CW's Back Yard Water Garden Begins!

[GBBUDD]

@GBBUDD: Damnit, you really are that little devil on my shoulder.

I wouldn't bull shist you . I'll tell you straight weather it's welcome or not. . Like I always say my good man yes this may have been a long year lots of work but divide that by 30 years and it's a blink in time

 

[GBBUDD]

At a minimum have enough liner to raise the bog latter

 

[GBBUDD]

@GBBUDD: Damnit, you really are that little devil on my shoulder.

FRIGHTNING IS IT NOT!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[combatwombat]

@G Massam: Welcome to the thread. I've actually been working on this albatross for almost a year now. But I can see the finish line!

@GBBUDD: 30 years not long enough. At 30 years, I'lll be just approaching the age where I probably won't want to tackle a project like this again. So I need this pond to last 50-60 years or I need to move in 20 and let the next sucker figure it out.

 

[combatwombat]

Honestly, though, I do wonder what kind of delusion we "pond rockers" may be living in. I'll have 60+ tons of materials over my liner by the time all is said and done. When the liner shows signs of failure, I'm selling the house. No way am I pulling it all out to do again. That's got to be another one of the +1s on the "no rocks in the pond" crowd. Liner fails. Pull it out and replace it. Us? Not so simple...

 

[combatwombat]

Here's a video showing a couple of low-profile sheet falls like what I am hoping to achieve. Guy says to plan for 500 GPH/inch of width in the falls for a typical sheet falls.

That seems crazy to me, though. I calculated it more like 150-200 gph/inch based on this pump flow comparison video:

Those sheet falls are all 14" wide. The 2000 gph flow looks good to me, which is about 150 gph/inch. The 3000 looks really good, and that's about 200 gph/inch. All the bigger pumps look like too much for me. The 5,000 gph pump (350 gph/inch) looks like way more flow than what they're pushing over their falls, so I don't know what is driving that guy's rule of thumb of 500 gph/inch. It looks like he's pushing more like 200.

Maybe he means 500 gph/inch spec'd on the pump and he's losing half of it to head pressure. Don't know. Either way, that's kind of what I'm going for. A wide, low profile sheet falls. The main one in that video looks like about 8" and it looks amazing.

 

[GBBUDD]

Here comes Red . With your neighbors all around the higher flow higher drop can drown out some noice from them.

 

[combatwombat]

Here comes Red . With your neighbors all around the higher flow higher drop can drown out some noice from them.

We have a toddler and our neighbors are all elderly. We're the noisy ones! Maybe more of a benefit to them than us.

 

[brokensword]

Honestly, though, I do wonder what kind of delusion we "pond rockers" may be living in. I'll have 60+ tons of materials over my liner by the time all is said and done. When the liner shows signs of failure, I'm selling the house. No way am I pulling it all out to do again. That's got to be another one of the +1s on the "no rocks in the pond" crowd. Liner fails. Pull it out and replace it. Us? Not so simple...

EXACTLY!

Since I've already done my pond expansion, I definitely benefitted from not having anything too onerous for one man to re-do. That said, I designed and built my house with a major eye to being able to fix ANYTHING even in old age, hence no 2 story here, all plumbing accessible from the basement, and very low pitch roof!

 

[brokensword]

Here's a video showing a couple of low-profile sheet falls like what I am hoping to achieve. Guy says to plan for 500 GPH/inch of width in the falls for a typical sheet falls.

That seems crazy to me, though. I calculated it more like 150-200 gph/inch based on this pump flow comparison video:

Those sheet falls are all 14" wide. The 2000 gph flow looks good to me, which is about 150 gph/inch. The 3000 looks really good, and that's about 200 gph/inch. All the bigger pumps look like too much for me. The 5,000 gph pump (350 gph/inch) looks like way more flow than what they're pushing over their falls, so I don't know what is driving that guy's rule of thumb of 500 gph/inch. It looks like he's pushing more like 200.

Maybe he means 500 gph/inch spec'd on the pump and he's losing half of it to head pressure. Don't know. Either way, that's kind of what I'm going for. A wide, low profile sheet falls. The main one in that video looks like about 8" and it looks amazing.

CW; you know, I watched that first vid and although really interesting and beautiful for what it was, to me, the complete lack of fish and water plants kept me thinking 'it ain't done'. I know it's personal preference but can you visualize that same winding river, dual ponds and sheet waterfalls with koi swimming around? Wonder if herons are in his area...that might be the only downside (the net) but still; surely looked like it needed something to me.

 

[Rashad]

@brokensword: The type of well I'm thinking of is called a "driven well."

We have one of these and use it just for watering the plants and the pond. But the water table is only about 10 feet below the surface here. The well is about 25 feet deep. Our is actually PVC. They used an augur do dig down to the sand layer where the water is, and then once they hit water they put the pipe in and then used a fence post driver to get it the last 6-8 feet or so. Point was something like this, attached to normal schedule 40 pvc pipe (I think, maybe 80). https://www.amazon.com/Brady-Well-P...ocphy=9030448&hvtargid=pla-573223776643&psc=1

 

[combatwombat]

@brokensword: Yes, that pond is lacking some character, but I think they shot that video right as they were finishing it, so hadn't got to planting or adding fish yet. In any case, I'm only referencing that big, wide sheet falls, not the whole project. That falls is the part of that build I'd like to emulate.

 

[combatwombat]

Raining all day today, so here's a little update video. Explains all the changes I've made to the design since breaking ground and where we're at now. Getting closer to done every day.

 

[bagsmom]

Raining all day today, so here's a little update video. Explains all the changes I've made to the design since breaking ground and where we're at now. Getting closer to done every day.

When did you film this? In the video you say late November? I am wondering if it didn't link the the video you wanted. I haven't seen it before, though, so it was super fun to watch! It is going to be wonderful!

 

[combatwombat]

@bagsmom: I filmed it last week. No idea why I said November. Brain fart, I guess.