Swim & Recreational Ponds
Water you can swim in, kept clean by plants and filtration instead of chlorine. No chemical smell, no red eyes, and a feature that still looks like part of the garden in winter.
How is the water kept clean without chlorine?
A swim pond is two zones. You swim in one; the other is a planted regeneration zone where the biology happens. Water circulates between them continuously.
Plants and bacteria strip the nutrients that would otherwise feed algae. The result is water that is biologically alive rather than chemically sterilised — which is the point, and also why it needs designing properly rather than approximating.
What is included in a build
Site assessment and design, excavation, liner and rock work, the filtration and circulation system, the regeneration zone and its planting, then commissioning and a walkthrough of how to run it.
Every build is shaped by the site. Slope, sun, existing trees and how you actually want to use the water all change the design.
What does it need through the year?
Less than a pool. There is no chemistry to dose and no winter shutdown in this climate. Spring brings a clean-out and a check of the circulation; autumn is mostly about keeping leaves out.
Swim & Recreational Ponds we’ve built
Our background is water treatment.
Before ponds, our work was wastewater treatment, industrial aquaculture and aquariums. All three come down to keeping a closed body of water healthy, and that decides whether a pond is still clear in its third summer. So we plan the filtration, planting and circulation before we dig, and we test the water before we treat it.
“Mike James and his crew are hands down the top pros of swim ponds and water features on the west coast.”
Talk to us about swim & recreational ponds.
Serving Greater Victoria and Vancouver Island. We'll get back to you as soon as we can.