Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Adding a waterfall

As most of you know we are about to renovate our 1 1/2 acre pond later this month. While we have the contractor and all his big toys on the land we are playing with the idea of adding a small waterfall with a rock spillway/stream bed that runs into the pond. Our lot slopes down at a 4:1/5:1 ratio to the pond. Our idea is to put the water fall about 50' up the hill from the pond basin on the bank opposite the dam. It will be for eye candy only and aesthetics not to provide any real aeration or other benefit. I know we will need to use a pond liner and pump and copious amounts of pipe.

Any of you folks have ideas on how to construct this thing or if this could be potentially harmful to the pond. We are planning on pumping the water up the hill from the pond and returning it to the pond via the waterfall and stream bed. At the most it will be 5-6' wide. Ideas and recommendations on pumps etc. would be much appreciated.

BTW, met with Ronnie again this past weekend and his truck was DIRTY, but he was actually cleaner. Go figure!

It's all a matter of having the materials and source of power. If you have them, then I think it's a brilliant idea, and one that I wish I could accomplish. Power is the main thing for the pump, the rest is just a matter of buying it and putting it in place.

Unlike Koi ponds, you won't have to worry about a filter system or water quality. It's just a simple pump pushing water up from the pond to an outlet, where it goes right back into the pond. Sizing the pump is a matter of what you want to pay and how much water you want to see moving. Bigger is better, but it costs more. Another factor in pumps is head. The higher you lift the water for the discharge, the more head pressure that you will need. Elevation is what kills you in how much water you can move. It's fairly easy to move water along a flat plane, but pushing it up hill requires more power. The more water you want to move, the more power you will need.

First thing you need to figure out is how much electricity that you have available. Is it a dedicated line? How many amps? How far long is the line? If it's a 20 amp outlet and it's the only outlet on the line, then you have a full 20 amps for your pump if it's a short run. If the wire is several hundred feet long, then you are losing electricity over the length of the run. It might just be 2 or three amps, or it might be as much as half depending on the wire size, wire type and distance. Once you know this, then you can decide on a pump.

If you have not installed the wire yet, and it's a fairly long run, you can use a larger wire then normal to increase the amount of power you will have available at the outlet. If you have to go 300 feet and you have a 20 amp breaker, instead of using 12/2 wire, you can go up to 10/2 or even 8/2. It's more money for bigger wire, but over the lifetime of it's use, it's cheaper to spend the money on bigger wire then to suffer through a pump that's too small and disappointing.

The pump will have a list of ratings. How many HP, how much water it will pump at different heights and how much power it needs. With those ratings, you can figure out how high above the water line that you can make your waterfall.

With the pump size and height that you can pump it to get the effect you want, it's now a simple job of laying out the liner and placing your rocks.

Hope this helps,
Eddie

We had to put a plastic liner under the rocks to keep the water from causing to much dirt to get washed into the pond.

Easier to do before you put down the rocks. HA HA

Great advice Eddie! Thanks! And we were planning on putting down the liner before the rocks Otto! Our soil perks so well we would end up with a dry stream bed if we didn't!

Thanks again!

Anna

We want some Pictures

Yes dear. Oops I mistook you for my nagging husband! As soon as we start you will get so many pictures that you will ask me to stop sending them! I promise! Did you see my fish?! Gorgeous! I hope we don't lose them.

The free Jackass!! Catch him and he is yours.

Cool photo Anna,
Free Jackass, catch him and he is yours? I wasn't thinking a four legged animal when I saw that post................sorry.