Inside a $35,000 Suburban Ecosystem Pond Transformation!

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Just look at this view from right here.

[00:00:01]Beautiful 10-x-14 ecosystem pond. 2 ft deep and we have about a 10-ft long waterfall. This used to be all open grass. I use this pond in the property more than anything else.

[00:00:16]What town are we in? Commack. Commack.

[00:00:18]We are in Commack, Long Island with the Aquascape brothers, Rob and Kevin, and we got a pond or pondless here, boys?

[00:00:24]>> Uh we have a 10-x-14 pond with a 10-ft stream. Great. Let's check out a beautiful Aquascape ecosystem pond.

[00:00:32]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> How gorgeous. Just look at this view from right here. Are you kidding me? He landscaped this?

[00:01:06]>> Yeah, he He's not as young as he used to be. He's done the whole thing himself.

[00:01:09]He's got a great I think he did a phenomenal job on it. Oh, and I love the chairs sitting right there. Hey, Jeff.

[00:01:14]Hey, hey. Joe!

[00:01:16]>> god. What? The god is here. Where?

[00:01:19]>> [laughter] >> I've been watching your video for 5 years.

[00:01:21]>> Aw, very nice.

[00:01:22]>> Aw, very nice to meet you.

[00:01:24]>> Dude, you got a a green thumb.

[00:01:25]>> Not really. Well, you know, no, really.

[00:01:28]I mean, this is amazing. How long have you lived here? 42 years. What? And the pond's here 3 years.

[00:01:35]42 years. Wow. Joe, what was here before? This was all grass like this.

[00:01:40]>> Okay, so the grass just continued.

[00:01:41]>> It just continued. This is got a little fire going. I I would imagine this is a good place for you to sit right here.

[00:01:47]You got your Aquascape coffee mug.

[00:01:49]>> Oh, yes. Thank you. Yeah. [laughter] This is what I want to do. Come here, buddy. This is what I want to do. Just sit here. I would imagine this is a routine, huh?

[00:01:57]>> This is it.

[00:01:57]>> Yeah. Are you retired?

[00:01:59]>> Yes. I've been retired 10 years.

[00:02:00]>> Oh, okay. So, how did this Okay, so you started watching the videos or what happened?

[00:02:04]>> I started seeing your videos.

[00:02:05]>> Uh-huh.

[00:02:05]>> And in your videos I saw Jack Rager.

[00:02:08]>> Uh at Lance Water Gardens, yes.

[00:02:09]>> Okay. And I had seen Kevin and Rob on his videos.

[00:02:13]>> Yes.

[00:02:14]>> And found out that they were on the island.

[00:02:15]>> Yes. And just by watching your videos I was kind of like getting into ponds and stuff. I wanted one.

[00:02:20]>> Yeah.

[00:02:20]>> And when I saw there was somebody I can get in contact with on Long Island.

[00:02:23]Right. I think let me speak to them.

[00:02:25]Yeah.

[00:02:25]>> And I mean what do I have to say? I mean these guys are artists. Yeah, it is art.

[00:02:29]And and not only are they artists, they are the 2024 Aquascape Artists of the Year.

[00:02:34]>> I know. They are special, that's for sure. So, what do people say? You You've lived in this house for 42 years. You got a swimming pool over here I can see.

[00:02:41]You've got a beautifully landscaped yard. How much has this changed how you use your property?

[00:02:47]>> what? I use this part of the property more than anything else.

[00:02:50]>> Yeah. But it's amazing how I mentioned it in one of the other videos. Uh-huh.

[00:02:55]How people stand because I don't have a fence.

[00:02:57]>> Yeah.

[00:02:58]>> They stand on the side.

[00:02:59]>> Oh, they walk. They can see it and hear it. They look at it and they go like you know.

[00:03:03]>> Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

[00:03:04]>> come in, you know? But it's really an amazing thing to have. I love it. Yeah.

[00:03:08]What is it like? So, how would you define for you, Joe, living the Aquascape lifestyle? Well, what does that look like?

[00:03:13]>> Well, you know what? It gave me a hobby.

[00:03:15]>> Uh-huh. The fish.

[00:03:16]>> The fish, the water I love the sound. I also have a waterfall in the >> Yeah. Yeah. That's what That's what got me to turn my head, yeah. But it's different. I feel like it's more of a a natural setting.

[00:03:25]>> Uh-huh. You know, cuz it looks natural.

[00:03:26]The pool doesn't look that natural even though I tried to >> Well, here's the thing about a pool. So, a pool is cool and all, but it's one-dimensional. Yes.

[00:03:33]>> You're only using it when you're in it.

[00:03:34]Where this, you can recreate you can You're sitting out here and we're enjoying the water feature when we're not in it.

[00:03:38]>> Yeah, that's the truth. And you know, it gave me some ideas on what to do with the plantings, you know, and fish.

[00:03:44]>> So, your therapy is gardening. It's what I do mostly. Yeah, I can tell. You have a green thumb whether you want to admit it or not.

[00:03:51]>> I don't >> just put things where I think they should go. Yeah. Well, 42 years, you've really cultivated a nice garden here.

[00:03:56]Well, it was all grass until the pond was put in. Right. Did you raise a family here? Yes. Do you have grandkids?

[00:04:03]Five. Do they love coming to Grandpa Joe's house and They love feeding the fish, you know, and it's each one has two fish and they named them and everything. So, you got 10 fish in here.

[00:04:12]Well, there's I think there's only about 11 now. There was 17. You lost a few fish over the years.

[00:04:18]>> Yeah, and I saw a couple of heron here.

[00:04:20]No, no. So, that's probably where they went. Unfortunately, sometimes that happens, but that's part of the hobby and obviously what you're doing your fish look very friendly and happy.

[00:04:28]They're well fed. Yeah. How did you come up with this design, by the way, when you guys were talking? So, that is his living room window over there and it has a direct view, so the whole waterfalls is So, he aligned it up. Now, when you brought him out, did you really have any idea? Did you tell him this area or did you kind of were you open to Robin and Kevin's input? Like, how did that all go cuz people aren't used to doing this, you know. Well, I didn't know what to expect.

[00:04:53]>> Uh-huh. I felt they had good training cuz I'd seen some of the things they've done and the only thing I really wanted was to have the pond a little wider than what seemed have been standard. Okay.

[00:05:03]>> So, I wanted like the double falls on the bottom. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

[00:05:06]>> And that's my favorite part. Yeah. So, they came out, they designed it.

[00:05:10]>> And they were done in a couple of days and two guys Yeah, they're hard working guys.

[00:05:14]>> are. So, it's not an inexpensive investment. Was it a good investment?

[00:05:17]It's hard to say. Some people might think it's expensive, but the benefits you get out of it, the joy and everything, it's not expensive at all. It's well worth it. Good investment. Yeah, definitely. Why don't you give us a little tour of what you did here?

[00:05:36]>> [music] [music] >> So, right over here we have a beautiful 10 by 14 ecosystem pond. It's 2 ft deep and we have about a 10-ft long waterfall. Right over here you can see Greg and our client hanging out. This structure was not here until we built the pond. So, this used to be all open grass, as you can see before, and then we came in here and over a couple days we built this beautiful pond. And then a year later this structure came into play with the new patio and a pavilion over here. Right over here we have an Aquascape 1000 skimmer. We are running this system with a SLD 5 to 9000. You can see we have a little circulation jet right in this corner with some aeration over here. We have a beautiful destination boulder over here. You can see this is the spot where you're going to be feeding your fish. As we drop that food in, the fish slowly come up and that is going to be interaction zone right there. We have these two beautiful chairs overlooking the pond and I think our customer did a great job landscaping this pond. Over the past couple years he's taken care of this landscaping and completely transformed this pond, softening up the edges with these hostas over here. Going up the waterfall, we have a split cascade going in with some twisting and turning and then a ball full 6000 that you cannot see up there, but that is the kidney of this pond filtering this pond out. As you can see that the water's crystal clear and this customer's living the Aquascape lifestyle. So, a pond like this is a 10x14, 10-ft long waterfall. We have some larger boulders in this pond. A pond like this to be installed in a blank canvas backyard like it was is around 30 to 35,000 dollars. Here's the crazy thing to me about this. This was just lawn. Now, look at it. That patio didn't exist, that pergola didn't exist.

[00:07:19]It's when we say live in the Aquascape lifestyle, it's not just the phenomenal water feature, the landscaping, it's how the people use it. The fire pit, the pergola, the patio. Look, this yard looked like this before. This is a typical yard, what you would typically see. This is anything but typical. If you want to up the Joneses, don't try to make the grass greener, get an Aquascape ecosystem pond. And we have the perfect people that can help you do it, like the Fuentes brothers, certified aquascape contractors. If you're interested in living the aquascape lifestyle and getting rid of some of your grass, I'm going to put a link below so that you can live the aquascape lifestyle, too. I love my job.