New to this pond thing

[Indiananewbie]

Hello let me say I've done a bit of reading here first and thank you for the wealth of knowledge . I'm Constructing a pond with the sole purpose of giving my two black Labs a place to swim a tiny bit. I've dug the pond its roughly 13x15 with a couple of small ledges and plan on a waterfall its got a berm roughly 3/4ths of the way around it. I'm purchasing the liner in a couple of days it will be a EPDM 45ml Carlise. I'm still researching filtration /pumps ect and am planning on asking opinions in the other section . I have also purchased quite a bit of landscape rocks mostly flat sandstone with a few boulders and other rocks the plan is to construct the waterfalls with the flat rock as well as line the bottom of the pond with the flat rock.

 

[Stephen Noble]

Welcome to the forum!
Sandstone is pretty soft and the dogs (and time) will eventually reduce it to sand.
How deep is your pond?
Will you ever have fish in the pond?
If you plan to have fish consider that sandstone can be quirky depending when and where it was 'born' so you might do a couple of tests to see if you will be happy with it in your water.
First do a vinegar test. Completely clean a piece of the sandstone and then dip it in vinegar and see if it bubbles. If so, you might consider another type of stone to line the bottom. Bubbles indicate for one, the presence of calcium (CaCO3) which will alter the pH.
Second place a completely clean piece in a jar of water for a week or so and see if the water discolors.
If no bubbles with vinegar or gross coloration from the soak test then you might use it.
Again, welcome to the forum!

 

[j.w]

@Indiananewbie just hoping that liner is strong enough to withstand sharp dog claws. @addy here and some others have used a certain kind of liner that is super strong and has thwarted off rips and tear from deer entering the ponds and streams. @zinjy is now building a pond using the strong stuff below: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/thr...se-over-old-concrete.25013/page-2#post-407537

 

[JamieB]

It’ll be a dog pond! Labs love water, and so will your local wildlife. Watch for snakes and turtles, as my dogs think the “ moving rocks” are great treats, and i get some big turtles out here. And snapping turtles can hurt dogs.

 

[Indiananewbie]

Welcome to the forum!
Sandstone is pretty soft and the dogs (and time) will eventually reduce it to sand.
How deep is your pond?
Will you ever have fish in the pond?
If you plan to have fish consider that sandstone can be quirky depending when and where it was 'born' so you might do a couple of tests to see if you will be happy with it in your water.
First do a vinegar test. Completely clean a piece of the sandstone and then dip it in vinegar and see if it bubbles. If so, you might consider another type of stone to line the bottom. Bubbles indicate for one, the presence of calcium (CaCO3) which will alter the pH.
Second place a completely clean piece in a jar of water for a week or so and see if the water discolors.
If no bubbles with vinegar or gross coloration from the soak test then you might use it.
Again, welcome to the forum!

Actually its slate not sandstone sorry for the confusion The depth is approx 3.5 ft tapering up to 1Ft with two ledges (almost steps the entire length. No plans for fish at all. Looking for recommendations on filtering / skimming ect I plan on a waterfall lowing into one end then skimming out the other end and pumping back to waterfall ..Is this the best way ?