Pond Design
Our professional team designs and builds ponds, and waterfalls, that enhance your garden environment and fit within your budget. We believe that your backyard is a sacred place, a place where artistry and beauty are manifested. Water and sound are primal to our love of nature. When you add water you bring in nature’s creations; butterflies, birds, and dragonflies abound, while fish, frogs, and turtles will find their new home. This is all part of nature’s kaleidoscope for you to enjoy, best enjoyed from a comfortable garden chair. That’s what we build – a PondArt built water-feature will provide a beautiful extension of your indoor living area and a soothing retreat for family and friends. Discover your new backyard … sit back, relax, and enjoy it!
Types of ponds:
Backyard Pond or Ecosystem Pond
Entails a rubber Liner, skimmer, biological filter, lined with rocks and gravel, about 2 feet deep and generally about 10 X 14 feet wide.
Accommodates a few KOI, smaller fish, turtles, frogs, water-lilies and marginal plants. Requires regular “skimmer” maintenance, annual biological filter maintenance and “spring pond cleaning”.
Koi Pond
Entails a rubber liner, multiple skimmers, bottom drain, multiple biological filters, settlement chamber, ultra-violet clarifiers, improved aeration and deeper. Accommodates more and larger KOI, few plants (as KOI eat them). Since KOI are admired and fed regularly they generate a lot of waste that needs weekly maintenance of the skimmers, sediment settlement chambers, filters and UV clarifiers. KOI enthusiasts perform (and enjoy) weekly water changes, water testing and the weekly maintenance required.
Hybrid Pond (crossover pond)
Selectively uses the concepts and components from “back yard ponds” and “KOI ponds” to meet the different requirements of client.It is less deep than KOI ponds, fewer KOI, fewer filters, more rock in pond, added shelve areas for plants and habitats for turtles. The expected maintenance is less than KOI ponds but more than “back yard” ponds.
Pondless Waterfall (cascading pondless)
The pond is replaced by a hidden reservoir of water that provides water for the waterfall. This usually consists of a basin, or lined hole in the ground, filled with rocks made into a waterfall and a pump circulating the water. This method literally requires almost NO maintenance, No standing water, No Algae, No mosquitoes, NO pond additives, and No critter vandalism. You determine when you want the waterfall to run, turn it on when you are home, turn it off when you leave. No standing water means that it is safe for front yard installations. Learn more about pondless waterfall design here.
Other types of water feature construction:
Pondless: a general category that includes pond-free cascade, waterfall only wherein the pond portion becomes a hidden reservoir to supply the waterfall.
- Pond to pondless conversion.
- Pondless/Rainwater harvesting system
Advantages of Converting Traditional Ponds to Pondless Waterfalls Designs
At PondArt we specialize in conversions to pondless waterfall systems. The traditional pond is replaced by a hidden reservoir of water that provides water for the waterfall. The waterfall becomes a major feature, providing the sound and visual delight in the garden without the many problems associated with pond upkeep. The advantages of going pondless are numerous, we have listed a few.
- No need for a skimmer or filter
- No need to run the pump 24/7, as required by the pond ecosystem
- Saves electricity: Set a timer to turn it on when your home. Turn it off when you are gone, or on vacation.
- No maintenance: No algae — no additives. Using a leaf blower occasionally will remove most fallen leaves and debris.
- No critter vandalism: Raccoons will not mess up your pond plants in their destructive search for your prize Koi.
- Safe for kids and animals (No standing water)
- No mosquitoes (No standing water)
You might want to keep your pond if:
- You love your fish, and consider pond maintenance a form of therapy.
- You have given your fish names, and enjoy the fish feeding experience.
- Your pond looks good, works well and the water is always clear, or
- You don’t mind string algae, or hair algae.
What is the Conversion and How Do We Do It?
The pond area becomes the reservoir area. We remove the water from the pond, fold back the pond liner, dig a deeper hole to accommodate the pondless “matrix” boxes and new pump vault, and support and cover these components with cobbles and gravel. We re-install the existing pump in the pump vault, install the autofill (from your old skimmer), artistically finish with boulders and rocks and blend the reservoir into your landscape.
Call PondArt today to get a free consultation and estimate. We build ponds, waterscapes, and water gardens, to accommodate all project sizes, lifestyles, and budgets. See our page on rainwater harvesting systems; we can install new systems or incorporate existing designs into current backyard garden settings.
Questions? call 831.688.9799