permaculture

["Charland, Stacy" <CHARLANS@gm1.nigms.nih.gov>]

Rebecca,

I hope you pass on any responses that aren't posted to the list, I'd be 
interested as well.

My husband would like a lap pool, but I too hate the thought of all the 
chemicals (and effort) that would be required to keep it up.

A few years ago we "built" a small ornamental pond in our backyard at a 
previous house, and although it had some Koi and water plants, the water 
stayed crystal clear with the use of a biological filter.  Supposedly a 
larger pond (ours was only about 4X8, 2 foot deep) can become 
self-sustaining and not need filters and such, but you will have algae, 
mud, plants, etc to "filter" the water for you.  So how clean does it have 
to be to swim in?  Many folks swim in ponds and lakes...


Stacy


-----Original Message-----
From:   Rebbry@aol.com [SMTP:Rebbry@aol.com]
Sent:   Monday, March 03, 1997 12:33 PM
To:     permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu
Subject:        Query

I live in Fayetteville, Arkansas and have a gunite inground pool.  Every
summer I cringe at the amount of chemicals I have to put into the pool 
(and
back flush into my yard!).  I'd rather use it for rainwater harvesting and
fish production if there was some way to keep it clean enough to still 
swim
in.  Have anyone tried such a conversion or have any ideas about how to do
it?  Thanks, Rebecca Bryant