natural swimming pond - flow

[robm]

Hello pond people,

I am planning a natural swimming pond, and I hope that some of you have experience with that. There's lots of general information on this topic on the web, but very little specific information. One question that has got me stumped is the required flow rate. I see that fish ponds typically require an hourly flow of half the pond's volume. My swimming pond will probably have some 25000 gallons volume, which would mean 12500 gph, which is huge.

Just some general info on the pond. The swimming section will be approx 12x40 feet, at 5-7 feet of depth, and the regeneration area should have the same surface area but much less depth. There will be no fish, to minimize nutrients. I hope to do without UV sterilizer, but otherwise I am thinking of including a bio filter in addition to the filtering and cleaning provided by the water plants in the regen area.

Any and all comments are appreciated!

 

[addy1]

Wow huge, way bigger then our little big pond. There is a landscaper in virginia that made a swimming pond.
http://davermfarm.wordpress.com/
He has an ongoing blog about his ponds. You may be able to contact him for some information.

 

[robm]

Thank you addy1, I had a quick look at the site, and I will have to do some more searches through the blog archives.

 

[addy1]

He types a lot.
I use the site to look at the different plants and what blooms when. I see a way to register, that may give you a link to contact him.

The blog link is on a nursery site that I visit. http://www.meadowsfarms.com/ under landscaping. They would probably be able to help you contact him also.

Good luck, I have no clue what to tell you about flow rates!

 

[robm]

Thanks, I found it: http://davermfarm.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/the-swimming-pond/

I posted a comment there and hopefully I can get some more info that way.

Rob

 

[DLWyman]

Well, I'd never heard of such a thing but I would assume that it would be around the same as a swimming pool. I'm not sure of GPH that the pool pump here turns over but I have a inground pool with about the same dimensions that you are talking about, we use a Hayward super pump, 1 1/2 HP with 1 1/2" piping and a DE filter.

 

[addy1]

My pool in arizona is a big one, it ran on a 1/2 hp motor for 8 hours, it was diving pool.
It did well on that amount of time, but no fishies.

 

[robm]

I am a lot farther now, thanks to Michael Littlewood's book "Natural Swimming Pools, a guide too building" that I finally received a couple of days ago. According to this book, a swimming pond needs a turnover flow of once per two days or even less.

As per DrDave's suggestion I'll post further questions in the DIY forum.

Rob

 

[addy1]

I am a lot farther now, thanks to Michael Littlewood's book "Natural Swimming Pools, a guide too building" that I finally received a couple of days ago. According to this book, a swimming pond needs a turnover flow of once per two days or even less.

As per DrDave's suggestion I'll post further questions in the DIY forum.

Rob

Is this with or without fish? Our pond will have some fish, not koi, honey has already been swimming in it. Well floating lol

 

[robm]

No, that would be without fish. I know that some swimming ponds are designed to have fish, but that would require more filtering to get rid of the extra nutrients.

 

[addy1]

sort of figured that, thanks We added the bog to ours to deal with cleaning, and to have pretty plants.

 

[crsublette]

Hello pond people,

I am planning a natural swimming pond, and I hope that some of you have experience with that. There's lots of general information on this topic on the web, but very little specific information. One question that has got me stumped is the required flow rate. I see that fish ponds typically require an hourly flow of half the pond's volume. My swimming pond will probably have some 25000 gallons volume, which would mean 12500 gph, which is huge.

Just some general info on the pond. The swimming section will be approx 12x40 feet, at 5-7 feet of depth, and the regeneration area should have the same surface area but much less depth. There will be no fish, to minimize nutrients. I hope to do without UV sterilizer, but otherwise I am thinking of including a bio filter in addition to the filtering and cleaning provided by the water plants in the regen area.

Any and all comments are appreciated!

These are extremely interesting.

While doing research into bog and sediment filtration, I came across a quite interesting website talking about natural swimming pools, but, argh, can't find the hyperlink bookmark in my library.

From what I remember, natural swimming pools is the new thing in the states here, except been around for a while in Europe. It is quite an interesting concept.


Keep us posted on this project!! It will be quite interesting to see a step-by-step progression of how your building, in something like a type of "natural swimming pool build" thread.

 

[crsublette]

Bah, nevermind... I just noticed the timestamps. Doh!!

 

[JohnHuff]

Bah, nevermind... I just noticed the timestamps. Doh!!

I thought I read a more recent NSP thread here on GPF. In any case, it's a very interesting idea. Trust Europeans to come up with it.

I did a quick Google search on it. I like it a lot. If I were to build one, I would completely dispense with a planted regenerative area because you're going to have the same problems as you have with a bog. And you don't call a bog a bog for nothing.

Instead, I think I would go with a 100% water plant regeneration zone such as water hyacinth, water lettuce, etc. This would also give you better waterflow.

I would add an aerated bioreactor. Aeration would always be good seeing that oxygen is an oxidating agent and you'd rather have aerobic bacteria than anaerobic bacteria there.

So, lots of aeration, good flow and veggie filtration all the time. And that's the only negative compared with a pool that I know because my sister in law, who has a pool, switches her pump off when the pool isn't being used, but the NSP should have flow all the time.

Unlike the wiki article, I would also do water changes. You know what, crsublette, I think anoxic filtration would be a perfect fit here too as the regeneration zone!

 

[crsublette]

I thought I read a more recent NSP thread here on GPF. In any case, it's a very interesting idea. Trust Europeans to come up with it.

I did a quick Google search on it. I like it a lot. If I were to build one, I would completely dispense with a planted regenerative area because you're going to have the same problems as you have with a bog. And you don't call a bog a bog for nothing.

Instead, I think I would go with a 100% water plant regeneration zone such as water hyacinth, water lettuce, etc. This would also give you better waterflow.

I would add an aerated bioreactor. Aeration would always be good seeing that oxygen is an oxidating agent and you'd rather have aerobic bacteria than anaerobic bacteria there.

So, lots of aeration, good flow and veggie filtration all the time. And that's the only negative compared with a pool that I know because my sister in law, who has a pool, switches her pump off when the pool isn't being used, but the NSP should have flow all the time.

Unlike the wiki article, I would also do water changes. You know what, crsublette, I think anoxic filtration would be a perfect fit here too as the regeneration zone!

Yeah, I was thinking the same, but I also would make sure there is one heck of a good UV sterilizer. I don't know... With a normal swimming pool, although please correct me if this is not correct, I think the reason chlorine is used is so to kill any "nasties" that might be introduced in the water due to humans swimming in the water so then possibly a UV-S might be required. This is what I never could figure out, that is how this was handled, when reading about the "natural" swimming ponds / pools.