a chlorinated reflecting pool = pond?
a chlorinated swimming-pool = pond?
or is a pond a living thing?
... like the modern European pond-pool with biofiltration rather than Chlorine, but still no fish/ducks/lilies? (a la fish-pond, duck-pond, lili-pond)
I'd not call a lili-pond or something with koi a water-feature per se, though I suppose it would be if it was in the foyer.
I also don't call the rusty 55gal garden-watering drum with mozzi-control guppies a pond, nor a water-feature. My wife calls it ugly (and she's right), whereas I call it utilitarian in saving my back while keeping our aging selves in heart-healthy salads.
The lovely old porcelain bathtubs also in the garden have reeds & show-guppies, and they are ponds. Period.
My company makes or adapts pools & water-features into fish/lily ponds here & there. Our competitors in this also do/sell ponds, but as fountains & water-features & usually chlorinated. I expect we'll get the call (for fish) as the competitor's client gets bored, or exhausted by the power-bill & green-water, or annoyed when a buddy who's on the MFK forum won't shut-up about it...
Me, I can't stand the smell of Chlorine & so could likely keep cichlids with the minimal levels in our swimming-pool - nobody's noticing, I'm not telling.
Adding a viewing panel makes it an aquarium no matter how big the tank or small the window (barring chlorinated swimming pool or those silly faux portholes).
If you really want to keep the pond moniker, make a big acrylic box, float it in the middle & get inside with a comfy deckchair - now your pond's got a viewing-punt.
A live pond of less-than 15gal is a puddle.
Peeing cherub & spitting heron fountains make you a bad person.
Helpful to the debate?
Well, it's a useless and unimportant thread, so any alternative viewpoint is certainly welcome.
Interesting perspectives. I personally would not ever consider some chlorinated, sterile body of water as a pond; to me, the word definitely implies life. And I didn't know that it was a "thing" in Europe to have a bio-filtered pond that contains no fish or plants or other life. How does the bio-filter function? Without life processes going on in the pond...what function would a bio-filter even serve? And how would such a pond be kept from algae overgrowth?
If I got my hands on an ornate old bathtub it would be installed on my patio in a heartbeat, with a small water lily or two and a few small fish...but, no, I don't think that's a pond at all.
"Water feature"? With apologies to my friend who likes that term...to me that implies a bird-bath.
No peeing cherubs or spitting frogs or pouring maidens for me. No squirting fountains, either. I think that a waterfall or other non-artificial-looking pump-operated gizmo might be okay, but the pond needs to be big enough for that surface disturbance to not interfere with seeing underwater.
My little inground pond didn't even have any fish for the first two summers, and I didn't miss 'em. I love sitting next to the pond and observing the frogs and insects and other aquatic life that found its way into there on its own. But I eventually started putting in some fish for mosquito control, and that was nice too. I purchased a small binocular that is marketed for purposes of bird- and dragonfly-watching, and focuses as close as three feet; it increased my enjoyment of the pond immeasurably. I actually use that little optic even downstairs in my fish room, to make up-close observations from across the room so as to avoid disturbing the object of my attention.
That's enough from me; I don't want to be reprimanded again...
