Also, I believe salt is probably safer and healthier than chlorine of any form. The human body was designed to handle salt... aggressive oxidizers, not so much. I plan on spending a lot of time in my pool and I have some respiratory issues, so I'm just hedging my bets.