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Originally Posted by mikegarcia  Steve, Kent, JR, DoHd, Russell, Carolina girl and the many other who have been gracious enough to respond. I want to thank you all! Your words are very encouraging to me. As a contractor, I have a responsibility to make money to pay the bills. On the other hand, I am now seeing the need to balance this with the desire to do the right thing. I hope you can see a little better why the typical landscaper is not a bad guy. He was instructed in one way to build a water feature. This has the blessing of a noted, book writing "koi Doctor". All this is magnified by the lure of big, quick money. My eyes are opened by attending pond events such as **************, which exposes a watergarden installing landscaper to things like bead filtration and UV lights. I feel that my contracting abilities are enhanced by being able and qualified to add Traditional Koi Ponds to my menu of services which my company offered. My wish and desire is that someday, ALL landscapers would become educated in the building of a Traditional Koi Pond. Even if they don't want to build one, perhaps they could offer to service them. One thing nobody has addressed is this...Is ADI a marketing genius? I think they are. Whether you love or hate them, I think that is one positive about them, which has in a very interesting way, initiated bringing me where I am today respecting the pond world. Do I agree with the way ADI ponds are built? Yes, If you are building a water garden. But this is not the best environment to raise champion Koi. I remember doing a pond cleanout on my backyard pond and being disgusted with the knee deep fish poop that I was about to bucket out of the waterfall box. It was a dark chocolate liquidy brown color. It is not very glamorous. This is a big reason I want to install a Traditional Koi Pond. Like Burt showed in his slide, All waterfeatures are toilet bowls, Traditonal Koi ponds happen to flush. Right now, My pond incorporates the Russell Watergarden filtration box. At least I can "flush" the waterfall box. But the herons still get a fish or two because my pond is not super deep, but it does have a cave. I feel bad that if a person was to tear out a large number of watergarden type ponds, this would contribute to landfill mass. I don't know if this should be another thread, but I will ask this anyways. Is there a way to retrofit a watergarden to become more Koi friendly? What steps are necessary to make a watergarden more koi friendly? |
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Mike,
My sincerest wishes are that your eyes get opened up and that you can learn. There are many styles of "teaching" going on in theses threads, some "tough" and some easier going. If you learn the lessons that are being given, you will be ahead of the game.
Now, let's talk a little about watergardens and retroing such as a Koi pond. You can make a watergarden more friendly towards koi but it is basically a total rebuild to make it an actual koi pond. Why? well, depth and structure are the keys here. Increasing the depth and doing away with the bowling of the form to vertical walls (both for the needs of the koi actually require differing construction methods. In addition, the liner used in the original build will not fit the same footprint with the added depth. The exterior landscape rock could be reused and perhaps the biofalls but that would be secondary to the chosen filtration and equipment for the bottom drain and skimmer circuits.
The skimmer may be reuseable but the submersible pump would not likely be incorporated into the system.
Oh, by the way, it was my slide presentation that utilized the comparison between an outhouse and a modern Toilet.
Another thing you should consider here. The Koi folks talk about the differences between watergardens and koi ponds. Even watergardens can benefit from a few modifications utilized in the modern koi pond. Utilizing a 4" drain plumbed out beyound the pond to a settlement system such as a sump pit or even to a low point. Remove the R&G from the bottom and the pond becomes exponentially easier for the owner to maintain. In addition, the water volume that was once stagnet within the R&G is no longer so and thus adds to the "real, useable" volume of the pond.
As to you question concerning ADI being a marketing genius? There have been many Genius' in the world through history who were able to market themselves. As an example, just think about some of the dictators or even elected officials who were able to "market" themselves. Being a Genius at marketing does not make it a good thing since the truth always prevails.
Steve