Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Pond liner to make a stream?

I have a 300 gallon stock tank placed on the ground, and want to sink another 100 gallon stock tank into the ground about 15 to 20 feet away. Then take pond liner material and make a stream from the higher tank to the lower tank. My problem is I don't know where to get the liner. I plan on using a bunch of rocks that were unearthed when the pond was renovated last year, and get some flat rocks to make small steps/waterfalls in the "stream".

Suggestions on where to get the liner, and how I should construct the stream? Also, how do I figure out how wide to make it and what size pump should I use?

It's close to the house, and can be seen from the livingroom. I don't plan on running the pump during the winter, but I will put a stock tank heater in each "pond" to keep them from freezing too bad. I've overwintered gambusa for the past 3 years in one, so I know the "pond" works. I just think a stream close to the house where it could be seen and at times heard would be nice. These "ponds" would only be <30' from the house. I'd keep the gams, and get a few bullfrog tadpoles to grow out as well. I doubt the tadpoles would survive in the real pond - too many predators.

I constructed something very similar to what you are referring to when I was a teenager about 12 years ago. I talked my parents into letting me do it in their backyard.

I bought the liner at Lowe's. However there are a ton of on-line sources now a days where you can price shop. Just type in pond liner into the search engine and you're off to the races!

It was a great addition to our backyard and my parents enjoyed it up to the day they moved. It really attracted the birds who liked to bath in the running water and I was able to successfully spawn a number of species of fish in it that you can't spawn in ponds because it had a section of running water.

As far as how to construct the stream. I dug out the "trench" between the two ponds. My upper pond was not very large, only 50 gallons or so, but my lower pond was as I recall 480 gallons. I had 15' between the two. I basically built three "pool" sections and the rest was "riffle" areas. I did this by widening the "trench" and digging it deeper for the pools. For the "riffles" I did the opposite, I made them narrower and shallower.

Make sure you dig your trench about 2" deeper and wider than what you want the final stream size to be. Do this because you should lay about 2" of sand down to pad the liner. The tricky areas are where the upper pond first runs into the stream and then where the stream runs into the lower pond. These are your biggest areas of possible leaks.

I used larger stones to anchor the core corners of each "pool" and where the liner ended at each pond. I found that using long flat stones that kind of stuck out from the stream into the bottom pond helped prevent leaks. Leave plenty of extra liner well above where you think water will ever get. Trust me, if you don't you will get leaks! I learned the hard way... I had to use two liners as the ones I bought were 7'x10'. I over lapped each liner by about 2 feet where they met which was in the middle of the stream. This helped prevent any leaking. Make sure the upstream liner is on top of the downstream liner if you end up having to use two liners. One of my pools was about 3' wide and 3' deep while the other two were about 2' wide and 2' deep. The riffles were about 6" to 12" deep after the gravel, stone and sand was placed on the liner to give it a stream look.

I used a mix of river stone I collected along with landscaping stone. I also used a natural sand to fill in the cracks to cover any areas where the liner may show. By the time I had finished the stream looked nearly natural. I even built in some old tree roots and had a dead tree laid across the stream. I then used rocks to make small crevices which I filled with soil and planted different species of plants in. It was a pretty cool set up. I wish I would have taken pictures of the whole process.

I used a Little Giant brand pump which was by far the most expensive aspect of the stream construction. Back then I think I paid a hair over $500 for it but I think something these days would go for somewhat more... It was putting out about 2000 gph through the 20' piping from intake to outflow pipe, which meant the stream was moving at a pretty good clip which is what I wanted. I had a waterfall that flowed down into the top pond, then the water left that pond flowed down the stream into the larger pond and then ran back up to the waterfall and the process started all over again...

Basically you want to look at flow rates, the gph will drop the longer feet of head you add... So if at 0' its 8000 gph, at 20' it may only be 2000 gph.

The waterfall and stream sounded and looked great. The birds and wildlife loved the stream as well. I was able to keep a lot of interesting native stream dwelling species as well. It was a great project and worth every penny. I am hoping to do another stream/pond project at my current house in the next couple of years.

You can see some pond liners in the resource guide:
http://www.pondboss.com/resourceguide_man_made_liners.html

Another good resource is aquascapes, see the following for a catalog as well as tips on building:
http://www.aquascapeinc.com/consumer

I've got 4 8-10,000 gph pumps in my pond.

CopRnose

Man, that sounds suhweet! Any pics? What "stream" species did you get to reproduce in the riffles? Creek Chubs, Daces?

I built the pond 12 years ago long before digital cameras were common. So only film pics and they are who knows where at my dad's house! Only pictures of the finished product. I really should try to find them...

I was able to spawn blacknose daces, rosyside daces, creek chubs, common shiners, satinfin shiners, tessellated darters, fantail darters, greenside darters and white suckers. The ability to spawn stream dwelling fish was a major reason I built the ponds/stream, that and the aesthetics. It really was a cool set up and ended up costing a little less than 1k to build. I mowed a lot of grass to afford that thing!

Thanks everybody. The small pools are a good idea! The pump will have to push the water about 20' laterally and 4' in height to go from the lower pond to the upper one. It'll be a project for the summer, but I wanted to get an idea of what I'll be needing in the way of supplies. Too bad you don't have readily available pics, that sounds nice!