Natural Swimming Pools - a guide to designing & making your own

David Pagan Butler introduces natural swimming pools: beautiful swimming ponds that require no chemicals, just plants and a simple solar powered filter pump to clean the water.

[kamauwikeepa]

I'm a plant freak and just love making look natural, and the amazing diversity of insects and wild life. Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

[organicpools-davidpaganbutler]

You can drink this pond water! I have just had the water in this pool tested by the labs at South Coast Water. It meets (and exceeds) UK drinking water standards.

[organicpools-davidpaganbutler]

Over the past twenty years many hundreds of these pools have been created in Germany and Austria. If there were any health issues they would have appeared by now. On the other hand, it is well documented that swimming in chlorinated pools or even the sea has significant risks.
Of course if you want a risk free life - don't swim at all and keep your clothes on.

[organicpools-davidpaganbutler]

It is so heartening to see such enthusiasm for these pools!

[nonyabusiness]

Out of all the videos on youtube on natural/organic pools, i think yours are the best. Thumbs up!

[organicpools-davidpaganbutler]

@nbm34 Thank you for such a wonderful response! Your grandchildren would love it! And it is such a lovely way for them to learn about nature.

[GreenSolarGarden]

Wonderful idea. I only wish I had of seen this 12 years ago when I put my pool in. Perhaps in the next house.

[organicpools-davidpaganbutler]

@HappyDancingTurtle Ice is not a problem. Just part of the natural cycle for a pond.

[jasonhowell]

Nice job, good to see your using the old air lift system.

[taffythegreat]

It looks great, so natural, that’s what you want👍👍

[createrainbowz]

wow best man made pool ive seen, great footage, beautiful.

One Love :)

[MassimoFabbrini]

Great! I'll start to build one as soon as i'll arrive in Rio... Thanks for sharing!

[markonis]

I like the idea, I like it quite a bit but even though your video was quite informative on how you make the actual pool, you are not so specific on how the circulator works. How is the pool maintained, do plants and animals die off during winter time, have you had issues with snakes, where did you obtain the plant and animals for it and what is the recipe for them, when I say recipe I mean, which plants and animals should we get for it and where, do the animals over breed and start starving?

[ChesterLoadstone]

Love it! Add a couple of bat houses to clean up the mosquitoes and you got yourself an Eden!

[toddcaldecott]

Reading through the comments, it's clear there is a fair amount of ignorance about the benefits of using natural methods for water purification, instead of disinfectants such as chlorine.

But first off, with regard to bacteria, let's remember that your body mass is about 3% bacteria, and without them you wouldn't survive very long, as commensal ("normal") bacteria play a key role in many physiological functions, such as immunity and digestion. Each cell in our body is powered by little bacteria called mitochondria that maintain their own separate DNA. In many respects we ARE bacteria, and in the age of superbugs, we need to develop technologies that address issues such as disinfection like an ecological problem, rather than a "us or them" mentality. We are only harming ourselves, in the end.

As for the use of chlorine, chloramine, and other synthetic/chemical disinfectants, research has clearly demonstrated that these highly reactive compounds bind with natural chemicals to create a new class of "disinfection by-products" that we know very little about, except that most of the few that have been studied have been shown to be carcinogens and/or endocrine disruptants.

We need to remember that we are a part of nature, and it doesn't make sense to be a afraid of it. Using natural methods to purify the environment, called bioremediation, is a well-established practice within industry, although it is way under-utilized. For e.g., plants such as vetiver grass are used to take up and metabolize toxic metals from industrial sites. With bioremediation, we can even turn raw sewage into potable water, using a simple system of tanks, each with its own unique ecosystem of bacteria, algae, plants, snails and fish to purify the water.

In the future - if humanity has one here on earth - we will be forced to learn how to work with nature, instead of against it. To learn at her knee instead of with a knife held to her throat, using these lessons to our best advantage.

[scottgordon]

Nice to get back here again . My pool is in the middle, size wise . I like the idea of natural stuff. Tired of paying $30 /month for chlorine . Had a plan of the overflow from koi pond, goes through bog garden, into pool . Have tanks, so not short of water .
The pond plan is cool, nice to have the bats back at night . I could raise the height of the paving around the pool . Then how to get around it ? am going off grid, daytime power not an issue . $360 /year for just chlorine ? Time for tanks .

[tenplus]

Awesome! I broke out the back hoe and dug out a nice little pond in a couple hours. Cant wait to use some of these ideas. Great video!

[TheMimeChef]

Great job David, I would love one, any problems with them in warmer climate zones ie South Carolina?

[BringBacks]

Great piece of work there, just fantastic.

[positivelybeautiful]

This is definitely thinking out of the box, very creative, so compassionate to the environment, a genius design. In the US, I’m not sure if laws allow such a build. In Florida, we many get Alligators and alligator Gars, and water moccasins. How do you know what is in your pond? To hear that this is designed not to hurt even a frog is amazing. I can see this pool is a lot more fun to swim in it!