This is a picture of the water we swim in nowadays. If you think it looks more like a
lake than a swimming pool, we are happy.
Because that is what we aim for: natural water, biologically balanced,
Please go further for pictures and explanation.
Please meet two of our volunteers: this frog and boatman (God knows where they came from) are amongst the many creatures that live in our pond and pool.
They keep the water cristal clear and perfectly clean.
And by clean we don´t mean dead, sterile and chlorinated. No, by clean we mean biologically clean, without potentially pathogenic bacteria. Water that has reached a balance on a microbiological level.
Most natural pools have the swimming and the filtering or cleaning areas combined. We didn´t have that opportunity.
Our pond, where the filtering and cleaning takes place, is 5 meters below the level of the pool, in the orchard. We pump the water from the pond to the pool, and through the skimmers it goes back to the pool.
Obviously, it was a lot of work...
The deepest part of the pond measures about 2.30 meter, a perfect plunge pool and a great observatory for aquatic wildlife.
Because from here and under water, you look into the middle part with its oxygen plants and the roots of the lilies, the idea.l hide away for frogs and water insects.
In the middle part of the pool lilies cover the water, mainly for decoration.
Underneath, grow the oxygen plants, extremely important for the biological decomposition of all organic material that feeds the algae.
The oxygen plants grow like crazy and are therefore the main competitor for the algae. In our pond we grow Pondweed (Elodea), which releases a substance that diminishes the growth of the algae.
Water fleas (Cladocera) are great helpers too! Theu love algae and degulf masses of them.
The shallow part of the pool is the actual filter. The plants in here are helophytes, the ones you would find on the banks of a lake or stream. These are the same kind of plants we use in our reed bed filter to clean our domestic waste water. Underneath the river sand that holds the roots, there is layer of felt that filters the water before it goes up to the pool.
In summer, temperatures here in Spain easily get beyond 35 degrees Celsius.
In addition to the mentioned biological ways to fight the growth of algae, we use two technical devices supplied by the Austrian companyBiotop.On the right the Phostec to remove the phosphorus from the water.
And on the left the carbonator for more oxygen subtracted from a tube under the ground. Apparently the composition of the subterranean air favours planth growth and is disliked by the algae.
It will take a while before the pond really settles into the garden. For the time being we are very enthusiastic about the project. Swimming in naturally clean water feels just great!
