Japanese Garden Ponds
What's important in this kind of design is that things are in scale throughout the garden. So if you're going to be representing large lakes with your water gardens, you might want to consider what scale your plants and surrounging rocks should be. :-)
Keep it all in scale and consistent for best results.
Here's a video of a variety of Japanese ponds. I hope they give you some good ideas for your own water garden building efforts.
Click here to ask about Japanese garden ponds.