What we’re going to show you tonight are a couple of different stations demonstrating how we’ve put some fountains together and just how easy they are for you to build yourself.

This fountain is a version of what’s running over in our indoor demo garden. I wanted to show you the components and explain what’s involved.

It comes as a DIY kit, and the first thing you need with any fountain is a reservoir for the water—somewhere for the water to collect.

This particular reservoir is called an AquaBasin 45. It’s 45 inches on each side.

This is the hole you’re going to have to dig. You would place the basin on the ground, trace around it, and then dig your hole. Once the hole is dug, put the basin down in it.

The most important thing is to make sure it’s level. Get your level out and make sure it’s level.

That’s probably the hardest part of the entire process: digging the hole.

I’ve done it. If you’ve got great dirt, it’s not hard. If you live anywhere in York County, it might be a little harder!

Building the Fountain

Once the basin is in the ground, you’re going to choose your fountain base.

The bases come in a small or large size. This is the large base.

Then you choose what’s going on top.

For example, the fountain in our garden has a curved base. You can choose either a curved or straight base, and there are several different toppers available.

You can choose:

• A front spill
• A rear spill
• A quad spill

With the quad spill, water spills over all four sides.

Sometimes, when people have a front spill and a rear spill, they’ll actually daisy-chain several units together. One will spill toward the front, the next toward the back, then front again, creating a little serpentine effect.

If you use the curved wall, you can make that even more interesting.

You can also stack multiple bases on top of each other. I believe you can go up to four high, which allows you to create something really dramatic.

Typically, though, most people are going to choose a small or large base with one topper.

So, you’ve got:

Base + topper = fountain.

Connecting the Fountain

Inside the topper, you’ll notice three holes. Those are for the three tubes that come with the fountain.

The tubes fit flush into those openings.

We also sell a fountain light that uses the same fitting. You can pop the top out, install the light, and the water comes up through the center while the light illuminates the water around it.

To assemble the fountain, put the top on the base and feed all three tubes down through the openings.

The tubes then run down through the hole in the center and connect to the pump.

The fountain comes with a pump, and all of the necessary fittings come with it.

Each tube has its own port.

One nice feature of the three-way pump is that it has ball valves, so you can control the flow.

If you want more water coming through the middle and less on the outside, you can adjust the flow right at the pump.

Removing the Pump Sponge

Whenever we’re working with a fountain that uses what’s called an Ultra Pump, the pump comes with a sponge inside.

We always recommend taking the sponge out for this particular application.

If you don’t, you’ll be outside rinsing that sponge off 47 times a day!

You’ll eventually be thinking, “Can’t I just take this sponge out?”

And then you’ll remember me saying, “Take the sponge out.”

The sponge is useful for other applications. We just don’t recommend using it with this particular fountain setup.

Accessing the Pump

The hole in the AquaBasin is your trap door for accessing the pump.

If something ever happens to your pump, you can reach down through that opening, grab the pump, and service it easily.

There’s also a small notch in the basin for the electrical cord.

Once everything is installed, everything sits flush.

Winterizing the Fountain

One of the nice things about this basin is that you can leave the pump inside it all winter.

Simply unplug everything.

We recommend covering the fountain during the winter, and we sell covers specifically for these units.

You can:

1. Unplug the pump.
2. Leave the pump in the basin.
3. Put the cover over the fountain.

That’s essentially all you need to do for winterization.

You can leave the fountains running during the winter, but you’ll get some pretty interesting ice formations.

If you’ve ever driven past here and seen the urns out by the street, those urns are made from the same material as this fountain wall. We leave those running all winter, and they develop some pretty funky ice formations.

What you don’t want to do is turn everything off and leave it uncovered. You don’t want ice getting down inside the fountain and freezing because that could burst the pipes.

Decorating the Fountain

Once the plumbing is connected and the pump is running, you fill the basin with water.

Then you can decorate the top however you’d like.

We don’t recommend using mulch because it tends to get down into the small openings where water returns to the basin.

Instead, we recommend decorative gravel.

We sell several types, including:

• ¾-inch river gravel
• 1–3-inch river gravel
• 5/8-inch river gravel
• Black river pebbles

You can choose whatever color or type you like. If you want all white, use all white. If you want red, use red.

We’ve even used artificial turf on the bottom.

For the most part, though, we recommend some type of gravel.

Gravel also helps with filtration. If dirt or debris lands on the fountain, the gravel catches some of it before it can make its way back into the basin.

Fall Maintenance

People often ask what to do with these fountains in the fall.

It’s simple:

Unplug it, let the leaves dry, and blow them off with a leaf blower.

That’s it.

They’re very user-friendly and very forgiving.

Fountain Lighting

In addition to the lights that can be installed directly in the fountain, we sell three-light kits that are ready to go.

The kit comes with:

• A transformer
• A photocell
• Three lights
• All the necessary wiring

You can install the lights and enjoy the fountain during the day and at night.

You can adjust the amount of sound and splash somewhat using the ball valves on the pump.

It takes a little trial and error at first. You may need to move some stones around to figure out how much splash you’re getting and how much water you’re losing.

We also sell a splash pad that can be buried around the fountain to help reduce splash.

Topping Off the Water

Maintaining the water level is very simple.

Just grab your garden hose and fill it back up.

If it’s extremely hot, you may need to do that twice a week.

If it’s cooler, you may only need to do it occasionally.

The first year you own any water feature, there’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve. You’ll figure out how quickly your particular feature loses water based on your weather and location.

But overall, these fountains are very easy to maintain.

Fountain Covers and Repairs

For winterization, the only thing I’d really emphasize is covering the fountain.

We sell covers, but you can also use a tarp or make your own cover.

Each fountain also comes with a color swatch.

If you ever get a little ding or scratch in the material, you can simply get some outdoor paint in the matching color and touch it up.

Making the Fountain Look Natural

There are lots of creative things you can do with these fountains.

One thing we’ve done is buy bulk moss and glue it onto the fountain.

It makes the fountain look weathered and gives it the appearance that it’s older than it actually is.

The sky’s the limit.

You can landscape around the fountain, add taller plants behind it, and make it a focal point right next to your patio.

Where to Put Your Water Feature

With any of our bowls, ponds, waterfalls, or other water features, we always recommend putting them somewhere you’re actually going to live with them.

Don’t put it in the far corner of your yard because you think you’ll walk out there every day to enjoy it.

You’ll do that for the first three months.

Months four, five, and six, you’ll go about half as often.

By months seven, eight, and nine, you’ll say, “I got rid of the whole way.”

Put it right next to your patio.

That’s what it’s for.

You want to be able to sit outside, live with it, and listen to the sound of running water.

If you’ve never had running water on your property, I guarantee that once you get it, you’ll eventually tell me:

“I should have done that sooner. Why didn’t we do that sooner?”

My husband and I have a pond right outside our bedroom window. That’s how we go to sleep every night with the window open.

When we travel, we actually have to play the sound of running water on our phones to fall asleep because it’s too quiet!

Water is wonderful.

Wildlife and Pets

A fountain like this can attract birds and other wildlife.

It’s not too deep for birds to come in and splash around.

And if you have pets, dogs and cats can drink from it.

Everything we sell is safe for animals.

My dog is here all the time. He’s drinking from the fountains, swimming in the ponds, and drinking from the fountains again.

The products we sell are safe for:

• Birds
• Snails
• Cats
• Dogs
• Horses
• Goats
• Sheep
• And other animals

Electrical Requirements

Most of our ponds and water features use 110-volt power, with the exception of our swim pond, which has an external pump.

If you’re having electricity installed for a fountain, keep in mind that you’ll need an outlet for the pump and another for the lighting transformer.

We recommend having at least a double electrical hookup.

Sometimes we’ll recommend installing a quad outlet because you never know what else you might want to add later.

Even if you don’t install lighting initially, you can always add it later.

The fountain is designed to make that easy.

You can pull the existing fitting out, run the lighting cord through the same opening, and install the fountain light in its place.

We’re Here to Help

We’re always here if you have questions.

Whether you’re installing a pond, waterfall, fountain, or one of our other kits, everyone here in a Splash shirt can answer your questions.

You can call, text, email, or even send a carrier pigeon!

We’ll answer all of it.

We’re here to help you get whatever you purchase from us installed correctly the first time and the right way.

Because if you’re happy, I’m happy.

Mosquitoes

Audience Question:

What about mosquitoes?

The running water is actually one of the reasons you don’t have to worry much about mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes don’t typically lay their eggs in running water.

You’re also not going to fill this basin completely with open standing water. The top will be covered with rocks, and the water will disappear below them.

The three water outlets also create a lot of movement and agitation, which discourages mosquitoes from laying eggs.

Lighting Connections

All of our lighting uses what’s called a bi-pin connection, so the lights work together using splitters.

You can use a splitter to connect multiple lights.

One important distinction is that white lights and color-changing lights cannot be mixed on the same system.

If you’re going to use color-changing lights, you need to use all color-changing lights.

You can use white as one of the colors on a color-changing system, but the wiring is different between the white and color-changing lights.

So you have to choose one system or the other.

Color-changing lights are a great way to create a dramatic feature.

If you’ve ever been here at night, you’ve probably seen the color-changing lights on the building and ponds.

Lighting Inside or Outside the Pond

Another nice thing about our lighting is that the lights don’t have to be submerged.

You can use them:

• Inside the pond
• Outside the pond
• In landscaping
• Around the house
• Around other water features

They’re very low wattage, so they don’t get hot.

My house is landscaped with the white lights, and so is my pond.

Patio Fountain Bowls

Next, Kelly is going to talk about a different type of fountain.

These are the fountains we’re using in our patio fountain bowls.

They’re designed to stay above ground and can be used on a patio or even indoors.

Patio Fountain Bowls

These are our round patio bowls.

They come in several colors, including:

• Marlo — a pretty purple-red/wine color
• Slate Green
• Lunar Gray

We have several sizes, including:

• 32 inches
• 40 inches
• 50 inches
• 60 inches

That gives you a lot of variety.

Unlike the previous fountain, the water basin for these does not go into the ground.

Everything is contained within the bowl.

Adding Shelves

You don’t have to use shelves, but if you’d like to add plants or create different levels, we have shelves that sit inside the bowls.

This particular setup has four shelves.

For this fountain, we placed a piece of hard plastic across the center to raise the water feature to whatever height we wanted.

For demonstration purposes, I chose a smaller feature, but you can adjust the height to suit your design.

Then you simply get the appropriate pump, attach the tubing, and place the fountain at whatever height you want.

Decorating Patio Bowls

We have lots of other water features you can use in these bowls, including:

• Spheres
• Spitters
• Snails
• Turtles
• Fairies
• Other decorative pieces

These are some of my favorites because you can get really creative.

You can add live aquatic plants once our plants arrive.

These shelves make it really fun to add plants and create a lush, beautiful water feature.

You can also decorate with artificial plants, driftwood, rocks, and other materials.

We sell river rock by the bag, which makes decorating really easy.

We have black and multicolored options as well.

Filtration in Patio Bowls

If you’re adding gravel, ornamental grasses, or plants to the bowl, you’ll want to put a filter pad underneath the rock and plants.

The filter pad provides support and also acts as a biological filter.

Lighting Patio Bowls

You can add lights to these bowls just like the fountain we demonstrated earlier.

You can place lights around the perimeter or inside the bowl.

You can also use them in the surrounding landscape to highlight the feature.

Color-Changing Lighting System

The color-changing lights operate on a five-pin system, while the standard white lights use a two-pin system.

The transformer we’re using here is a 20-watt transformer, which is more than enough for this application.

The transformer uses the two-pin system.

To connect the two-pin transformer to the five-pin color-changing lights, we use a smart hub.

The two-pin connection goes into the transformer, and the smart hub bridges the connection to the five-pin lighting system.

Controlling the Lights with Your Phone

The smart hub communicates through Wi-Fi and allows you to control the lights from your phone.

You can:

• Turn them on and off
• Change colors
• Program schedules
• Create patterns
• Strobe the lights
• Fade between colors
• Adjust the speed
• Program holiday colors

For example, you could program the lights to turn red and green at midnight on Christmas.

The possibilities are pretty versatile.

Installing the Lights

For lighting, we typically follow a one-or-three rule.

Two is bad luck!

So we’re going with three lights.

First, place the lights roughly where you think they’ll work best.

All of these bowls have a little notch where you can run the power cord.

Once the lights are positioned, run the wiring through that notch and out the back.

We’re using three lights, so we’ll use a three-way splitter.

We also have six-way splitters if you need more lights.

The same system can be used with extension cords for larger pond installations.

Once everything is connected to the splitter and smart hub, you can hide the transformer and wiring.

Then connect the lights one at a time.

Adjusting the Light Angles

Once all three lights are connected, turn them on and adjust their positions.

The goal is to find the angles that give you the most light on the fountain while keeping the lights themselves as hidden as possible.

You want the fountain to be illuminated evenly without drawing attention to the fixtures.

Once you’ve found the right positions, you’re done.

Using the Lighting App

Because these lights are connected to the smart hub, you can control them from your phone.

You can change them to colors such as:

• Green
• Red
• Pink
• Blue
• Yellow

You can also use patterns such as:

• Strobe
• Rainbow
• Fading
• Color transitions

You can adjust the speed of the patterns as well.

If a pattern is moving too quickly, slow it down.

You can also program the lights to turn on and off automatically at specific times.

So, if you have one of these fountains in your living room, for example, you could program it to turn on in the evening and turn off at bedtime.

Or you can simply pick up your phone and turn it on or off whenever you want.

Can Individual Lights Be Different Colors?

Audience Question:

Can you control the lights individually?

Unfortunately, not with this system.

The lights all communicate through the same smart hub, so they’re controlled as one group.

All of the lights need to be the same color at a given time.

If you wanted separate sections with different colors, you could use multiple smart hubs.

Deicers

Audience Question:

What about using a deicer?

Deicers are designed to maintain a small opening in the ice.

They’re not designed to heat the entire body of water enough to prevent freezing.

They also get fairly hot, so you don’t want one leaning directly against the plastic because it could potentially damage or melt it.

Moving the Patio Bowls

The bowls themselves are surprisingly lightweight.

Kelly and I can pick one up and move it fairly easily.

Obviously, once you add rocks and water, that’s a completely different story.

So the best advice is:

Put the bowl exactly where you want it before adding all the heavy stuff.

Creating a Patio Pond

We call this type of setup a patio pond.

The elaborate one in the corner has lots of decorative touches, but the basic concept is incredibly simple.

You need:

• A bowl
• Optional shelves
• A pump
• A decorative spitter or fountain
• Tubing
• Water
• Decorations

Some of our nicer bowls have inserts that help hold the shelves in place.

You can use one, two, three, or four shelves.

There are also insertable planters that hang over the edge.

Adding a Decorative Spitter

If you want to set up a simple fountain bowl, all you need is one of our decorative spitters.

We have several styles, including:

• Frogs
• Turtles
• Snails
• Fairies

They’re extremely easy to install.

Take the pump out of the box, attach the fitting, connect the tubing to the spitter, and place the pump inside the bowl.

The pump can be hidden underneath a shelf or wherever makes sense for your design.

The electrical cord comes out through the back.

Some of the bowls have a built-in notch that allows you to hide the cord.

Foggers

The fogger feature in the corner is another fun option.

You can put these foggers in:

• Fountains
• Ponds
• Patio bowls
• Other water features

The fogger sits inside a floating buoy.

As long as the buoy is in the water, it creates the fog effect you see in the display.

Some of these units cycle through different colors.

They’re not controlled in the same way as the more sophisticated color-changing lights.

They’re essentially plug and play.

Plug them in when you want them running and unplug them when you don’t.

Get Creative!

That’s really all there is to it.

As you saw in the display, you can get extremely elaborate with your decorations, or you can keep it very simple.

You can have:

A spitter + pump + fogger

and then let your imagination take over.

We also have little fairy doors that are a lot of fun.

They can be attached to trees or other structures. They have a little picture-hanger-style frame on the back, so you can simply install a screw and hang them.

Driftwood looks great in these bowls and helps make the feature feel more natural.

We also have artificial moss, little mushrooms, and lots of other decorative pieces.

You can keep your patio fountain simple, or you can get really creative with it.

The possibilities are pretty much limitless.