adding a stream to an existing pond

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I have an existing 5500 gal pond that we put in 2 years ago. Of course I have the fever and now want to add a smaller pond with a connected stream. My question is what is the necessary slope of the land to support this idea. My property has a gentle slope to it with the large pond about half way down the property. I was hoping to have a smaller pond at the top with a stream connecting to the larger pond. I was hoping to have the water drop into the larger pond however depending on how deep the stream needs to be there may not be enough slope. How do you calculate something like that and is there anything you can do if the slope is not great enough? Thanks
 

Mmathis

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Not my area of expertise as far as the numbers go, but I want to say I've heard as little as 2% slope. I recently connected a small bog to my pond and about all I did was measure the # of inches difference between the 2 -- thinking it came out to 3" [??], but I had to build up an area to get that. And I cheated by using 4" PVC as the conduit rather than building a stream [I had fears of overflows.....and leaks.......]. If you have a good slope to begin with, you might be OK. Again, can't help with #'s, but just be sure you have enough flow in the stream back to the main pond so that the upper pond doesn't overflow [I know, that doesn't help much}.

You'll get more help, as many on GPF have ponds with streams.
 
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Water will run downhill. Does that help? haha!

We built a small stream and didn't really do a whole lot of calculation. The source of our stream is a waterfall spillway with a diverter on it, so we can control the water flow. Our bigger issue was making sure the stream was deep enough to contain the amount of water we wanted to have flowing through it, if that makes sense. At the fastest rate of flow our stream overflows the banks so we have to keep the flow slower, which actually works fine in our case. Some folks have the opposite problem - their flow isn't fast enough to create the bubbling brook they are looking for. Variable speed is your friend in either case. (I like to build in adaptation to poor engineering! Someone else will surely have real math to help you figure out what you need to know!)
 

sissy

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Water will run no matter what ,a couple of our ponders have semi flat streams running from one pond to the other .
 

Meyer Jordan

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It depends on the visual effect that you are looking to create. As you increase the grade you increase the velocity of the water. As you increase the width of the stream you create the appearance of slower moving water. Depending on the proposed length of your stream, the more that you can incorporate varying widths and grades the more naturalistic look you will achieve. I have always used an inclinometer to set my grade. Except for small waterfalls or cascades, the grade should not exceed 5 degrees. The stream should be a minimum of 6 inches in depth.
 
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Not my area of expertise as far as the numbers go, but I want to say I've heard as little as 2% slope. I recently connected a small bog to my pond and about all I did was measure the # of inches difference between the 2 -- thinking it came out to 3" [??], but I had to build up an area to get that. And I cheated by using 4" PVC as the conduit rather than building a stream [I had fears of overflows.....and leaks.......]. If you have a good slope to begin with, you might be OK. Again, can't help with #'s, but just be sure you have enough flow in the stream back to the main pond so that the upper pond doesn't overflow [I know, that doesn't help much}.

You'll get more help, as many on GPF have ponds with streams.
Thanks
 
Joined
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topeka, kansas
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Water will run downhill. Does that help? haha!

We built a small stream and didn't really do a whole lot of calculation. The source of our stream is a waterfall spillway with a diverter on it, so we can control the water flow. Our bigger issue was making sure the stream was deep enough to contain the amount of water we wanted to have flowing through it, if that makes sense. At the fastest rate of flow our stream overflows the banks so we have to keep the flow slower, which actually works fine in our case. Some folks have the opposite problem - their flow isn't fast enough to create the bubbling brook they are looking for. Variable speed is your friend in either case. (I like to build in adaptation to poor engineering! Someone else will surely have real math to help you figure out what you need to know!)
Thanks
 
Joined
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topeka, kansas
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It depends on the visual effect that you are looking to create. As you increase the grade you increase the velocity of the water. As you increase the width of the stream you create the appearance of slower moving water. Depending on the proposed length of your stream, the more that you can incorporate varying widths and grades the more naturalistic look you will achieve. I have always used an inclinometer to set my grade. Except for small waterfalls or cascades, the grade should not exceed 5 degrees. The stream should be a minimum of 6 inches in depth.
I will look into a inclinometer. Thanks for the info.
 
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I have an existing 5500 gal pond that we put in 2 years ago. Of course I have the fever and now want to add a smaller pond with a connected stream. My question is what is the necessary slope of the land to support this idea. My property has a gentle slope to it with the large pond about half way down the property. I was hoping to have a smaller pond at the top with a stream connecting to the larger pond. I was hoping to have the water drop into the larger pond however depending on how deep the stream needs to be there may not be enough slope. How do you calculate something like that and is there anything you can do if the slope is not great enough? Thanks
Thanks for all your info. I presenting have a pretty high output pump housed in a skimmer which circulates the water to my biofalls. How do I adapt that pump to send water to the pond above and down the stream. Do I use that pump or set up a separate system?
 

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