Big rocks and pond liner

[30Adam]

Hey all,

I've been watching Youtube videos like crazy (and this forum-love it!!). My plan is to stack the walls of my pond (7' x 15' x 3' deep) to hide the liner. I've seen lots of rock, smooth and not so smooth, stacked directly against the liner, and I've also seen bits of fabric material laid between the rock and the liner.

I plan to use a combination of river rock, and just normal Northern California stone out of the ground- not smooth at all. Should I protect the liner? What should I use?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[GBBUDD]

I used large boulders my self and to me its not even an option i actually am running underlayement over the liner to the entire pond so i have a full cover above and below. at a minimum you NEED it under your rocks especially the bigins

 

[JRS]

Welcome to the forum. I found out the hard way. Holed my liner shifting a large rock with sharp edge. Went back and installed underlayment under the rocks. I used a strip of this, which I also used for the liner underlayment, to protect the area I had covered with rock:

Duraweb Geotextile - 5.6oz - 4'x125'

Designed for use in a variety of construction and landscaping projects, this commercial grade nonwoven geotextile fabric provides stability and separation of base aggregates & soils while offering excellent permeability for drainage and filtration applications.

www.menards.com

 

[Lisak1]

We used scrap pieces of liner and/or underlayment under all of our largest rocks. The biggest reason was because we used the scraps as slings to carry the big rocks and it was far easier to just lay it right down on top of the pieces than to get them out from under once the rock was in place! I did go back and trim a lot of the excess away, just to keep things a bit neater. But the part that was under the rock just stayed there. We used all smooth boulders in our pond interior so honestly it probably wasn't necessary but that's how it worked out for us!

 

[sissy]

thing is once your liner gets covered by good muck you do not even notice it and fish love to eat that stuff .Rocks will get covered in it also and you will not even notice that there are rocks there

 

[Lisak1]

@sissy - I always hear people say you can't see rocks once they are covered by algae, but here's a picture of my pond last week. You can DEFINITELY see there are rocks in there. Now maybe they mean you won't see the details of the rocks, if they are different colors or sparkly or what not. But it's definitely different than looking into a liner only pond. Not better mind you - just different.

Please excuse my very dirty pond. This pond and I have a date this weekend for a bit of tidying up! (If the rain ever stops that is!)

 

[GBBUDD]

Yea i think what your talking about is do not waste your money and Montana blue stone or green shist, or even multi colored sand stone you'll never see the colors

 

[GBBUDD]

You should give Nualgi a try its one of those beneficial bacteria i know you don't like But i can see a huge difference when i use it ps. I triple the dose its just bacteria. BUT WHEN THE SUN COMES OUT BOY IS IT NOTICIABLE

 

[Lisak1]

I've definitely heard good things about it. Adding bacteria doesn't bother me... it's just one of those things that you wonder HOW do I know this stuff is active? I guess if you see results, you KNOW.

 

[sissy]

But they are still covered in the good stuff and look like fuzzy lumps and do not look like the rocks you put in .I see ponders that say where did my pretty rocks go ,they are still there but have grown fuzzy hair