How deep should my stream be?

[Chris Robbo]

Hi all,
I’m building a small Pondless stream and I need to calculate my water in motion so I know how big to make the reservoir. The stream is about 12 ft long, 20” wide and with a total fall of about 25”. I was going to go about 5” or 6” but now I’m thinking that might be a raging flood. So I assume I should have something smaller to make it more sedate? Any thoughts? Thanks

 

[GBBUDD]

Its good you know about water in motion, but there is ways to help that situation by making pools that have a over flow edge toward the reservoir. very shallow and pitched streams do exactly what you were saying it flows to the vault when the water is shut off every drop. which means you need a larger area to store water because if the power goes out you'll need to store the evaporation replacement as well as water in motion.

so my answer is to make your stream but in actuality it is a small pool. it can be as deep as you'd like you just bring the liner up all around but where ever the vault will be you just make a low edge. that way only the actual gph and your water fal water that is in motion will fall to the vault and not every drop of water.