The 3 Different Types Of Water Features Perfect For Backyards

The only Master Aquascape Certified Contractors in Iowa

The 3 Different Types Of Water Features Perfect For Backyards

These Are The Low-Maintenance Water Features Our Clients In Des Moines Choose Between Or Combine

It’s a great idea to explore your options for backyard water features! Not everyone wants the same look for their home.

In this post, you can find out what the different types of water features for backyards are. You can also find out what makes them low-maintenance, their pros and cons, and see pictures of projects clients have had us do.

Fantastic Idea!

“I have one every so often,” smiles Adam.

Angela laughs. “Don’t get too full of yourself, sir. Sure, getting one of the different types of water features for our backyard is a good idea. But, it doesn’t mean you can go and get a big head.”

Adam chuckles, rolling his eyes. “Fine, fine, you’re right. But, you really like the idea, right? The low-maintenance part’s pretty attractive.”

Angela nods excitedly. “It sounds fun and unique! I’m not sure about the low-maintenance part though. Or how much it costs to build and maintain a koi pond.”

Adam shrugs. “I don’t know enough to be able to tell you anything.” Angela frowns then gets her phone out. “Then we can turn to Google for answers! We can at least find pros and cons.”

“While we’re doing this, let’s see if we can find any pictures of projects near us,” suggests Adam. “Maybe we’ll find something really good and someone who can create what we want.”

Here’s what the couple discovers:

The 3 Different Types Of Water Features

The three different types of water features for backyards are koi ponds, pondless, and fountains. Pondless water features include streams and waterfalls. Fountains come in a wide array of styles and sizes. Depending on who builds them, and how, they can be low-maintenance and beautiful.

You can combine these three features in any way, such as putting fountains near the top of a stream that waterfalls into a koi pond.

What Makes A Water Feature Low-Maintenance

Each of the different types of water features has a certain level of maintenance.

For koi ponds, you’ll only have a few minutes of cleaning per week. This is usually just clearing the skimmer baskets of debris.

You’ll need a pond contractor for the deeper koi pond maintenance processes. These are deeper cleanings that ready your water feature for the season. Koi ponds need at least one per year.

This is only possible if, like us, you build ecosystem koi ponds. They’re built to mimic a natural pond, including the natural filters. They keep themselves clean and clear so you don’t have to!

Pondless water features have even less maintenance. There’s less water and they’re easier to clean. They might need one bigger cleaning per year.

Fountains are easy to clean unless they get really dirty. Then it might take a contractor’s fountain cleaning process to restore it to its original condition.

Koi Ponds For Backyards

A question people frequently ask us is what exactly our koi ponds are.

A koi pond is a body of water that houses koi fish. You can find koi ponds in the backyards of homes all across the world. We build ecosystem koi ponds for our clients in and around Des Moines. You can make them a small water feature or a big one.

Pros:

Ecosystem koi ponds are set up so that they basically care for themselves. This means less work and more enjoyment for you
Bring the relaxing sight and sound of running water to your home
Drown out some of that road or other noise
Have a beautiful and unique feature for your home
Entertaining for kids and pets (we can make pet and child-friendly features)

Cons:

You need to do a few minutes of maintenance a week. You also need to hire a professional to clean it at least once per year
Algae can form and you’ll need to clean it or hire someone to
Usually takes up more space than other water features
More costly to build