Natural Stone Pool

[Benny]

Excavating in my backyard beside a large ledge protrusion, I found a natural "bowl" in the rock that is about 20' long x 6-8' wide. there is 25' tall cliff on one side, 8 ' high on another and the other 2 sides slope gradually upward. As it stands, it will probably hold about 16" of water at the deepest part before it overflows the lowest edge. I am planning to build that part up with rock mortared directly to the existing rock.

Does anyone have experience or reference sites with information on how to turn this into a pond? There are a few small cracks that need sealing, but overall the rock seems completely solid. It looks quite cool, but I don't have any experience to know if this will work as a pond by just filling it up and adding a pump, filter and small waterfall. Will anything leach out of the rock? Will it get so slippery that walking is impossible?
best way to pull the water out for circulation?

I assume I am in for some trial and error, but this is just too pretty not to try something.

here are pictures - one looking at the 'cliff', the other looking down into the pool from the top of the cliff. the rock in the 'pool' is about 8-10" thick and 30-36" long

Any pointers would be really appreciated

 

[Priscilla]

Welcome! Wow! Is that ever neat! No clue how it would work, but if it does, talk about your natural pond! I guess as long as you don't put fish in it right away, you can spend some time experimenting and getting it just right. Then add the fish later if you want.

Would love to see pictures of your progress.

 

[Fishylove]

WELCOME!! That is soooo cool and will be really neat when you finish it! Does it hold water now? Yeah I think there are a few people on here with motar and pond experience. Take lots of pics, we like pics can't wait to see how it comes out
Talk about your free rocks! Wait till The rest of em see this

 

[addy1]

Nice rocks! This will be fun to watch

 

[max384]

Are you going to spray/paint it with some sort of sealant to waterproof it? Or are you going to fill in the cracks and see if it first holds water (probably the route I'd take, not that I'm an expert by any means). How big do you estimate the pond to be once you build up the side?

This sounds like a fantastic idea if you can make it work, and I think it will look really great! Looking forward to more picture updates!

 

[callingcolleen1]

The only thing is that the very big stone will heat up during the day, and any water in that pool may be too warm for fish, unless you have it flowing down to a bigger pool somewhere below... Good luck with that project, if you can make it work it would really look nice!

 

[sissy]

I saw pools done like this in Arizona when I visited my aunt there .There was 1 house that had 2 of them and they were even on a show on tv called amazing homes .I got so excited because I had seen it for real .They built there house into the mountains

 

[haver79]

Bet that would make a beautiful water feature. Neat rocks!

 

[j.w]

Benny
What a cool idea and I hope we will get to see how you do this step by step. You are in rock Heaven!

 

[DrCase]

Fill it with water and take a pic

 

[sissy]

put a stick some where in a pot to see how much water you loose and remember there will be evaporation ,so factor that in .But it looks so cool it would be hard for any of us ponders to pass up that chance