Pond Styles

Multiple Pond Styles Give You More Options

Water Garden Ponds	Koi Ponds
Hybrid Ponds™	Crossover Ponds™
Bubble-less Koi Ponds™	More Pond Styles More Pond Designs More Installation Options All are Easy to Clean

Types of Backyard Ponds

Water Garden Ecosystem Pond, Hybrid Pond™, CrossOver Pond™, and Koi Ponds Explained

If you're planning a backyard pond, it's important to understand that not all ponds are built the same.

For decades, homeowners had only two pond styles to choose from:

• Water Garden Ecosystem Pond
• Koi Pond

At Russell Watergardens, we expanded those options by inventing new pond styles designed to combine beauty, fish health, easier maintenance, and to completely eliminate the need for annual pond draining and pressure washing.

Today, we offer several innovative pond designs in addition to the water garden ecosystem pond and koi pond, including:

• Hybrid Pond™
• CrossOver Pond™
• Bubble-Less™ Koi Pond

These advanced pond designs were created through the development of our patented and exclusive technologies including:

• Hydro Vortex™ patented backwashable waterfall filter
• HydroFlush™ patented backwash system
• HydroSieve™ bottom drain pre-filter
• HydroChamber™ aeration and degassing tank

Water Garden Ecosystem Pond

The Most Common Landscape Pond

Water garden ecosystem ponds, or Aquascape-style ponds as they are often called, are the most widely installed backyard pond style.  They are designed primarily as landscape features.

Typical characteristics include:

• Natural looking landscape pond
• Decorative rock and boulders on all submerged vertical walls
• Rock and gravel covered bottoms and submerged horizontal surfaces
• Stepped-down sides
• Aquatic plants directly planted into shallow plant shelves
• A waterfall filter
• A pond skimmer
• No bottom drain
• Varying shallow water depths 
• 24" - 36" maximum depths
• Not the healthiest choice for raising koi

Water garden ecosystem ponds create beautiful, natural looking ponds, but are not specifically designed for raising koi fish long-term.

Koi Pond

Designed Specifically for Raising Koi

A true koi pond is engineered for fish health, water quality, predator prevention, and efficient waste removal.

Unlike water garden ecosystem ponds, koi ponds typically feature:

• Formal pond appearance
• No rocks or gravel anywhere in the pond
• Straight down sides for predator prevention
• Smooth bare liner
• Bottom drain
• Bottom drain pre-filter
• External filtration
• Pond skimmer
• External aeration pump
• Air bubbles in the pond
• UV system
• No aquatic plants
• Minimum depth of 36"
  
• The healthiest choice for raising koi

Koi ponds function more like large aquatic life-support systems than decorative landscape ponds.

This allows koi to grow larger, healthier, stronger, and to live much longer

Hybrid Pond™

Combining a Water Garden Ecosystem Pond with Koi Pond

The Hybrid Pond™, invented by Russell Watergardens, blends the beauty of a water garden ecosystem pond with the improved filtration performance and koi health of a koi pond.

This pond style offers:

• More natural looking pond than a koi pond
• Decorative rock and boulders on all submerged vertical walls
• No rock or gravel on the horizontal surface - only smooth bare liner
• One perimeter marginal plant shelf for aquatic plant baskets
• A waterfall filter
• A pond skimmer
• A bottom drain
• A bottom drain pre-filter
• External aeration
• UV System
• Minimum depth of 36"
• A healthier choice for raising koi than a water garden ecosystem pond

Hybrid Ponds™ are made possible by our patented Hydro Vortex™ backwashable waterfall filter with the patented HydroFlush™ backwash system, and the HydroSieve™ bottom drain pre-filter.

CrossOver Pond™

The Next Evolution of Pond Design

The CrossOver Pond™ takes the Hybrid Pond™ concept even further.  The CrossOver Pond™ bridges the gap between a Hybrid Pond™ and a traditional koi pond, allowing homeowners to enjoy: 

• More natural looking pond than a koi pond
• One perimeter marginal plant shelf
• Decorative boulders on the marginal plant shelf
• Smooth, straight down sides (after the plant shelf) for predator prevention
• No rock or gravel on the horizontal surface - only smooth bare liner
  
• A waterfall filter
• A pond skimmer
• A bottom drain
• A bottom drain pre-filter
• External aeration
• UV System
• Minimum depth of 60"
• A healthier choice for raising koi than a water garden ecosystem pond or a Hybrid Pond™

This design provides a balanced system for homeowners who want both a natural looking pond with healthy koi.

Bubble-Less™ Koi Pond

Crystal Clear Water and Unobstructed Viewing of Koi

Traditional koi ponds rely on submerged aeration, which releases thousands of bubbles into the water.

While this oxygenates the pond, it also:

• Disturbs the water surface
• Distorts and obscures viewing of koi

Russell Watergardens solved this problem with the Bubble-Less™ koi pond. Instead of aerating the pond directly with bubbles in the pond, oxygenation happens outside the pond within the plumbing system.

How the Bubble-Less™ System Works

Our system uses the HydroChamber™, an all-in-one waterfall, aerator, and degassing chamber.

The process works like this:

• Water leaves the biological filtration system
• It enters the HydroChamber™
• Water cascades internally like a waterfall, helping remove unwanted gasses
• Aeration stones inside the chamber oxygenate the water
• Oxygen-rich water returns to the pond through strategically placed returns call TPR's (tangential pond returns)

These TPR return lines create a gentle swirling vortex circulation pattern that moves oxygenated water throughout the pond without disturbing the surface.

The result is:

• Optimum dissolved oxygen levels
• Continuous circulation that drives debris to the bottom drain at the bottom of the pond and the pond skimmer at the pond surface
• Crystal-clear, unobstructed viewing of koi anywhere in the pond

Why Russell Pond Systems Are Different

Unlike many pond kits sold today, our systems are designed using professional koi pond engineering principles, including:

• Easy to clean mechanical filtration
• Easy to clean biological filtration
• Efficient circulation
• Oxygen management

These principles help create cleaner water, healthier fish, easier maintenance, lower cost of ownership, and happier owners.

Which Pond Style Is Right for You?

Choosing the right pond style depends on your goals.

 

Russell Watergarden offers complete pond kits, filtration systems, and expert guidance to help you build the perfect pond.

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