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Owners Forum: New Natural Swimming pools & Algae

12/6/2013

3 Comments

 
New NSP's (Natural Swimming Pools & Ponds)
In a rainforest, nothing goes to waste: every dead leaf, every nutrient is consumed by something else. It is the most intense and interconnected ecosystem on the planet. In an NSP, we are trying to grow this same rich, diverse environment on a smaller scale- in your own backyard and in a very short period of time. A properly designed, mature NSP hosts a thriving community of beneficial bacteria that is ready to consume (and eliminate) any contaminate that comes into the water, be it ecoli, suntan oils, skin cells, fish waste, etc.  Growing this system can take 1-2 years. 

In the meantime, there are a couple of simple things you can do to help keep the system healthy when it's at its most vulnerable: Maintaining pH (at 7.2) helps us to grow the right set of bacteria and safeguards against algae. If pH is maintained and you still have an algae issue, then try these safe ways to eliminate algae without killing off the existing ecosystem (which includes beneficial bacteria, plants, and fish):

1. Use safe dyes (algae needs sunlight to grow, so "shading" the water with dyes may solve it)
2. Add some fish (feed them very little or no food at all, and they will eat up the algae)
     *Note: Algae needs nutrients like fish food and plant fertilizer to survive, so try eliminating fish food and be careful with 
       fertilizer (check out our "Water Lily Planting Guide" blog post for how to responsibly use fertilizer in the water)
3. Try barley straw or barley straw extract (this is an all-natural algaecide that won't harm fish, plants, or swimmers)
4. Eliminate stagnant water (we want water flowing constantly throughout the system)

So, NSP Owners:  Have you had any issues with algae? What methods did you use to eliminate it? Have another topic you'd like to talk about? (Let me know and I will start a post for it).

3 Comments
Peter
11/21/2018 10:52:47 am

I wonder if anyone knows. I have an nsp , two adjoining pools one the pond , the other the swimming area. Both are covered in white marbelite. The pool is amazing and I have never had a problem with water quality . The problem I have however is with staining on the marble plaster. I have found that if I put tiny amounts of hydrogen peroxide (50%) the stains clear off (mostly) , but they will come back in a few weeks . I have also used barley straw in my pond . Barley straw seemed to work really nicely against string algae . It apparently releases something like hydrogen peroxide . Is this likely to keep stains out too ? Currently have barley straw which I think has not activated yet . I want to control the stains without killing off my beneficial bacteria . What affect does peroxide / barley straw have on the bacteria ?

Reply
Sarah
7/31/2024 10:50:53 am

use Barley Extract, sold on Amazon
I use it in my natural swimming pool
Barley starw is too messy and takes forever to activate

Reply
Cooking by Alex link
11/28/2020 02:05:21 am

I appreciate the time to write this post

Reply



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