Discovering the beauty of the bubble pump

Building a natural pool is all about creating a stunning natural environment for people to relax in. Giving them an oasis of peace and calm on their doorstep, a place to escape the noise and bustle of the everyday world.

By creating an environmentally sustainable ecosystem, we are heading towards a more natural way of being, treading lightly on the earth without leaving too big a footprint. The pools need no chemicals, the water is cleaned in the regeneration area by a complex system of planting and layers of shingle. This environment is perfect for wildlife, for insects and for birds. It doesn’t take long after filling a pool for the pond skaters to be walking across the surface, thanks to their hydrophobic feet. Dragonflies and damselflies swoop through the plants, preying on them and other insects, like the whirligig beetles tumbling through the water. Then the birds come, kingfishers darting, curious coots and the occasional heron can be drawn to the fresh water just as if it was a natural lake. Your garden becomes a haven of peace and a place to be immersed the natural world.

But in order for this to take place, the water needs to be pumped upwards through the layers of aggregates and plants, allowing the natural filtration to work its magic. And this means mechanical pumps, which means noise and also means big electricity bills. Our issue was how to minimise the energy impact of our pools, creating a calm space both for the wildlife and for our customers.

The answer came in a bubble pump solution. Operating like a giant aquarium, the water is drawn into piping that criss-crosses under the planting, it is sucked into the bubble pump where the water is forced upwards by airstones, escaping to the surface as bubbles. The gentle rippling sound of bubbles as they reach the surface creates the exact feeling that we are after, bubbling brooks, cascading streams, all the sounds that we associate with peace and calm. And the added benefit is that they are powered by an air compressor rather than a mechanical pump, which costs a fraction of the cost to run. We have had to experiment with sound reduction casings for the air compressor to sit in, to make sure that there is no noise from the compressor itself to interfere with the natural sounds all around.

Our customers say that the system is so efficient that they only need to have to have the compressor on for 2 hours a day and that is enough to keep the water crystal clear. In our larger projects we used 9 bubble pumps in a pond of 300 square meters, all powered from a machine that uses 80 watts, as opposed to a mechanical pump using 2500 watts. What is not to love?