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- Apr 27, 2022
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My original pond/pool had a homemade waterfall and homemade filter system made from storage tub, trash cans, & an inverted Lexan corrugated roof ridge cap to give waterfall 3x's extra splash, and was filtered thru industrial floor scrubber pads, for 5 years... But it's going to become a chlorinated pool again soon.
So this time I got a slightly used inflatable ring pool, buried pool as my liner - not in it original shape tho. Then covered that with brown heavy duty tarps on the sides, flat rocks against sides underwater, an 18" wide x 3" thick ring of hi-strength Quikrete around the top and pea gravel tamped in immediately after pour, as a grass barrier at pond edges. Already got 3 Y-shaped small logs & 2 medium sized fatter logs sunk using granite/concrete blocks drilled thru & nailed to the logs, so they don't become floaters again during any partial water changes in the future. And a washed out & put in 2" deep of pea gravel into the pond bottom. I'm also building my own skimmer, and my own screened protector around my 4,800gph pump so no fish accidentally get sucked in. Inflow to pump will be split using 2" pipe to skimmer and a 1" to 1.5" pipe in case skimmer clogs, then pump out flow also splits from a 2" to 2 1.5" pipes, one going straight to filtering tub, & other thru a 55w UV clarifier/sterilizer then into tub. Inside 100gal tub, water will go through bio-balls, and then thru 20" x 20" of varying industrial scrubber pads with a 2.5" vertical overly perforated pipe in center that goes thru bottom of tub & switches to 3" pipe - Y'd to two 3" pipes & then feeds the waterfall.
Still trying to decide between a fall over a fall idea, or a stair stepped stream to a falls idea.
I am going to build small working shed over the tub on backside of waterfall, planning on using chicken wire, landscape fabric & cement to paper-crete-mache the waterfall over a wood built slide type frame, draped in liner with high sides, so just in case the clear Pond Seal enamel ever fails, or should the cement & Quikrete crack, then all water loss still goes to the pond on the liner rather than on the cement - I worked another pond that had a leaking problem that ran to dirt underneath and drained the pond thru the waterfall leak, I'm not doing that here. I am planning on doing the crete-mache on & around the small shed as well, to hopefully make the shed look like a boulderous cave behind the waterfall area, will have a waist high access door on the cave side of the boulder-shed, painted flat black to be unnoticed, doors so that I can access the tub, filters, electrical, UV clarifier/sterilizer, and whatever pipes are above ground, safe from rain/snow/etc. All of my crete-mache, I hope to color with various colored sands as I go, & coat every thing with that clear Pond Seal stuff, 2 coats preferably. Fingers crossed, don't know if I've thought of everything, nor if my crazy ideas will work, but I sure do hope so.
So this time I got a slightly used inflatable ring pool, buried pool as my liner - not in it original shape tho. Then covered that with brown heavy duty tarps on the sides, flat rocks against sides underwater, an 18" wide x 3" thick ring of hi-strength Quikrete around the top and pea gravel tamped in immediately after pour, as a grass barrier at pond edges. Already got 3 Y-shaped small logs & 2 medium sized fatter logs sunk using granite/concrete blocks drilled thru & nailed to the logs, so they don't become floaters again during any partial water changes in the future. And a washed out & put in 2" deep of pea gravel into the pond bottom. I'm also building my own skimmer, and my own screened protector around my 4,800gph pump so no fish accidentally get sucked in. Inflow to pump will be split using 2" pipe to skimmer and a 1" to 1.5" pipe in case skimmer clogs, then pump out flow also splits from a 2" to 2 1.5" pipes, one going straight to filtering tub, & other thru a 55w UV clarifier/sterilizer then into tub. Inside 100gal tub, water will go through bio-balls, and then thru 20" x 20" of varying industrial scrubber pads with a 2.5" vertical overly perforated pipe in center that goes thru bottom of tub & switches to 3" pipe - Y'd to two 3" pipes & then feeds the waterfall.
Still trying to decide between a fall over a fall idea, or a stair stepped stream to a falls idea.
I am going to build small working shed over the tub on backside of waterfall, planning on using chicken wire, landscape fabric & cement to paper-crete-mache the waterfall over a wood built slide type frame, draped in liner with high sides, so just in case the clear Pond Seal enamel ever fails, or should the cement & Quikrete crack, then all water loss still goes to the pond on the liner rather than on the cement - I worked another pond that had a leaking problem that ran to dirt underneath and drained the pond thru the waterfall leak, I'm not doing that here. I am planning on doing the crete-mache on & around the small shed as well, to hopefully make the shed look like a boulderous cave behind the waterfall area, will have a waist high access door on the cave side of the boulder-shed, painted flat black to be unnoticed, doors so that I can access the tub, filters, electrical, UV clarifier/sterilizer, and whatever pipes are above ground, safe from rain/snow/etc. All of my crete-mache, I hope to color with various colored sands as I go, & coat every thing with that clear Pond Seal stuff, 2 coats preferably. Fingers crossed, don't know if I've thought of everything, nor if my crazy ideas will work, but I sure do hope so.