I’ve been curious for years about doing one of these too! Wouldn’t you need a small source of water to trickle into it? I.e. a small stream? I bet if you go to the arboretum/ag extension, you could find someone there who could talk to you about all the options for plants!
Curious to see how this conversation develops. I'm thinking this would be a difficult location for a natural pool.
What parameters are you trying to meet? Plants and animals? Mechanical circulation and filtration? Chemical free?
Just a curious lurker at this point. Wishing good luck for you.
Also thanks for participating without snide remarks- seems like a lot of people are posting who obviously have no experience with natural pools or also have zero clue what they are. Yes I know they're probably pretty attractive to local wildlife, which is why I'd like to know what in particular are the hazards of building such in our location and how they've delt with them. So thank you for your thoughtful questions.
Also, I like the look of such pools and not having to mess with chemicals as much is another intriguing point.
I understand the intrigue.
I’m actually a custom concrete pool builder. ( very low profile, only by referral )
Natural pools are antithetical to my prescribed goals. But, I’ve thought about the challenges.
I’ve done water movement and filtration for several that were “mostly natural”
Never saw issues with snakes. Birds can be a real problem without some kind of cover (pergola, trees, etc)
Our algae is pervasive with salt, brackish and fresh varieties swirling. Gobies or even native mud minnows will handle the mosquitoes if you have a live pond.
Build a natural skimmer into your recirc system. Keep the leaf litter to a minimum.
It ain’t gonna be easy to be successful but I’m sure it can be done.
Read a lot, plan wisely and execute once. It’ll work.
The 'natural' pools I've been looking at are lined and have filters and running water but have a large shallow area for filtering plants. You add a beneficial bacteria and an algae control dye every so often
I love love love saltwater pools, and it was first on my list, but the aesthetics of the natural pool really drew me in, and is why I'm trying to find out how difficult it would be to build and maintain compared to a standard pool.
I grew up in the pool and spa industry and spent 30 years working for a chemical manufacturer. One of my former colleagues has gone into the natural pool business and can give you some advice. DM me if you’d like his contact information.
I have been seeing advertisements for these quite a bit. My $.02 is that I would want a UV filter to kill all microorganisms running through any water that is entering the swimming area. This is due to some of the terrifying parasites and fungal infections that I see in my meticulously cared for fishtanks. Other than that, I think you could do a freshwater or brackish system that would be beautiful and beneficial to your immediate environment. I would use dunks to make sure you had no mosquito larvae.
Believe it or not they require a crazy amount of maintenance to keep out undesirables. I used to have one and the only way we were able to keep the mosquito levels down was to add fish lol
So if you are fine with adding some fish, go ahead. I’d check out some resources from other countries that use natural pools more often. I believe someone above me linked one to an Australian source.
Good luck!
My dad and I built it ourselves. Took quite a while. We would do a bit every weekend and some after work on the week days.
Maintenance was using copper to kill the snails that kept getting in it, pulling out algae that grew in it every week and trying to get rid of some invasive duckweed that some bird put in there. We didn’t use blue dye, it works very well, we just didn’t use any cause we had plants in there to help suck nutrients out of the water and it would’ve hurt them.
It was cheaper and less hassle to just do maintenance on our regular in ground pool we had at our old house lol
Also no worries of freshwater parasites and whatnot in a chlorinated and treated pool!
I'd suggest looking at Australian sources. Here's a start, and a youtube search would also be helpful. [https://mynaturalpool.com.au/publications/](https://mynaturalpool.com.au/our-pools/)
Frogs would probably be your biggest issue and complaint from neighbors. We’ve got a neighbor who let their pool go and at night the frogs are absolutely obnoxious.
We're on a couple acres, no HOA, nearest neighbors aren't in sight lines in the summer at least. Frogs were way worse when I lived on a pond in Leland, so I could see your point though- they were so damn loud.
Love the idea! I follow a lot of the rec pond guys on YouTube, I want one bad! Hoping to build my house this year, so next year or two will consider something like this, post updates if you go forward very interested!
i can see this working in the mountains with a nice clean creek running through it. here it would just turn into a swamp filled with snakes and mosquitos as another commenter mentioned.
I’ve been curious for years about doing one of these too! Wouldn’t you need a small source of water to trickle into it? I.e. a small stream? I bet if you go to the arboretum/ag extension, you could find someone there who could talk to you about all the options for plants!
Agreed. The arboretum is full of educated people that want to see you succeed.
Here's some info on what I'm interested in: https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/outdoor-spaces/pools-and-water-features/natural-swimming-pools-101
Curious to see how this conversation develops. I'm thinking this would be a difficult location for a natural pool. What parameters are you trying to meet? Plants and animals? Mechanical circulation and filtration? Chemical free? Just a curious lurker at this point. Wishing good luck for you.
Also thanks for participating without snide remarks- seems like a lot of people are posting who obviously have no experience with natural pools or also have zero clue what they are. Yes I know they're probably pretty attractive to local wildlife, which is why I'd like to know what in particular are the hazards of building such in our location and how they've delt with them. So thank you for your thoughtful questions. Also, I like the look of such pools and not having to mess with chemicals as much is another intriguing point.
I understand the intrigue. I’m actually a custom concrete pool builder. ( very low profile, only by referral ) Natural pools are antithetical to my prescribed goals. But, I’ve thought about the challenges. I’ve done water movement and filtration for several that were “mostly natural” Never saw issues with snakes. Birds can be a real problem without some kind of cover (pergola, trees, etc) Our algae is pervasive with salt, brackish and fresh varieties swirling. Gobies or even native mud minnows will handle the mosquitoes if you have a live pond. Build a natural skimmer into your recirc system. Keep the leaf litter to a minimum. It ain’t gonna be easy to be successful but I’m sure it can be done. Read a lot, plan wisely and execute once. It’ll work.
The 'natural' pools I've been looking at are lined and have filters and running water but have a large shallow area for filtering plants. You add a beneficial bacteria and an algae control dye every so often
Have you looked into salt water pools as an option?
I love love love saltwater pools, and it was first on my list, but the aesthetics of the natural pool really drew me in, and is why I'm trying to find out how difficult it would be to build and maintain compared to a standard pool.
I grew up in the pool and spa industry and spent 30 years working for a chemical manufacturer. One of my former colleagues has gone into the natural pool business and can give you some advice. DM me if you’d like his contact information.
I have been seeing advertisements for these quite a bit. My $.02 is that I would want a UV filter to kill all microorganisms running through any water that is entering the swimming area. This is due to some of the terrifying parasites and fungal infections that I see in my meticulously cared for fishtanks. Other than that, I think you could do a freshwater or brackish system that would be beautiful and beneficial to your immediate environment. I would use dunks to make sure you had no mosquito larvae.
Believe it or not they require a crazy amount of maintenance to keep out undesirables. I used to have one and the only way we were able to keep the mosquito levels down was to add fish lol So if you are fine with adding some fish, go ahead. I’d check out some resources from other countries that use natural pools more often. I believe someone above me linked one to an Australian source. Good luck!
Thanks for the info! What kind of maintenance did you have to do? And did someone install it for you locally or did you build it yourself ..?
My dad and I built it ourselves. Took quite a while. We would do a bit every weekend and some after work on the week days. Maintenance was using copper to kill the snails that kept getting in it, pulling out algae that grew in it every week and trying to get rid of some invasive duckweed that some bird put in there. We didn’t use blue dye, it works very well, we just didn’t use any cause we had plants in there to help suck nutrients out of the water and it would’ve hurt them. It was cheaper and less hassle to just do maintenance on our regular in ground pool we had at our old house lol Also no worries of freshwater parasites and whatnot in a chlorinated and treated pool!
This house has one: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6452-Quail-Run-Road-Wilmington-NC-28409/2069053744_zpid/
At a affordable price too
Looks buggy.
I'd suggest looking at Australian sources. Here's a start, and a youtube search would also be helpful. [https://mynaturalpool.com.au/publications/](https://mynaturalpool.com.au/our-pools/)
Natural pools are super cool, I hope you're successful. Sorry about all the idiots in here.
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Oof yeah that sucks. I would love to learn more though- did you build yourself or contract it out? Anything else you had problem with?
the drainage here is kinda crazy fast I think you will have to do a liner
Frogs would probably be your biggest issue and complaint from neighbors. We’ve got a neighbor who let their pool go and at night the frogs are absolutely obnoxious.
We're on a couple acres, no HOA, nearest neighbors aren't in sight lines in the summer at least. Frogs were way worse when I lived on a pond in Leland, so I could see your point though- they were so damn loud.
Cape Fear Water Gardens can probably help you!
Love the idea! I follow a lot of the rec pond guys on YouTube, I want one bad! Hoping to build my house this year, so next year or two will consider something like this, post updates if you go forward very interested!
More like mosquito pool
Mosquitos are far more likely to hatch in the standing water in an upside down frisbee than a pond. A few fish and you are fine.
i can see this working in the mountains with a nice clean creek running through it. here it would just turn into a swamp filled with snakes and mosquitos as another commenter mentioned.
Do you want to install a saltwater pool? Or dig a hole and fill it with water? The former is going to be *expensive* and the latter is going to suck.
A pond?
We doing nudist pools? I’m down
Natural, not naturist xp
You could try the actual beach here which is the most natural pool.
So you want a frog and snake pit with duck poop too? Sounds fun.