Pond to pool conversion questions

[Phisherdudeman]

Hello friends,
I’m very inexperienced in this field so I thought I would ask the professionals. I recently bought a house with an old gunite pool and I am entertaining the idea of turning it into a pond. When we moved in it was stagnant and had some goldfish already in it keeping the mosquitoes at bay. I drained it and cleaned it out and tried to get the pool running as best I could but the bottom drain nor the side skimmers will work at all. I can get the sand pump to pull from the side return and then through a make shift floating skimmer that’s all. It has become a nightmare trying to figure out keep running. We also may sell the house at some point in the next 10 years so we would like to keep it essentially a pool you’d just have to re-plaster it and fix the plumbing. There is a baby spa pool that feeds into the big pool I was thinking could turn into a bog or just a big plant filter. I’ll put a few pictures on here of what I’m working with and I am grateful to any advice tips!
Thank you!
Christopher

 

[Lisak1]

What a lovely sight! Definitely not an expert on this topic, but I have seen a number of YouTube videos on pool to pond conversions done by pros.

 

[Phisherdudeman]

What a lovely sight! Definitely not an expert on this topic, but I have seen a number of YouTube videos on pool to pond conversions done by pros.

I’ve watched every video I could find on YouTube that pertains and it seems there’s a few different routes to take so when I found this page I figured I would reach out!

 

[j.w]

@Phisherdudeman
Some here have done the conversion from pool to pond. While you wait you can do a search above and put in words like pool conversion, swimming pool, whatever you can think of that might match. Lots of good info!

 

[Lisak1]

I've seen a few threads here over the years regarding pool to pond conversions - I just don't recall seeing a completed project. Like @j.w suggested - a search of the forum might produce some threads to peruse!

 

[combatwombat]

Welcome. How does the spa connect/flow into the pool. Can’t tell from the photos. Indeed, it looks like the perfect setup for a bog. Maybe a bit small.

In the simplest form, you can simply convert that spa to a bog and the pool to pond. Maybe build a temporary partition in the shallow end of the pond for an additional bog. Then run 1 smaller pump to each bog and you’ll have much better filtration and more safety in the event of pump outage.

For pool to pond conversion, many often paint the walls black to improve the aesthetic )don’t have to look at the algae growing on the walls), but that is optional and would recommend against it if you want to make it easy to convert back to pool later.

 

[GBBUDD]

I can see the overflow between the pond and spa its the dark line on the pool wall between them. it also appears the water level is at the over flow is there a problem where the water drains down to the over flow/?

i have a couple pool conversions in the post https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/some-very-impressive-pond-builds.26353/

 

[addy1]

Welcome to the forum!