Check out these photos of a stunning new Natural Swimming Pool/Pond (NSP) in Texas! This NSP was built using our How-To eBook, Natural Swimming Pools/Ponds: The Total Guide, 2nd Edition, and a little hands-on help from us. Thanks to the homeowner for sending us these awesome pics: keep em' coming folks! 

We have been busy busy busy working onsite at a zoo exhibit build in Baltimore, MD for the past two weeks. After rain delays, bad luck at every turn, and several 13 hour days on the construction site, we have finally returned to the office. We were welcomed back this week by a mountain of emails and an unprecedented number of requests for our Natural Swimming Pool/Ponds (we feel the love)! Thank you all for your patience as we catch up this week! 

Hi all! Now introducing the brand new Natural Swimming Pool & Pond Photo Gallery! It's packed with photos of Total Habitat pools and ponds from around the country, including two of our 2013 NSP's.

Call for Photos: Hey there Natural Swimming Pool & Pond owners! We are calling on you to share your NSP photos with us and the rest of the Total Habitat Blog Community. We want it all: Whether it's a pic of you/your family enjoying the pool, a snapshot of visiting wildlife, or simply your view of the pool from your kitchen window. Just send your photographs (with a caption if you want one) to [email protected].

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).

Here are some photos of one of our 2013 NSP's that features our newly developed, more economical building plan. This smarter building strategy allows for a beautiful, naturalistic pool using only one big load of boulders. Though economical, the pool has plenty of swimming space and is packed with features, such as a walk-in beach, small waterfall, a pier, and a deep end for diving. 

This year, Total Habitat attended the IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) Expo in Orlando! The massive convention center was packed with just about everything involved in the amusement industry, from food vendors to roller coasters. As lovers of nature and outdoor play, we found the variety of ropes courses particularly interesting. Here are some of the companies that stood out to us:

Welcome to our brand new website and Natural Swimming Pool Blog! Our new site features more photographs of our past projects, a Frequently Asked Questions page and a Let's Get Started page for our Natural Swimming Pools, and more ways to get in touch with us and get your questions answered! 

Thanks to all of you who stopped by to see our exhibit at the AZA Annual Conference this past week! We were pleased to see so many new faces as well as old friends at this year's event! We also owe a big thank you to our friends at Safari Thatch for hooking us up with all the bamboo we used to build our display! In case you missed us at the AZA Conference, here are some photos of our booth at the show: 

Total Habitat will be exhibiting at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Annual Conference this September in Kansas City! Stop by our booth (#738),  next to the silent auction in the right hand corner of the exhibit hall! Follow this link to check out the conference and see the other exhibitors: 
http://www.aza.org/annualconference/