In early April 2014, I was contacted by a very distraught young man. He’d recently had a small pond built for him by a local contractor. The pond was in a small, raised planter against the east wall on his side patio. He said the pond was a mess and all of his fish had …
Creating an airlift system to both circulate water and oxygenate a system at the same time is one of my favorite pond construction techniques. Almost any pond can be built using an airlift system in some fashion, but formal designs lend themselves to airlifts more often than garden designs. Formal ponds are generally located in …
Best Practices | Formal Pond Circulation & Oxygenation Read More »
The floating bridge, or steppingstone look, has been popular for some time now in both formal and garden pond designs. Building them in a manner that will stay stable over time isn’t actually that difficult. Floating stone bridges give an appearance of freedom that solid bridges or bridges with railings simply cannot. The feeling of …
We’re back with the third installment of our series on the formal courtyard pond. This article is just one example of how to deal with this specific type of formal pond. With the structure and basic plumbing in place, the polyurea liner can be installed. Polyurea is usually a two-coat operation, with the first application …
Business Trends | This is an installment of an ongoing, multi-part series. Be sure to watch for further installments in future issues! Click here to see multiple articles With the popularity of formal-entry and courtyard ponds increasing, the ability to incorporate proper system design is essential to long-term success. This project in particular was both a …
Hold the Shotcrete: These Pond Fundamentals Come First Read More »
For most of us in the industry, we are often called upon last. By last, I mean the customer typically makes decisions about pond placement, layout, aesthetics, an unrealistic budget and so forth. As a qualified builder, your job is to deal with the direction the project is already heading, making suggestions based on the …
Best Practices | How to Rescue a Functionless Formal Pond Read More »
There are occasions when building directly against the earth isn’t going to be your best option. In climates where the winter temperatures are severely cold, or where summer temperatures are extremely hot, an insulated pond might be your better choice. There are many ponds around the world that are built with insulation between the liner …
To be efficient, pond filtration equipment is usually installed as close to the pond as possible. Hiding these parts can be as creative an endeavor as building the pond itself. Many times the ability to hide equipment in plain sight aesthetically makes or breaks a pond’s appearance. Customers want to see the pond —“ not …
Best Practices: How to Gracefully Conceal Your Filtration Equipment Read More »
Many builders and contractors have a difficult time with drawing or sketching a layout for a living water feature design. Landscape architects leave it at drawing a shape on the plans, with no allowance for filtration or proper circulation in the basic shape, creating a “design build” situation. This usually leads to a set of …
Water Feature Design: Streamline your Projects with 3D Tools Read More »
Living water features produce solids from fish wastes, food, dirt, leaves, algae and other environmental conditions. Removing these solids from the water column before the pump or biofiltration has become an important part of a complete filtration system. The methods of removing solid wastes are known as prefiltration and the techniques that are used have …
Keep Your Pond Clean With Proper Prefiltering Techniques Read More »
