Easy Waterfall

First time poster, great forum. I am wanting to build a pond and want to add a cheap waterfall. Any Ideas? I need some serious help and some pics would be great.

Thanks

conan

Hi :
To me, the words 'easy' and 'waterfall' are mutually exclusive. Being kinda new to ponding, I'm finding 'easy' and most things in to do with this hobby are also oxymorons. *snick*
To be serious, I can tell you what I did - I bought one of those plastic pre-formed thingies you can find at home improvement stores. (I think they are meant to form cascades or rivulets) Next I piled up some of the remains from digging the pond to a height of perhaps two feet with the plastic pond(?) sunk in at the top. I fed this with the return flow from a power filter, landscaped and rocked around it to hide the ugly plastic, and allowed the outflow to flow over a shaped pile of large rock. Not too bad looking after the wife got the plantings in. Actually we like the way it came out!
I know it's nowhere near as fancy as many I've seen, but that's one attraction of ponding - there's always next year! The best features are - not too expensive, relatively 'easy', and very unlikely to leak. Many fancy falls I've seen have the unwanted problems of 'wicking' the water through the rocks or as water leaves the lip of the falls. I was able to solve that by concocting a kind of bib under the chin of the outlet. I cut it from extra pond liner so it blends well, and sealed it to the plastic with silastic. Now any capillary action at the edge hits the bib and goes right into the pond.
That's my first effort at a waterfall. I'm sure that others have some more worthy ideas for you.
Total : $40 for the plastic thing and a solid day of tinkering, which I enjoy anyways. Best of luck.
Regards,

I would recommend using a complete setup instead of trying to piece it together. If you do piece it together use underlayment, 45 mil liner, black spray foam, waterfall box and a good pump. Prior to picking up a shovel you may want to get a hold on a copy of How to Build Ponds and Waterfalls by Jeffrey Reid which is a very helpful guide for beginners or experienced pond builders. Tons of details and pictures will spark your creativity. If you let me know the area and an idea of what you want I'd be happy to help more. Sincerely, Gail

We are preparing to reconstruct our waterfall. It was o.k. but just basically a slope with slight dropoffs and was just uninspiring. We want more sound and higher drop to the pond. We aquired the rocks and I saw your post on black spray foam. What is it used for? We figure we could use some way to shape the rock together would this be it? Any info would be helpful. Thanks.

Many people have trouble with water diverting around rock and liner links on waterfalls and streams. Our black waterfall foam comes in a 12 oz can with dispensing straw. It is a triple-expanding black foam so it takes less than regular foam. Fish-safe. UV-protected. Use to attach rocks to spillways and to direct water over the falls. Waterfall foam is easier and longer lasting than normal landscape foam. Regular spray foam is not advisable to use in direct water or sunlight exposure. Keep nail polish remover on hand to remove foam from your hands.
When you increase the height of the falls be very careful to keep the splash zone well inside the pond so you don't lose any water outside the pond. How strong your pump will also affect how high your waterfall is. You might like to preview the Finding A Leak to avoid some common mistakes. Feel free to email or call me if you have anymore questions.

Make your Bio Filter the base for your waterfall. The challenge then is to make it look natural. That takes time due to the necessary growth of vines, bamboo and any other natural greenery to hide parts of the construction.

I built mine 6 months ago (108 degrees when we did it) out of a 55 gallon plastic drum. I'm supplying it with a 1150 GPH Beckett pump. The filter media is 7000 cut pieces of black irrigation tubing, half inch in diameter cut 1 1/2" long. I put a 2" dump valve in the bottom, it takes only a minute to clean the filter by just opening the dump valve.

My pond looked like pea soup before turning this on. After 2-3 days, the water was crystal clear. For the first time ever, I could see sand grains on the bottom.

This looks terrible until you hide it by building more structure around it to make it look more natural. Mine is getting there with the growth of the vines and bamboo around it.

I have many more photos that I will add to my web site some day. I'm thinking I need to set up yet another web site just for this Forum and the Koi.