Tranquil Escapes is Canada Proud

Welcome to our website and my thoughts on how we can support Canadians. I, Reg Guay, am the founder and owner of our Pond business, Tranquil Escapes Ponds & Watergardens, and I am committed to supporting our clients and Canadians first. Tranquil Escapes Ponds & Watergardens is an independent pond construction and service company, nearing 25 years in business, and we have no agreements or commitments to support American companies, and as such, we can decide along with our clients, what is best for Canadians. However, most of our pond construction competitors in Southern Ontario became affiliated with one major American-based company (Aquascape Inc.) by becoming an “Aquascape Certified Contractor.” Aquascape expanded into Canada, but its headquarters are located in Illinois, USA. Aquascape Certified Contractors must construct ponds to company specifications and they must install Aquascape equipment and supplies. We, at Tranquil Escapes Ponds & Watergardens will use Aquascape  products, but only if we believe it is a good option and when we see it fits our clients’ needs. Tranquil Escapes Ponds & Watergardens will work with our client to create or renovate their backyard oasis with different options, including construction methodology, water filtration type, without any influence from American-based Aquascape. I have not been satisfied with Aquascape pond construction methods or their water treatment methods, and that’s why we chose to remain independent.  Please, read on if you have time, and are serious about a new pond or pond renovation.

A Little Background

As the owner of Tranquil Escapes, I chose not to become an Aquascape Certified Contractor for many reasons, and a few of which I will highlight.

I chose not to pursue becoming an Aquascape Certified Contractor, not because it was a large and dominant American pond manufacturing and supply company, but because their Certified Contractor Program requires contractors to build ponds exclusively “their way” (Aquascape Inc. USA way) and contractors must install the Aquascape products (USA sourced products).  That alone, was enough to deter me from pursuing this restrictive certification program that seemed to benefit them, much more than our clients and our company. Sure, we likely didn’t grow our business as quickly by remaining independent, but it was far too important for me to install and service ponds and grow our business with integrity.  It was also too cookie-cutter for us and we did not agree with some of their construction methods and water quality treatment methods. One feature we did not like was having to completely cover the pond liner with rocks and river stones. We constructed some ponds using this method in our early years and found this construction method of using stones and rocks throughout to be problematic and challenging to keep the pond clean, and then relying on selling clients additives and Ion Generators that dissolve metals in the water to kill algae growing on and between the stones. We too found that keeping these river stones looking nice, long term, required draining the pond and power washing these stones regularly at great expense for the client, and the larger the pond was, the more labour intensive and cost prohibitive (thousands of dollars a year to clean) it became.  The additives and metal ion-generators promoted by Aquascape must also be monitored to avoid harming the ecosystem, fish, and other living things in the pond. These water treatments are also promoted for use in their recreational ponds which they advertise as being suitable for swimming or submersing yourself in the pond. I do not agree with this, nor do I agree with them not disclosing precisely what the pond additives are (some ingredients are disclosed as proprietary). Not only can this treated water be in contact with fish and other wildlife, the water could be in contact with pets, adults, our children and could even be accidentally ingested while swimming. I prefer to use natural filtration only. We have been constructing ponds for over 20 years using wetland filtration methods, similar to European methods. We do not promote or sell additives and metal ion generators to treat pond water.

I am sure most of us remember the US financial crisis of 2008, and how Canadians and our banking system survived this so much better than the USA. It seems that lax standards and inadequate regulations, and risky lending, contributed to this disaster and it affected many countries. As Canadians, thankfully we do things differently here and our financial institutions were not impacted the same way.  I see a similar situation on the horizon with respect to ponds being promoted and used for swimming purposes without adequate regulations for the safe design and safe water standards in North America. For now, I prefer to follow European guidelines for natural swimming ponds for recreational or swimming ponds. The Europeans have been constructing such ponds for many decades, and they have established guidelines, and an association with members from many countries. This association holds conferences every two years to promote and continuously improve the swimming pond industry. I participated in the European conference in 2023. It was a remarkable week of touring ponds and learning more about natural water filtration without the use of chemicals, additives, or metal ionizers.

As a result of my knowledge, I have been advocating. I have reached out to our Provincial and Federal governments to assist with establishing Canadian guidelines with respect to natural swimming ponds and pools to ensure we have adequate regulations and guidelines in place to protect Canadians. I have also been in contact with other Canadian pond contractors with the hopes of developing our own Canadian Association for Natural Swimming Ponds/Pools.

How is Tranquil Escapes helping customers and Canadian Businesses?

Tranquil Escapes is committed to providing customers with what we believe is the best pond or water feature that will meet our customers’ needs, not what is beneficial to another company and their USA-based headquarters and any resulting revenues for them. It can be assumed, that revenues from Certified Aquascape Contractors support American-based Aquascape Inc. through the costly and restrictive product purchases alone. We may install some Aquascape equipment if the client desires that, and if we believe the equipment is a good fit for that application, but we are independent and flexible to install what we believe is best, using the materials and suppliers of our choice, and choosing our construction methodology, for a variety of applications. Aquascape Certified Contractors do not appear to have that flexibility if they wish to remain certified with Aquascape. So, by remaining independent and not in an agreement with Aquascape or others, we can independently choose to purchase supplies and materials, whichever brand and from wherever we wish. We are able to build the water feature the way our clients and we wish to build it, and keep Ontario and Canada at the forefront of our decisions.

We have sourced many of our pond supplies from Canadian suppliers and manufactures for over 20 years and we will continue to do so. We will also continue to seek out other quality Canadian or non-American suppliers if possible, to do our part in supporting the Canadian economy and support our other trading partners. Tranquil Escapes has been a long time supplier and installer of high quality Oase pond equipment, which is a German-based company, which we purchase through a Canadian supplier. We have sold and installed Shinmaywa waterfall pumps because we found them to be of high quality, for over 10 years. Shinmaywa is a Japanese-based company, again sourced through a Canadian supplier. Prior to that, we sold Little Giant brand pumps, also high quality, which were manufactured in Europe, and purchased through a Canadian supplier. For the past two years, we have been sourcing our piping from a local Ontario supplier. This piping is made right here in Brantford Ontario by Kuri-Tec. We have sourced many plumbing and hardware components for many years through TT Liquid, here in Ancaster, Ontario. We have always supported local suppliers when we had a choice, but even more so now to support Canadians first.

Our Final Comments

Now, more than ever, I am proud that I have chosen to remain an Independent Pond Contractor. We have no commitments or agreements requiring us to purchase products from anyone.  We look forward to working with our clients and serving Canadian interests where we can. By choosing to work with us (or any other independent pond contractor for that matter), it allows the contractor and the client to select from different construction methodologies, choose the method of water filtration and sanitizing, and to source materials with the flexibility to support Canadians first. If our competitors are reading this, I encourage you to stand with Ontario and Canada first and remain independent, without direct influence from American-based companies.

Thank you for taking the time to read and let’s stick together and support one another.