Natural Alternatives for Swimming Pool Upkeep

[SamsGirl]

I am not sure of what the price would be on something like this, but a friend of ours converted his pool to a salt water pool.  I think he only adds water softener salt to it and it stays blue and sparkly without chlorine.

Swimming in soft water is like swimming in clouds.  It's totally awesome, I might look into this.  Should be relatively inexpensive for a wading pool.  Thanks for the idea.

Do you think you could ask you friend for more exact details:  amount of salt per gallon of water?  How big is his pool?  Does he have problems with mosquitos or other larvae?  Does he also have a pump or is the water still?  I'd be very interested to hear more.

mauimom.....sorry, that was about as clear as mud, huh?   

above is the post that I found but didn't find the answers to it and was wondering if the 's had ever been answered....my family is just setting up a new, smaller pool (16 by 4) and are not interested in swimming in a bunch of chemicals or larvae   

[mauimom]

I am not sure of what the price would be on something like this, but a friend of ours converted his pool to a salt water pool.  I think he only adds water softener salt to it and it stays blue and sparkly without chlorine.

Swimming in soft water is like swimming in clouds.  It's totally awesome, I might look into this.  Should be relatively inexpensive for a wading pool.  Thanks for the idea.

Do you think you could ask you friend for more exact details:  amount of salt per gallon of water?  How big is his pool?  Does he have problems with mosquitos or other larvae?  Does he also have a pump or is the water still?  I'd be very interested to hear more.

mauimom.....sorry, that was about as clear as mud, huh?   

above is the post that I found but didn't find the answers to it and was wondering if the 's had ever been answered....my family is just setting up a new, smaller pool (16 by 4) and are not interested in swimming in a bunch of chemicals or larvae   

Well here is what we have learned so far.  The pool we are taking care of is a salt water pool, but it requires a special filter.  On the side of the special filter it says, "turbo-cell".  It takes 1 teaspoon of salt per gallon of water.  The water cannot be still, it must be filtered/moving. 
As for the bugs or mosquitoes, we do have them but they don't bother us, they just end up at the bottom of the pool, and are then vacuumed out.  The mosquitoes don't lay their eggs in the pool, we mainly just find gnats at the bottom.   
More of a problem are the birds and wild cats.  They come and drink the water and the birds take their baths.  One time I counted 10 birds at once!    They can really leave a mess.   

hth
mauimom

[kilikina]

We have an above ground 4 x 18 pool.  We have been looking into a saltwater system, but I have a few questions for those that have one: 

What brand do you have? 

Are you satisfied with it's performance?

Does it hook up to the existing pump?

Is there anything that needs to be done on a regular (i.e. weekly) basis? 

Do you have to let it run all day?


Thank you!

[wlwest]

I'm not sure if this will fit in here or not.  We have a small pond, well, big enough for fishing, and paddle boat, but not huge.  I checked out some of the links for natural swimming pools and thought this would be great for us, since we have a pond already. But, I was wondering anyone know of a do it yourself way to clean up an existing pond?  I pulled out some cattails last year, I need to pull more out this year, and now we have sooo much seaweed, or some sort of plant growing in there.  You can get tangled up.  The kids pulled a bunch out, but, there is still alot more. 
I still want to keep our fish, and we have 2 ducks, but I would like it to be cleaner.

Any ideas?
wendy

[Rita]

Thanks kayinpa.  We WILL be using H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) 35% food grade as the treatment for our pool!  From the research I have done I am understanding that you don't need anything else just H2O2.  You don't need anything seperate for algae or to shock it.  Our water will be chlorine free and will be oxygenated!!!  We should feel very refreshed after a swim!!!