Backyard Pond And Water Garden Kit Selection Guide

How do pond and water garden kits differ?

As you probably already noticed from the menu on the left, you have a wide variety of choices when it comes to pond kits, virtually guaranteeing that you'll find something to fit your project size - and budget. Generally, pond kits come in two types - basic kits and professional grade kits.

Basic Pond and Water Garden Kits

Basic pond and water garden kits, like the American Pond Freedom Series or the Anjon Water Gardens do-it-yourself line, make perfect weekend projects. Basic kits pond and water garden tend to be smaller, and are ideal when you want a smaller-sized water feature to accent to your landscape, perhaps to compliment your patio or deck.
With their smaller sized waterfalls and skimmers, basic kits generally do not carry adequate biological filtration for more than a water garden, although carrying a few small goldfish in your water garden is certainly ok. Water gardens are typically built to a depth of 18 to 24 inches; they're prone to freeze over in colder winter climates, which means over-wintering your goldfish is usually not a viable option. But the ambience from moving water will make this one landscaping project you'll enjoy for years to come!

Professional Grade Pond And Water Garden Kits

As their name implies, professional grade pond and water garden kits contain larger - and upgraded - components. The larger skimmers and waterfalls in these kits are built to handle the biological filtration requirements of folks who want to have fish in their ponds, and the kink-free tubing that the basic kits use is upgraded to PVC flexpipe - a more durable pipe required by the higher pump pressures that larger ponds require.

Professional grade pond and water garden kits are generally installed to a depth of 2 to 3 feet, and contain adequate water volume to hold a fair-sized fish population. And with their extra depth, over-wintering your fish is generally not a concern, except in the coldest of climates.

Selecting the pond or water garden kit thats right for you

Obviously, no two ponds - and no two pond owners - are exactly alike. Depending on your climate, pond location, and your ponding needs, what you really want are choices, not a one-size-fits-all solution. If you're undecided, please review the "Build a pond", "Maintain a pond", and "Online reference library" sections of this website. They contain invaluable information to help you make an informed decision, especially the pond calculators and pond installation videos. Ultimately, your aesthetics - and your budget - will help you make the the correct choice for you. But if you're really undecided, simply send us a note and we'll be happy to help you choose.

Now is also a good time to think about those features which will give your pond your unique look and feel. Landscape lighting, fish food, nets and water treatments, while relatively inexpensive, add the ambience you'll want to enjoy relaxing summer evenings by your pond. And if you order them with your kit, you can have everything you need when you turn your pump on for the first time - and take advantage of our free shipping as well. Happy ponding!

A final word - about UV clarifiers

We've never had a customer who installed a pond kit with a UV clarifier who wanted to remove it. We have, however, had several customers look to retro-fit UV clarifiers into their existing ponds. UV clarifiers eliminate single-cell algae, the plant life that can make your water look like pea soup. And although you can balance your pond's ecosystem so that UV clarification is not required, it limits your flexibility for aquascaping or for adding fish to your pond. Basically, you need a lot of sumberged plants, and very few (if any) fish, to properly balance your pond's ecosystem without UV clarification. (For more information, visit the "Water quality" and "Algae control" pages in our "Maintain your pond" section) Outdoor Elements professional grade kits are built with the components we use ourselves - Savio Living waterfalls and Skimmerfilters, and Anjon Big Frog pumps. While a they're bit more expensive initially, the superior filtration (including the optional built-in UVinex clarifier in the Savio Skimmerfilter) and the operational efficiencies of the Big Frog pumps make these kits an exceptional value for the price. They help ensure that you spend more of your time enjoying your pond, not maintaining it. And isn't that really your reason for building a backyard pond to begin with?