Just lurking for ideas

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New member as of today. Planning on a pondless waterfall and stream about 50 feet long, 3-4 feet wide with a lift of around 16 feet. I've never done this before but have friends who have done ponds so I'll get a little help in that aspect. Main concerns are how big a pump I need and the basin volume needed.

Doug
 

ididntdoit99

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That is a good size stream, use a pond calculator to figure out how many gallons will be held in the stream (you didn't say how deep you wanted the stream to be or I could tell you)

In all honesty, you could really have any size basin you wanted, if you want to put a 5 gallon bucket the the end of your stream, you can, just know that if you shut your pump off, the stream is going to overflow that 5 gallon bucket and you will have to add water again when you turn the pump back on.
 
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well the depth is another question altogether! I just want a stream with a natural looking flow, I don't want a gusher. So I'd estimate 4-5 inches deep. It wiil NOT be on constantly due to attracting unwanted 4 legged visitors at night from the woods around the house, so the basin volume would have to be big enough to hold all the water once the pump is turned off.. They do enough damage to my woodland garden already! The first pic is of the area back in 2009. The red arrows show the approximate begining and end. The second pic shows the area looking back down the hill. The stream will be in the natural gully there. The third pic will be the view to the right of the stream looking back up the hill. I know this will be a big project but I am damned and determined to do it myself!!!

Doug
 

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ididntdoit99

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That probably a better idea anyway, i was just saying it is possible to have little to no basin at the end. well this pond volume calculator says at 4 feet wide, and 50 feet long, and .416 feet deep (5 inches) you will have 622 gallons just in the stream. Now you are going to want SOME water in the basin, specially if you want to plant plants and things in there.... and not to suck air into the pump. So you are looking at a pretty good size basin.


http://www.pondcare.com/reference-center/pond-calculator/index.aspx
 
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[sub]What volume pump would I need? Saw a pump at a big box store a few days ago that was around 5300 gph. Bigger because of the lift involved?[/sub]
 

ididntdoit99

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Because of the lift, bigger is probably better. You can alway put a valve on it and slow it down if needed, but you cant speed it up if you buy too small of one. Most pumps will have listed right on the box or thier website the volume and lift for the pump. Hoepfully you can find that info on the one you were looking at.
 

addy1

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Our stream is around 85 feet long plus minus with mini ponds at each turn, I made it a switch back stream due to our slope. In the stream I do have catch basins that keep some water in them for plants, critters etc. The stream is from one foot to two feet wide, in some places it drops to 6 inches after all the rocks, plants etc where added.

We bought a clear water pump from harbor freight, 115 foot head pressure. Cheap, 39 or 49 dollars can't recall. It is not a gusher, ie. 650 gph but plenty of flow for us and cheap to run.

We looked at pond pumps that could handle our head pressure of 60-80 feet, the cost was unreal and the electricity use off the chart lol.

We do have the pump on a timer, all we had to do was add a check valve so the pipes would stay full of water, it is not a self primer.
 
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addy, I just did all 35 pages of your build. That is absolutely breathtaking. As you can see from my pics, I at least do have rocks in the area. Now I want to start digging after seeing yours!!

Doug
 

j.w

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Doug
Hope you will show us photo's of this cool stream/waterfall project that you are really putting your heart into :)
 

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