For those interested in building a backyard pond with the intent of having healthy koi, we highly recommend reading this article authored by Chris at Hanover Koi Farms.
Pond or Septic System?Aquascape, Inc. is a manufacturer in the water feature world of landscaping, and one of the largest at that. Many of my customers have an Aquascape- designed and built pond. I even have a pond here that utilizes some Aquascape equipment that I intentionally installed as a long term experiment.
After many years of testing, I have proven many basic design flaws with their equipment, design and function, and have since greatly improved upon their system’s flaws. The water in my pond is actually clear and healthy for fish, pets, and humans! (That is when I do not have it crazily overstocked and packed with big fish!) The standard Aquascape design falls far short of being able to achieve healthy clear water.
The water in Aquascape ponds is extremely unsafe for fish, humans and your pets. Aquascape ponds are breeding grounds for some pretty nasty bacteria that can negatively impact fish, humans, and other animals. Believe it or not a few people die every so often from bacterial infections they get from cleaning these nasty cesspools that Aquascape calls ponds! Many more become ill as well. In many of these cases the bacterial infections are very difficult to diagnose and treat, and many doctors have difficulty finding the bacterial strain responsible.
I have worked with many people who have Aquascape ponds to help them achieve proper water quality and clarity, and a safe, clean, and beautiful water feature. I basically redesign them to be suitable and healthy environments for fish, and/or to simply have better looking water that is not pea soup green or filled with nasty muck, debris, and fish pathogens.
Aquascape ponds may look good for the first year or two to the untrained eye, but as they mature they become complete disasters. The water will be dirty and murky from poor filtration and/or they become so green with planktonic algae you can’t even see any fish in them most of the time! That’s ok though because Aquascape with gladly sell you a maintenance contract for doing the frequent cleanouts they require. But if the pond was truly designed properly none of that would be required and there would be far less maintenance needed. Currently the Aquascape design as it stands is not a far cry from an open air septic system…Yuck!
You can read this full article at:
https://hanoverkoifarms.com/aquascape-inc-personal-review-ponds/
