The History of the Original Pondless Waterfall
Over the years people have asked: "Who built the Original pondless waterfall?" Internet searches give credit to Aquascape, and further reveal that Aquascape gave credit to one of their "customers" for the idea and concept. This is the story of that "customer".
My name is John Russell, Founder of Russell Watergardens. I was the Aquascape customer who created the Original pondless waterfall that started the entire pondless waterfall industry. I built the Original pondless waterfall at our former store location in Redmond, WA that opened in 2001. The Original pondless waterfall was the first of its kind seen anywhere.
Our store was a former three acre plant and tree nursery surrounded by fir trees that we converted into a large format pond store. The Russell Watergardens store featured dozens of water features, ponds of all sizes and types, koi and other pond fish, aquatic plants, pondless fountains, pondless rock columns, a lake stocked with trout with walk-through waterfalls, and yes, the first of its kind Original pondless waterfall. We held "How to Build It" classes where I taught both the public and contractors how to build ponds, pondless waterfalls, and pondless rock columns.
To create the pondless concept for fountains and rock columns, I used irrigation valve boxes, milk crates, and our 'home-made' slotted pump vaults for lined water reservoirs in the various pondless water features scattered about our three acre store.
Our store featured numerous pondless rock column displays, and pondless fountains from small to huge. We had all sorts of things that had water disappearing into a lined reservoir bed of rock and gravel that was over and around the milk crates and home-made slotted pump vaults. 
Pondless rock columns actually came before pondless waterfalls, but were the inspiration to create pondless waterfalls. We had pondless fountains of all types, but why not have a pondless waterfall? So I built one out of curiosity more than anything.
The lake we built had 'walk-through' waterfalls and all our display ponds and pondless water features made our store a 'Destination-Location'.
A few years after our store opened in Redmond, Aquascape released their bog filtration unit for the purpose of natural lake filtration. I immediately saw how I could use their bog filter in a way in which it wasn't designed. I could use the bog filter unit in reverse inside the pondless reservoir instead of the milk crates and the home-made slotted pump vaults that I was previously using.
For the Original pondless waterfall, I had the unusual idea of using an Aquascape waterfall filter that was designed for pond filtering, on a water feature that didn't have a pond and the term "pondless waterfall" was born.
The four-tiered waterfalls droped from the bio fall filter at the top into the rock and gravel reservoir over the bog filter instead of my homemade slotted pump vault at the bottom. At that time, my company was one of Aquascape's largest customers and I shared what I had created with the Founder of Aquascape using his products, and described in detail how I repurposed his bog filter unit for something brand new and the rest is history.
Using my concept, and with my permission to use my photo of the Original pondless waterfall, Aquascape then published the now famous photo of the Original pondless waterfall with pink azalea blooms in their trade magazines and product catalogs to introduce the pondless waterfall concept that I created to the world.
I created the Original pondless waterfall using Aquascape bog and pond filtration products and shared what I built with Aquascape. Aquascape then used their company size and influence to introduce my pondless waterfall concept to contractors and retailers across the country with great success. The pondless waterfall concept took off like wild fire across the country! People everywhere loved my idea of having a waterfall without a pond! Russell Watergardens and Aquascape had so much success selling pondless waterfall kits and installations that Aquascape's competitors took notice. That is why virtually every pondless waterfall kit online is almost identical to Aquascape. Aquascape was the first to market my pondless waterfall concept. Their competitors quickly followed behind with their own "knock-off" pondless waterfall kits, each based upon my Original pondless waterfall design idea, and concept.
I created the Original rock and gravel pondless reservoir concept - but I haven't recommended a rock and gravel reservoir in decades. Why?
Look at the close-up photo of the Aquascape catalog page showing my Original pondless waterfall - you can clearly see the rock and gravel reservoir at the base of the waterfalls.
At the time, our store was in the Pacific Northwest in Redmond, WA - just outside Seattle, and fir tree needles became the nemesis of the pondless waterfall. I could not keep the fir tree needles out of the rock and gravel reservoir. I could not remove them as fast as the wind would blow them in.
Leaf blowers and shop-vacs would only remove needles off the surface of the rock and gravel, but the force of the waterfalls drove the fir needles down deep inside the rock and gravel.
I discovered that there was no easy way to remove fir tree needles. The only way to remove the debris from the rock and gravel reservoir was to do it by hand. That is my hand and fingers in the photo trying to remove fir tree needles from the rock and gravel. I absolutely hated picking debris from the rocks and gravel.
The Original pondless waterfall featured the original hard-to-clean rock and gravel reservoir. I learned fast how difficult it was to clean and maintain, and I got sick and tired of the hassle! So I invented the Russell Pondless Systems™ Ultimate Pondless Waterfall to make the job of maintaining a pondless waterfall as easy as possible for my own peace of mind.
I discovered just how difficult it was to keep the Original pondless waterfall clean and free of algae. So I created the Russell Pondless Systems™ Ultimate pondless waterfall to save my back, my hands, and my knees from the extreme pain and aggravation of hand picking debris from the rock and gravel reservoir. Easy to Clean is my mantra.
Learn about the Russell Pondless Systems™ Ultimate pondless waterfall
