Welcome

Cutting Through the Misinformation
Water gardening is an old hobby that today, is the hottest trend in landscaping, nationwide. Radical changes in product development and design concepts have converged to make today’s water gardens the most beautiful, ecologically friendly, and low maintenance water features in history. However, to capitalize on the latest design trends and product advancements, you need to have a blueprint to follow for water garden success. As with any exploding industry, like water gardening is right now, misinformation and conflicting advice run rampant. This guide and owner’s manual is designed to cut through the confusion and become your blueprint for success in the water gardening hobby.

You have two routes to take when getting into this hobby. The traditional do-it-yourself track, or the hiring of a landscape or water gardening professional to do it for you. This magazine contains the blueprints for both avenues.

Working with Mother Nature
The Aquascape™ products and plans are designed for the weekend warrior tackling a water garden project, and the AquascapePRO™ products are designed and constructed for professionals or serious water gardeners. Both products and systems are designed to do one thing – create ponds that work with Mother Nature, and not against her. Only by doing that, can you truly have a beautiful, natural, and low maintenance water feature to enjoy. As you see when you flip through these pages, there’s a boatload of products and information to help you succeed and enjoy the water garden lifestyle.

Inspiring and Educational
When you take the plunge with water gardening, be sure to visit www.aquascapeinc.com, a web site that contains articles on container water gardens, seasonal maintenance, installation tips, and much more! While you’re there, click on the “Newsletter” link to sign up for Pondside Monthly and receive free tips and articles in your e-mailbox each month.

All these resources ensure one thing: There is a plan to cut through the confusion, and once you get your water feature, there’s going to be consistent and up-to-date support to help you enjoy your new hobby.

You Deserve It!
Don’t you deserve your own piece of paradise to come home to each day? Take the plunge and join the millions of “pondaholics” who are already enjoying the hottest trend in landscaping today!

Understanding Pond Ecology

The goal in water gardens today is the creation of a naturally balanced, low maintenance aquatic ecosystem that allows water gardeners more relaxation time by their aquatic paradise, and less time worrying about maintenance.

What Is an Ecosystem Anyway?
In biological terms, a community or ecosystem can be defined as plants and animals interacting with one another in the sharing of available resources and restraints in a defined area. An ecosystem encompasses all the parts of this environment, including the living plants and animals, water, air, and the sun’s energy. Backyard ponds can function as ecosystems because they play host to a total interrelationship of all organisms in the environment – birds, fish, frogs, plants, and many microscopic organisms. These ponds not only create a natural ecosystem in their defined environment, but they also fit into the community or life cycle of not just one backyard, but of the entire ecological region.

The Big Picture
We should remember that our backyard water features are not only enjoyable for us, but also helpful to the well being and functioning of our environment. Do you want your pond to be more diverse? Given a little time and a proper plant selection in and around your pond, you can create a very diverse ecosystem in your yard. Just remember to keep it simple and, with patience, your pond will mature over the years into a beautiful and functioning part of nature.

One Pond Makes a Difference
One pond in one backyard may not seem very important, but when you have a thousand similar backyard ecosystems functioning simultaneously, there truly is a positive impact being made on the environment. These water features help provide an oasis for creatures whose natural habitat have been replaced by development – birds, frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders, and many others whose numbers have been declining sharply for many years now.

So at a grassroots level, as the hobby of water gardening grows, there are additional habitats and diversity being added to our stressed suburban environments.

Pond Fish (Click Here for more information on POND FISH)

Koi … the jewels of the water garden! Have you thought about making them a part of your watery paradise. Everyone who has koi preaches of the joy they have while feeding them, watching them swim through caves and waterfalls, and even naming them. You’ll find koi of all different shapes and sizes named accordingly. There’s “Goldie” – everyone’s favorite yellow fish; and “Spot” – the fish with a precarious spot on the front of its forehead; the names can go on, and on, and on!

Low-Maintenance Pets
One of the other things that is so wonderful about welcoming a fishy friend into your pond is that they are pretty low maintenance. You won’t see a koi scratching at the door to go for a walk, or choosing your prized sofa for a litter box. Nope. Fish live, breath, and eat in the exact same place … your pond. They truly are one of the most low-maintenance pets you can have.

When it comes to feeding them, you may notice that there are several different recommendations out there. If your fish are part of a balanced ecosystem, as is the case with the Aquascape system, your best bet is to feed them as much as they will eat in five minutes, being careful not to leave too much food floating at the surface.

Fish can also over-winter in your pond, so you can rest assured that they won’t be in a tub in the middle of the living room as the months get colder. After all, they won’t even pay rent!

More Than Just Koi
Are there other fish, besides koi, that make great pond-living pets? There most certainly are! That same goldfish that stares at you from the glass at the fish store is a perfect fit for your pond. Goldfish are incredibly resilient and can be a great starter fish for a new pond owner. Best of all, they come in all, shapes, sizes, and colors and if you have a container water garden or preformed pond, they’re a great fit!

Another fish that is sure to find its way into your heart resembles the koi, but is much smaller. It’s called a shubunkin and it’s a kind of single-tailed, long-bodied goldfish that differs from the koi in the fact that it doesn’t have “barbells,” which are whiskers of sorts that are used to root through gravel.

It Doesn’t End There
If you do your homework, you’ll find that there are plenty of fish (many native to your area) that would be perfectly content in your home. From minnows to mosquito fish, to carp and game fish – your options are endless. Fish are a major part of your pond’s ecosystem and they are important to your pond’s overall health, but they also make great pets. And best of all, regardless of what’s happened in your life, they’ll always be there to greet you at the end of a long day. Ain’t that grand!?

The Role of Plants in a Water Garden

Aquatic plants aren’t just used in the water garden to provide beauty and naturalization – they also serve the very important function of helping to balance the pond ecosystem. Their valuable biological filtration helps remove nitrogen, ammonia, nitrates, and other minerals that algae would otherwise feed on. In addition, the plants provide food, shade, and protection for the fish and wildlife that live in and around the pond. Typically, they are divided into four groups – water lilies, marginals, floating plants, and submerged plants.

Water Lilies
Water lilies are available in hardy and tropical varieties. They both come in a wide variety of colors, shapes, and sizes and the leaves provide fish with shade from the heat of the summer sun, cooling the water and making algae control easier too.

Hardy
Hardy water lilies are reliably perennial from the northern reaches of Zone 3, to the subtropical areas of Zone 11. The white, pink, red, or yellow flowers float directly on the water surface and are open during the day. When cold weather comes, the foliage dies. This should be removed before winter. New leaves emerge again in the spring.

Tropicals
The flowers of tropical water lilies sit above the water and come in the typical whites, yellows, pinks, and reds. Unique to tropical water lilies are the blue shades - light blue to deep purple. Flowers are also more often fragrant and there are varieties available that bloom at night.

Although tropical lilies are only hardy to zones 10 and 11, they can be planted in colder zones when the water temperature is consistently above 70º F and treated as annuals or over-wintered, if given proper care.

To Pot or Not?
Go natural when planting your water lilies – hide those pots! Planting pockets help you do this. Hopefully these have been excavated into your pond, if not, you can create them with rocks right on the liner. Place the potted lily into the pocket and cover with rocks to hide the pots.

Fertilizing
Fertilizing water lilies is necessary to encourage a greater number of larger flowers. Time-released, granular fertilizer, mixed into the soil at the bottom of the pot or plant pocket is a great way to fertilize lilies at the time of planting. Any other time, however, it would be messy and inconvenient. That’s when lily fertilizer tablets work great.

Marginal Aquatics
Marginal aquatics are the plants found growing around the edges (margins) of a water garden. They add valuable filtration to the pond and they remove elements that would otherwise feed algae.

To create a natural-looking pond, a good selection of marginal plants is very important. There are hundreds of varieties – hardy and tropical – that come in all shapes, sizes, textures, and flower colors.

How to Plant Marginals
In a rock and gravel pond, marginal plants are generally placed directly into the gravel. This allows them to thrive naturally, and filter the water more effectively. Invasive species should be kept in pots that are buried in the rocks and gravel. Well-behaved plants can be taken out of the pots and planted directly in the gravel where the roots can absorb nutrients directly from the substrate of the pond where fish waste and other organic debris settle and begin to decompose.

Choose the area you wish to place the plant, move the gravel aside with your hands, place the plant, and spread the gravel around the base to support the plant and hide the pot. If you’re planting bare-root, remove the plant from the pot and wash away any loose soil before planting. Tropicals that you plan to bring indoors over the winter, should be left in the pots to make removal easier.

Floating Aquatics
Floating aquatic plants float on the water surface while their roots hang down into the water. Most are tropical, but a few are hardy perennials in climates with hard winter freezes. These plants may be used to shade the water, helping with summer algae control.

Plants such as hyacinth and water lettuce do a great job of disguising the open top of the BIOFALLS® filter, while providing excellent filtration. Use a stick across the spillway to keep the waterfall from carrying the plants over and into the pond. They can also be floated in the pond, however care must be taken to make sure that they don’t end up in the skimmer.

Submerged Aquatic Plants
Submerged plants are commonly referred to as oxygenators, but this is a false description. These plants do produce oxygen during the day, but at night and on cloudy days, the cycle is reversed and they use oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. These plants are still important allies in creating a well-balanced water feature by using nutrients in the water. They also provide great hiding places for baby fish.

The Added Touch
Aquatic plants will add a new dimension to your water feature. If you take the time to learn a little about them and their requirements, you’ll find them easy to install and care for. They come in many forms and sizes, varying widely in their environmental needs. It is highly likely that, for any given situation, you can find several species of aquatic plants to fill the bill. To learn more about aquatic plants, grab a copy of The Hobbyist’s Guide to Pond Plants.

Pond Myths

I want my pond located in the lowest part of my yard!
This is probably the worst location for your investment because of the run-off that can creep its way into your pond. When your pond is positioned near your house, you can take in the beauty and tranquility of your pond when entertaining friends or lounging on your deck.

You can use a timer on your pond!
Not true! Your pond is a living, breathing ecosystem that needs constant oxygen, just like the human race. If you shut your system down at night, then you can never have sufficient growth of beneficial bacteria to fight algae blooms, and your finned friends will have a hard time breathing. You can shut down a Pondless® Waterfall system, however, whenever you’d like because plants and fish are not depending on the circulation for oxygen and nutrients.

It’s necessary to drain and clean your pond regularly.
If you decide to work in harmony with Mother Nature, using the five-part recipe, instead of doing battle with her, then draining and cleaning your pond should take place only once a year (at most). Clean-outs should occur in the spring, before the weather gets warm and the bacteria has an opportunity to set up.

Bottom drains work best if you have koi.
If you avoid making your pond any deeper than two feet, there is very little difference in the oxygen levels at the surface and at the bottom of the pond.

The more filtration,the better the pond.
Believe or not, you can over-filter a pond. Tight filter pads in your skimmer pick up the smallest particles of debris, causing you to be cleaning the filtering mechanism out constantly. Fish in the wild certainly don’t swim around in bottled water. If you can see a dime on the bottom of the pond, then the water clarity is just right for your fish and filtering past that create headaches, not eliminate them.

You can’t be a koi hobbyist and a water gardener.
Not true! You can raise koi and have a beautiful water garden. The koi can grow up to be just as beautiful and just as healthy as they are in traditional koi ponds – and you’ll love them just as much!

High tech is the solution to controlling Mother Nature.
More than anything else, being observant and learning from Mother Nature is what it takes to be a water gardener. Whatever she does naturally is what you should be doing in your pond.

Predators will eat all of your fish!
Raccoons generally won’t swim. That’s not to say they never swim, or couldn’t stand on the side of your pond and take a paw swipe or two at your fish. Fortunately, most fish will swim to a deeper, more protected part of the pond when a predator is threatening them. The one predator with legitimate credentials is the blue heron. The Scarecrow, a motion-sensing sprinkler that can be set up alongside your pond, ready to fire a steady stream of water at a heron, has had some degree of success in warding off these curious critters. Plenty of lily pads give them some protection and will work to minimize attracting a heron in the first place. Other protection measures include a cave-like structure that can be built in during the pond’s excavation, or if you already have a pond, they can be added with a little pond remodeling. Crevices, or miniature caves, can also be created within the rock walls of your pond.

The presence of rocks and gravel make it difficult to clean your pond.
Rocks and gravel offer a natural place for aerobic bacteria to colonize and set up housekeeping. This bacteria breaks down the fish waste and debris that would otherwise accumulate in the pond and turn into sludge. Regardless of your pond’s location (i.e. close to trees and loads of leaves), or how many fish you have in it, you’ll find that having rocks and gravel in your pond not only makes it look better, but it makes it healthier as well. So contrary to the myth, having rocks and gravel on the bottom of your pond actually allows Mother Nature to clean up after herself.

UV lights such as those in the UltraKlear™ UVC are the best way to keep your pond water clear.
UV clarifiers are one of the ways to keep your pond water clear, but certainly not the only way, and arguably not the natural way. The fact of the matter is that if you have a pond that’s naturally balanced, in which the aquatic circle of life is rotating the way that Mother Nature intended, you don’t need UVC at all. A naturally balanced pond is a low maintenance pond because Mother Nature is doing the maintenance work for you.

Your pond must be at least three feet deep in order to keep koi.
There are thousands of two-foot deep ponds around the country, full of happy and healthy koi. You see, the water in a two-foot deep pond will generally only freeze eight inches down, even in the coldest of climates, because of the insulating qualities of the earth that surrounds the pond. Also, more digging means more work, more water to fill the pond, and more additives to treat algae and fish illnesses.

Koi can’t be kept in a pond that also contains plants.
In a naturally balanced ecosystem, koi and plants complement and need one another. In nature, fish feed on plants. As a result, the fish produce waste, which is broken down by aerobic bacteria on the bottom of your pond, which, in turn, is used as fertilizer by the plants to grow and produce more natural fish food. It’s known as the circle of life, and to imply that koi and plants shouldn’t co-exist is to ignore nature. On the other hand, you have to have a sufficient volume of plants to accommodate the koi too. In the naturally balanced pond, proportionality is always a key ingredient to success.

You have to bring your fish inside for the winter.
Fish do fine during the coldest of winters as long as you give them two feet of water to swim in, oxygenate the water, and keep a hole in the ice with a bubbler, allowing the naturally produced gasses to escape from under the ice.

Your pond water must be tested on a daily basis.
Mother Nature never tests her water, and her ecosystem does just fine. A well conceived, naturally balanced water garden normally requires no testing either.

A pond in your backyard means you will have a lot of mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes will generally only lay their eggs in still, stagnant water. If the mosquitoes happen to lay eggs in your pond and the mosquito larvae hatch, the fish in your pond will consider them a treat and will pick them off the water’s surface with great enthusiasm.

You cannot have a pond in an area where there are a lot of trees.
Yes, you will have more leaves in your pond in the fall but, by the same token, the shade provided by the tree(s) will help minimize the algae bloom in the summer. Furthermore, if you have a skimmer sucking the top quarter inch of water off the top of your pond, it will pull most of the leaves and related debris into the skimmer net. This takes about 30 seconds to empty, and it can be a daily task in the fall if your pond is close to trees.

You can’t have koi in a pond that also has rocks and gravel.
Koi are actually just a fancy variety of carp, and all carp are bottom feeders. They love to swim along the bottom and scavenge everything that is available on and in-between the rocks.

It’s okay to use chemicals in your pond.
Products like algaecide (copper sulfate), dechlorinator (sodium thiosulfate), and fish antibiotics are commonly used as quick-fix solutions to balance related problems. In the end, your best bet is to attack the root cause of the problem and make sure that you have a naturally-balanced pond that allows Mother Nature to take care of all the maintenance issues.

Having a pond may decrease the value of your home!
Everyone knows when it comes to the resale value of your home, a swimming pool can be deadly. However, in the opinion of some real estate agents, ponds can be a great addition to your home that might even pay dividends. With water features becoming more and more popular, you can bet that the demand for them will get even bigger!

I have liability or safety concerns!
It’s natural to have these thoughts and concerns, but it is important to remember that a professionally-installed water garden has steps leading into the pond. The first shelf is only ankle high once the gravel is laid down. The next shelf is up to your knee, while the smallest area in the bottom is just above your knee, so it is not constructed like a swimming pool. We do recommend that you make your neighbors aware of the water garden and educate your own children and friends about the safety of any body of water. If liability is a true concern, consider the option of a Pondless® Waterfall.

Pond Calculations

Charts and Conversions:

Approximate Gallons of Water in a POND
Length x Width x 80% x Avg. Depth x 7.48 = total gallons
***the basin takes up approximately 80% of the actual SQ. FT.

Approximate Gallons of Water in a STREAM
(Length x Width x .25 (Depth) x 7.48) = Gallons in the stream.
****You need 2x the amount of water in your basin****

Approximate Gallons of Water in a PONDLESS ® WATERFALL BASIN
With Stone
Length x Width x Depth x 2.2 = Gallons in the Basin
With Large Matrix
Length x Width x Depth / 4.3 = Number of matrix used
Number of matrix used x 32 = Gallons in the Basin
With Small Matrix
Length x Width x Depth / 2.3 = Number of matrix used
Number of matrix used x 17 = Gallons in the Basin

Electrical Consumption / Conversions
Amps x Volts ÷ 1,000 x .10 (kw/perhour) x 24 hrs x 30.4 days = Monthly Cost
Watts = volts x amps
Amps = watts ÷ volts

Rock Calculation for the POND
Length x Width ÷ 40 = Tons of boulders
***Using a 1:2:1 ratio***
For every (1 TON) of 6”-12” rock, Get (2 TON) of 12”-18” and (1 TON) of 18”-24”

Quantity of Boulders used in a STREAM
For Every 10’ of STREAM = (1 ½ TON) using 1:2:1 RATIO from above

Quantity of GRAVEL Used in the POND
Pond Gravel = 30% total tons of pond boulders

Quantity of GRAVEL Used in the STREAM
Stream Gravel = 30% total tons of STREAM Boulders

Small MicroPond/ D.I.Y. Rock Calculation for the POND
Length x Width ÷ 65 = Tons of boulders

Small MicroPond / D.I.Y. Quantity of Boulders used in a STREAM
For Every 10’ of STREAM = (½ TON) 6”-12” & (½ TON) 12”-18”