Fluidsymmetry Pool at Blue Planet in Agonda, Goa, India.  

I Started with building my own therapy pool in Goa 4 years ago. I had spent many years worrying about what I should use, how large my pool should be, what sort of systems I should use etc…

Eventually I built my first pool and It was a disaster….

Luckily for me I was working on a temporary pool, it took me 5 reconstruction attempts to find the correct solution.  This made me want to share my knowledge and understanding of Therapy Pool building to others to save them from the trouble and expense I went through with my first project, the Fluidsymmetry Pool in Agonda, Goa, India.  

I was invited to build a pool at the Blue planet retreat in 2011. Pravin the owner of land wanted a pool which could fit with in his eco-resort without creating too much disturbance. Our budget was £10,000. The land needed a lot of preparation work for a pool to be built but I could see the potential…

From the beginning, I was concerned about orientation: where to put the solar mats and which direction would the pool face… It is clearly very important to work out where you will get optimum sunlight . In this case, I opted to place my solar mats on the roofs of the huts facing the South-West.

Another important aspect of pool building was ground preparation: Its important to have a level flat surface to place a pool…

Then comes the fun part: installing the pool and putting all the equipment together. Its important to allow for mistakes: I didn’t and found myself having to re-plumb the pump room three times to get it right which cost me an extra £1000.

I chose to buy an Index above ground pool for ease of building and economical reasons . 4  years later I still have the same pool, which is pretty good, it held up well. 

In terms of sanitisation equipment, I made many mistakes in my first year, from choosing under-powered pumps to choosing makeshift  water heaters, but you live and you learn!  

Now 4 years on I have a much better idea of how to put a pool together, what works and what doesn’t…

I now have a system which requires little maintenance and stays warm . Here are the improvements:

•  A proper thermal blanket on a roller is essential. Storage and easy installation are also essential, this system is so easy and clean, it makes life much easier.
• Thermal insulation of the pool is also very important: I found that the water became very cold with a permanent roof. I installed a new blind system allowing for solar gain on the surface of the water when the pool is not in use, simple and effective.
•  Sanitisation: I initially tried using UV only to sanitise the pool but found it was not sufficient, now I use a combination system of UV & hydroxyl.
• The pump room was a mess so i re-plumbed it and drew a schematic to make it easy for anyone using the pool to operate.   
• Finally, I installed a heat pump to help out on cloudy days and cool nights

After much re-organising and many attempts, I now have a reliable system which is effortless to maintain.

Bear in mind: each pool is different, location and available resources will shape the decisions you make.   I am available for consulting for pool building and would be happy to have an initial chat with you for free to work out if and how you could benefit from using my services.