The cooler weather is here to stay, which means pumpkins, scarves, horrible sweaters, and preparing your natural swimming pool (NSP) for the winter season ahead. Here are 4 easy ways to protect your NSP this winter so the water will be cleaner and ready to restart for spring and summer.
- If trees are around your NSP, be ready for leaves rustling all over the place. Leaf litter can cause a lot of small problems that create a big mess very quickly. Besides clogging filters or skimmers, leaves may also disrupt water flow in the system, which hampers proper filtration. Letting leaves decay in the water can also lead to an overabundance of nutrients. Fish them out weekly, if not daily. Utilize a suspended mesh leaf net to save yourself some work and prevent any large twigs from falling in.
- Unless you’re a polar bear club member, the swimming days are over for now. To save energy and prevent frozen, cracked pipes, power down, and clean your NSP plumbing for the winter. BioNova® technicians will backwash your plumbing by running the water backward to clear the lines. Plugs are inserted in the valves to ensure no water will creep inside. Unplugged pipes may become home to critters in the winter or get filled with bacteria that can fester over the season. Don’t forget that the filter effluence, which is nutrient-rich, can be used as fertilizer for your fall crops!
- Once your plumbing has been sealed off and the system has powered down, you can choose to cover the surface area of your swim zone or leave it open. If your climate experiences several hard freezes, a frozen pond is perfect for practicing your figure-8 skating.** However, covering the area in less chilled temperatures is a good decision to prevent excess nutrients from rainfall and snowmelt, creating overflow. An additional option includes powered water bubblers that keep critical plumbing or water features from becoming damaged during a freeze. It also makes a great hole for pretending to ice fish.
- The last easy way to protect your NSP this winter is especially important if you own a BioNova BioSwim Pond Solo or Duo. Natural swimming pools that use a regeneration zone for biologically filtering the water must have special attention paid to the primary source of water clarity. This means that plants must be correctly cut back beneath the water line to prevent inclement weather damage. A BioNova®-approved aquatic technician will take care to trim the plant growth so that the roots can regenerate fully when the warm weather arrives in spring and summer.
**Be sure to check ice thickness on your pond before standing on it to make sure you enjoying a winter wonderland safely
These 4 easy ways to protect your NSP this winter will ensure your investment’s longevity, not to mention the pool’s readiness as soon as the knit caps are swapped out for bathing suits. For more information on how NSPs work or schedule your fall and winter servicing, contact BioNova® today.
