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JR has been my mentor for many years and here is something he wrote awhile back about koi ponds and water gardens.
A koi pond is a body of water that caters to the needs and likes of koi. It has:
1) a turn over rate so that the loads of ammonia produced by the koi get to a filter rapidly and regularly before this toxin damages the gills.
2) It has a current to it so that no waste settles on the bottom and rots there, creating a proliferation of disease causing organisms. This movement, especially at the water surface mixes all levels within the pond and encourages high gas exchange- good gas in ( oxygen) bad gas out ( carbon dioxide, nitrogen gases)
3) a large and deep body of water. Large so that rain and night chill, day time sun and other forms of precipitation do not pull water temperatures and pH around too abruptly, leading to stress and disease in the process. Especially if point #2 is not right and bacteria counts are abnormally high in the water column.
A pond is also large and deep because koi grow large. If a 24-28 inch fish is to swim, act and grow normally it needs water at least twice as deep as its length- minimum. Koi also love to forage and work their way around their environment. This becomes impossible in an eight foot wide pond.
A water garden on the other hand, has conditions that cater to plants and small species of hardy fish and amphibians.
It is shallow, heats in warm weather, attracts insects and amphibians- mostly because the water moves slower than a koi pond. PH and high temperature don’t matter much nor does depth. In fact, my plant friends tell me lilies like slow moving water. And I KNOW plants like carbon dioxide in the water and slightly acid conditions.
So if you look beyond what is stuck in some ponds and focus on inhabitants needs, you can quickly determine what animals that body of water is good for and therefore what it should be called. Yes? JR
Maybe this is short and to the point that Mike Garcia was looking for.
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