Hello all, first time poster. There's a lot I'd like to learn, and a lot I don't even know where to start. One of the biggest things I've been questioning is using a liner. I'd like to swim in my pond and have the natural dirt bottom feel, but also don't want to have cloudy, murky, muddy, nasty water. I know it can be done because nature has done it very well, but over many many decades in the construction. I'd like to have the same outcome in 1 year, if possible. I'm impatient like that 
To give a little background on the pond, it's out my back yard about 50ft from the house. It was mostly dug out using a tractor and has a good amount of dirt placed around the edges to make the depth around 6.5ft or so. I think 7ft in the center. About 30ft diameter and roughly circular with a little bit of oval to it.
The pond will serve a few purposes
* a nice cool place to swim
* have some fish and water plant life to enjoy
* for a geothermal sink for helping maintain temps in the house
The geothermal will have about 800ft of plastic pipe laid at the bottom. In the images this shows where I have been digging to try to level the bottom of the pond a bit.
Just under the layer in the images is a clay pan. So for the bottom I won't have to worry about water leaking out, at least very quickly. But also, I don't want to have slimy clay between toes or such. So I'll need something to cover the bottom
For the edges I was thinking of making a semi-natural somewhat water tight wall. I plan on using 1/2 gallon containers that milk or lemonades or such come in. Fill them with sand and then lay them like bricks and use the clay from the bottom as a mortar to build the walls. All the caps facing in one direction. I just haven't figured out if they should face inward, or outward. As I would also need to completely seal the bottle so that it's not visible.
For the filtration I was thinking of using a combination of rock/sand with water plants along the edge and a water fountain at one end.
Any help, comments, suggestions, ideas, hints are greatly welcome
Thanks
To give a little background on the pond, it's out my back yard about 50ft from the house. It was mostly dug out using a tractor and has a good amount of dirt placed around the edges to make the depth around 6.5ft or so. I think 7ft in the center. About 30ft diameter and roughly circular with a little bit of oval to it.
The pond will serve a few purposes
* a nice cool place to swim
* have some fish and water plant life to enjoy
* for a geothermal sink for helping maintain temps in the house
The geothermal will have about 800ft of plastic pipe laid at the bottom. In the images this shows where I have been digging to try to level the bottom of the pond a bit.
Just under the layer in the images is a clay pan. So for the bottom I won't have to worry about water leaking out, at least very quickly. But also, I don't want to have slimy clay between toes or such. So I'll need something to cover the bottom
For the edges I was thinking of making a semi-natural somewhat water tight wall. I plan on using 1/2 gallon containers that milk or lemonades or such come in. Fill them with sand and then lay them like bricks and use the clay from the bottom as a mortar to build the walls. All the caps facing in one direction. I just haven't figured out if they should face inward, or outward. As I would also need to completely seal the bottle so that it's not visible.
For the filtration I was thinking of using a combination of rock/sand with water plants along the edge and a water fountain at one end.
Any help, comments, suggestions, ideas, hints are greatly welcome
Thanks
