Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Micro Pond Wave Suppression

Hello.

I am renovating a tiny micro pond (220 Gallons - Trinidad Preformed Liner):
Trinidad Liner

I mostly have the tiny pond for the water feature which is a 2 foot tall frothy style fountain. (using a 500GPH pump). So this means that the entire pond water supply is refreshed almost twice per hour. (not only are the waves caused by the fountain water crashing down but also by the quick rate of the water moving through the pump which gives the fountain the height it needs.) This pond has no fish or plant life as the main focus is meant to be the fountain.

The problem is that with the pond being so small, the fountain creates too many waves.

I remember when I was little my parents had a water bed and they had a wave-less mattress which made the water bed so wave-less that it didn't even seem like it was a water bed. I always thought "Why the hell did they buy this water bed if they didn't want any waves?". But that's a whole other story.

I'm curious if there is anything that can be purchased for a tiny pond to reduce the waves caused by fountains.

I'm almost thinking of separating out the fountain by having the water from it go into like a raised platform so the water can hit that first before it hits the regular part of the pond if that makes sense. Maybe I need a baffle? (anyone ever try a baffle for this exact issue I am having?)

Baffles the mind

Baffle

Here is the current build.



Also curious if anyone else has had a fountain that was just too big for your pond and how you resolved the issue (without digging a new pond). thanks

A cheap method is to use some plastic milk crates upside-down a bit above the water level. The plastic ridges will trap the waves. You can use similar materials if you can find them that may be more attractive.

Or, you can scale down the water flow a bit.

I like the upside down milk crate idea. I see that some have many holes on the sides and others are more solid on the sides. Do the solid ones work better or do you need to use the ones with holes? (the actual baffles have solid sides but they are spread out over a larger distance).

Is that what most people use (crates and other items lying around the house), or do others spring for a baffle?

I tried to find other companies that make those baffles but I didn't find too many. Only Delta and maybe one other one and they seem almost non-existent on Amazon.

Unfortunately I can't scale down because I want to go in the opposite direction (faster pump for more height). I want to hit 3 feet if possible. I know I could have a skinnier fountain to do that but I want to have it be not so skinny. More like the OASE frothy nozzle which hits 3 feet near 3000 GPH. But it might be difficult to pull off. Even at 2000, the whole pond is cycling itself every 5 to 10 minutes, like a whirlpool.

I kind of want to have the most amazing fountain possible in this tiny little pond but I know physics is against that idea. But at the same time, I don't want it to look bad either.

Currently my OASE frothy fountain nozzle is offline because my old OASE pump (2000GPH) that I used to have in this pond received a cut in the electrical line so it has bare wire exposed and I understand once there is a cut in a pump line that most pumps have to be trashed at that point. (I think they should make them detachable but apparently that is not as common).

When I had that pump going there were crazy crazy waves overflowing all the time. With the 500 it's not as bad, but it is still bad enough.

This is what you need! Rig this bad boy up for your sitting area.

That is wicked.

I thought it was going to fly out of the top but it just stopped perfectly right at the top.

It's like a canned tornado. cool. Now, make it even larger.

This looks like another version of it, or the same version.

Whirlpool Fountain

That one is expensive. Found a tutorial to make it for under $200, even less if you have some of the parts already.



That is too cool.

Also makes me think I should be looking at glass baffles instead of plastic or powdered stainless steel. hmm.

I wonder if you have to keep that thing out of the sunlight to avoid the magnifying glass effect.

Tutorial for it:

Whirlpool Fountain Tutorial

Only a 1000 GPH pump for the mini version and $100 or so isn't bad for the whole project if you already have a planter. I may just have to add one of these to my pond area, or even in the pond like they have it in the DIY video.

Something to bear in mind that on windy days, the pond will get pumped dry pretty fast with a tall fountain. The vortex water features look immune to the problem.

I'm thinking a rock pile around your fountain would be a good experiment. Pile the rocks up around the fountain until they are about 2 inches above the water line. They will slow the water down and diffuse the water into the pond. It will likely cause some slashing, but yo might find that to be a nice addition to the pond.

The water doesn't really stop at the top but flows over the top and runs down the sides. The key is to have it nice a level.

Cheers Don.

Plus the vortex would look awesome at night with a little lighting.