About New Orleans Ponds
Pond building, aquatic systems, and water-feature design by Soylent Greens, LLC
New Orleans Ponds is the pond and water-feature service brand of Soylent Greens, LLC, a New Orleans-based aquatic systems company working across pond building, aquaculture, live bait, live commercial seafood holding, educational aquaponics, and specialty aquatic infrastructure.
Led by Dominic Graves, New Orleans Ponds and Soylent Greens bring together hands-on pond construction, aquaculture experience, water-quality management, system design, and art fabrication.
We design, build, repair, clean, maintain, and upgrade koi ponds, water gardens, fountains, waterfalls, water features, and custom aquatic systems throughout New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana.
Our work is built around the balance between animal husbandry and aesthetics — creating ponds and water features that feel natural in the landscape while supporting healthy water, healthy animals, and long-term function.
What Makes Our Work Different
Many ponds are built by landscapers to look good at first, but later struggle from poor understanding of best aquaculture and animal husbandry practices, leading to things like poor circulation, crashing water chemistry, undersized filtration, low oxygen, algae, sludge, sick fish, leaks, clogged plumbing, or equipment that is difficult to service.
New Orleans Ponds approaches ponds as both visual environments and life-support systems. We think about how a pond looks, but also how water moves, how fish stay healthy, how filtration is sized, how equipment can be accessed, and how the system will behave months or years after the work is done.
Whether we are building a new pond, cleaning a neglected pond, renovating a failing system, upgrading filtration, or troubleshooting a waterfall, the goal is the same: a pond that is attractive, stable, easy to maintain, and healthier for the animals living in it.
About Soylent Greens, LLC
Soylent Greens, LLC is the broader aquatic systems company behind New Orleans Ponds.
Their work includes aquaculture, sometimes described simply as water farming, including RAS (recirculating aquaculture systems), aquaponics, hydroponics, microgreens, controlled-environment agriculture, live bait and seafood holding systems, hatchery support, educational systems, and multitrophic system design.
In plain terms, Soylent Greens works with the relationship between water, animals, plants, microbes, plumbing, filtration, equipment, and built environments.
About Dominic Graves
New Orleans Ponds and Soylent Greens are led by Dominic Graves, a New Orleans-based aquatic systems designer, pond builder, fabricator, educator, artist, and problem solver.
Dominic has been working on high-end koi ponds and water features since 2020, combining hands-on construction, aquaculture experience, art production, system design, digital modeling, and troubleshooting. His work often sits between categories: animal husbandry, plumbing, filtration, waterproofing, equipment layout, water quality, sculpture, landscape aesthetics, and long-term service planning.
His aquatic systems experience includes managing, maintaining, and consulting for commercial live fish and seafood holding systems, including work for Fortune International, one of the largest seafood and specialty food distributors in the country, and Williby’s Catfish, a widely popular New Orleans live catfish market. His background also includes live bait holding systems through the Gulf Coast Live Bait Association, a live bait advocacy group, and consulting and design work connected to Louisiana Sea Grant's Michael C. Voisin Oyster Hatchery in Grand Isle.
Dominic also helped manage and execute the design and construction of the AgriAquaculture Center of Excellence for the Louisiana Chamber of Commerce Foundation in Harvey. The center is Louisiana’s largest aquaponic aquaculture center, with more than 10,000 square feet of operating and greenhouse space.
That experience carries directly into New Orleans Ponds. A residential koi pond may be smaller than a commercial aquaculture facility, but it still depends on the same fundamentals of a recirculating aquaculture system.
Art, Design, and Fabrication
Dominic’s background also includes a BFA in Painting from SCAD, professional Mardi Gras float production in New Orleans and Mobile, large-scale sculpture, scenic fabrication, event production, fake rockwork, and custom built environments for events and brand activations, including work connected to Tales of the Cocktail and the Sugar Bowl Gala. He uses Carnival Sculpture Classes as a public-facing site for his fabrication work and Mardi Gras sculpture classes.
His creative work has included parade floats for New Orleans and Mobile krewes, set and prop fabrication for House of Shock, film projects, escape rooms, a major centerpiece sculpture for the Anne Rice Vampire Ball, interactive musical playgrounds for the Music Box Village, and restoration work on the historic Pinocchio whale at Storyland in New Orleans City Park. That work has also involved project planning, labor coordination, fabrication workflows, teaching hands-on techniques, and helping carry complex builds from concept through installation.
Beyond individual projects, Dominic has also helped organize a peer network of more than 150 professional float artists and workers to share information, advocate for better industry standards, and support accountability within the professional Mardi Gras float fabrication industry.
That art and fabrication background helps New Orleans Ponds approach water features as both functioning aquatic systems and visual environments with strong aesthetic design. It also supports effective project management, clearer client visuals, site planning, equipment layout, and service access on complex projects.
The Work
Whether the project is a koi pond, fountain, live seafood system, school aquaponics setup, or specialty aquatic build, the goal is the same: to create systems that are healthy, serviceable, beautiful, and built to function over time.
New Orleans Ponds is a trade name of Soylent Greens, LLC.
Let’s Work Together
Get in touch so we can start working together.
