Aquascape AquaGarden Container Water Feature Kit – Indoor & Outdoor Mini Pond with Waterfall Fountain, Pump & Filtration for Home & Patio, Brown

OK. I never do reviews….EVER! You buy a light fixture, it’s a light fixture. You buy some tools, they’re tools. You buy a computer component it is a computer component. All are better or worse for what they do and you learn if they are crap (or not) then you move on in your own elated or disgusted silence.But this item. Well, this item is different. It’s an item that adds to the charm of your own private place. A back porch. A front porch. A deck….heck, even a living room or sun room...or any room if you’d like. It's an incredible purchase!Background: I drive a truck. I’m not home most of the week. I don’t have time to build a back porch pond. (though I could). I don’t have time to create a special outdoor place. (though I could). But I do what I can when I am able. I cut the grass. I fix light switches. I change oil. I do guy stuff on the weekends. So one day, to give my wife a nice area to work at home, I made a quickie outdoor fountain from a large planter to put on our back porch and it was “o k”...(my wife thought so), but it didn’t have the charm I was looking for. It was too deep and I had to make a custom hanger for the water plants. I installed a low pressure fountain but when the fountain was adjusted to attaine the soothing water sound we were looking for, it shot water all over the place. I thought….well, maybe I could make some kind of waterfall thingy. I toyed with ideas to build a wooden box with a liner. I toyed with an elaborate fountain….I toyed with all kinds of ideas….yeah, well….how long will that take to build? How about hiring a…...STOP!…..I’m not going to hire some designer to do what I could do….especially these days. But I was in a quandary. I don’t have the time and I needed something simple. I needed something quick. I needed something I don’t have to build…...I needed something with quality and my wife’s birthday is coming up and I want to give her a place she can chill…. So I shopped and shopped and ( from my phone….on a freight run….somewhere in Indiana)….BEHOLD! Enter this piece of kit!I recently took off work for half a week for other obligations and while I was off work, I ordered this. I selected next day shipping from Amazon and it was delivered post haste. I had it up and running in about 3 hours (before my wife came home from a seminar.) I surprised her with this….(with me grinning like a prom-dance kid)….aw...shucks!She loves it!I am content.Silly simple to install. Just follow the printed directions.I would imagine that if you have a level surface….(a concrete porch or slab or a level deck surface, you will be alright). But I wanted to elevate this a bit. In my case, I had a couple of oak tree trunk cross sections cut into 2-4 inch thickness and I used one as a base for the pond. I placed several 2×4 weather rated scraps under the oak cross section and used a ¼ plywood section on top of the oak slab to make a uniform base and shimmed where needed. The results are impeccable!I rinsed off the included stones then added them to the pond, then filled it a few inches and swirled the water around to stir up any sediment and debris, then used a scoop to throw out any water that looked cloudy. Refilled a few inches and repeat. Note: This is particularly important if you are adding water plants to the upper shelf! After placing the clay/growing media into the upper shelf, rinse the root balls of your plants until most, if not all, of the potting soil/growing media is gone. Then place them into the clay media that is provided and add the stones on top and run the pump. Scoop out any floating debris or dirty water that spills into the main basin, watch for more debris, scoop out, then fill to the level you feel best.I did buy the overhead LED lamp that is advertised in addition to this item. Frankly, my wife and I prefer it to the under waterfall LED that comes with the kit. To us, it adds an ambiance and effect that the provided led (under the fall) cannot provide...your experience may differ. Experiment!You can create a variety of environments with this wonderful piece of decor. I’ve seen everything from far-east mystic to quaint garden gnome hoopla to some pretty avaunt-garde stuff.….It’s yours to explore. But don’t go piling a bunch of rocks and crap on the waterfall shelf….it is plastic after all and will probably distort with too much weight. Experiment with it. A few creative and tasteful accents can bring this item to life. My wife and I dug out a couple decorations lying around in the basement and created our own simple scene. Frogs and turtles: Quaint. Country. Gods gift.BTW….Note how clean the water!… I ran this system for 24 hours before I took this picture The water level is actually just to the lower edge of the turtles shell...all of the legs are under water. Clean and clear!Buy this if you don’t have the the time to build the most awesome porch pond to impress your wife…..she'll love you , she'll give you kisses. She'll say you're wonderful and you'll then have more time to fix the light switch that broke 2 days ago.....

The media could not be loaded. This is my second season with this mini pond. All in all I love it. It sits on the edge of my back patio, where I spend most of my time when it’s warm enough to sit outside. When I’m still, a steady parade of birds stops by to drink and bathe. Very cool. But messy, making me remove the plants because I have to change the water once a week. I have to add water between changes, but that’s a fact of nature - evaporation, lots of birds drinking - and not the pond’s fault. My one and only complaint is the included light, which I removed. First, it’s pure white rather than warm white, which clashes with all the other various decorative lights in my yard. Second, the bare bulb is very visible even though it hangs under the lip of the upper basin. These two issues together make the light feel harsh rather than pleasant, so I don’t use it.

This is an update from my original posting Our water garden is located in our den, indoors.We enjoy this water garden so much. We purchased the stand and the plant light.The plants like this environment. We have 3 gold fish in the basin. Goldfish do not require a heater. Like our Koi, they like cold water and adapt to very cold water. They can survive winter's snow and ice on their water. The water temperature is not a concern with these fish.Since we have aquariums, I prepared the water by adding dichlorination to tap water in the bowel and purchased black small river rocks and some finer black aquarium rocks and added that to the bottom pond and covered them with the black stones that came with the kit.We rinsed the planting media, all the rocks, drift wood and plants before adding them to the water garden.The goldfish are small Shubunkin. They are doing great. As they mature and grow larger, they will join our Koi pond outside. They are fast moving fish. They almost eat out of my hand.Overall, this is a great purchase. We recommend this product.

It's a very good sized pond. However, when using the waterfall function, there was a mysterious problem where the water in the pond would drop to less than one-third its original volume. Where did the water go?Now that the waterfall function is not in use, it has become a sanctuary for lotus plants and small creatures.

The clay balls float so make sure to cover them with the rocks afterwards. It’s so pretty. Can wait to take a picture of it at night.

The media could not be loaded. so far I love this pond/fountain. I've got a rock on the waterfall ledge that partially blocks the water and it makes a perfect waterfall sound. now I just need to find some good plants for it!

One year update.Really liked this pond last summer/fall. I only used from May through November and then I disassembled it to store over the winter. However when I went to use it this spring, it has been nothing but issues. First of all the pump did not work unless you tapped the housing.I kept having to remove it to get it started again. It was working for a few days but this morning it stopped working completely. I can see that the fan sticks and will not rotate. properly to move the water. Initially the light worked, but last night the light burned out. I have spent a few hours troubleshooting this product and I am done. So now I have a brown tub with a waterfall that is unusable. Additionally last year, I struggled with keeping the water clear because the water in the tub gets so warm. Also, they give you these little clay balls that are supposed act as a filter but all they do is constantly float to the surface unless they are totally covered with the black rocks. Overall, I am so disappointed and feel I wasted over $100.

The media could not be loaded. Super cute. Easy to setup. You will have to purchase more gravel to this pond if you’re gonna add bamboo to the feature. The gravel included wasn’t enough and was a bit dirty.