BUILDING WATERFALLS
 

Fountains and waterfalls give the water garden a focal point in addition to adding beauty. Furthermore, place the focal structure in a location to get the greatest viewing impact.

Preformed waterfalls allow for simple do-it-yourself installation. Most preformed units are made of fiberglass or plastic; many can look natural. Sizes range from a foot high to six feet or higher. You may choose among units that include a built-in hidden filter. Use the manufacturer's guidelines for installation and its suggested range of gph (gallons per hour) to help you choose. Keep the falls within the recommended gph because too much flow can cause water loss and too little flow can result in a loss of visual and aural impact.

Fountains come in a wide range of shapes, colors, sizes, price ranges and are available at many related retail sources. A waterfall is generally created by building a slope using excess soil, liner material and assorted rocks to create a stream that is recycled with a submersible pump. Plastic tubing or a dark colored water hose is attached to lead from the pool pump up-and-under the waterfall during construction. It is especially important that the height of the waterfall or fountain spray coincide with the size of the water garden.


STEPS

1. Placement of pump

Secure the flexible tubing to the outlet of the pump using a stainless steel hose clamp. Submerse it at the furthest point from the waterfall. Route the tubing over the side of the pond (it can be hidden under the perimeter stones). Make sure the tubing is not pinched by the stone, and avoid sharp bends in the tubing so it does not kink and reduce flow.

2. Tubing

Route the tubing to the waterfall. Bury it under soil.

3. Building waterfall pond

Use displaced soil from the pond to build an elevated area for the waterfall. Consider making a small auxiliary pond in this mound. Position the spillway to flow into the main pond area. Using the same techniques as the main pond, build a small liner pond.

Two layers of pond liner are recommended for this pond. The first one contains the water. The second liner channels the water towards the fall.

Important! Be sure the liner drapes underneath the waterfall spillway stones - otherwise you will experience water loss when the waterfall is in operation. You may need to use liner seaming tape in this stage.

4. Building spillway

Once the spillway liner is in place, you will want to pump water up to the auxiliary pond and watch it flow down the liner spillway. (At this stage - your pond should be full of water).

Carefully select stones and position them while the water is flowing over them. With the water flowing over the rock, you may replace, shift and add stones so you achieve the desired water spills you desire.

5. Adding extras

Plant moss and small plants between the stones around the waterfall to achieve a natural look.

Note: The discharge from the filters can be routed to the waterfall pond or into the water stream. Because the water flows by gravity out the bottom of most of the filters, it must be positioned higher than the waterfall. If this is difficult to achieve, consider a "Y" or "T" connector in your tubing or use the pump diverter, with some water being diverted to the filter and some to the waterfall. You may also want to use two separate pumps, one for the waterfall and one for the filter.


OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

  • Building backyard waterfalls to handle more than 1,000 gallons per hour or building waterfalls for large volume flows normally should be reserved for larger koi ponds where this kind of flow rate is very important. When building waterfalls for smaller ponds aim to use gentle flow. As well as gentle flow soothing sound should also be a main criterion or concern for building a pond waterfall.

  • Building waterfalls high and wide on a small pond makes no sense. The outcome will look odd and be very noisy.

  • Building waterfalls impacts significantly upon your choice of pump for any pond. Make sure you do not get this item wrong. A backyard waterfall with the wrong pump can be very disappointing.

  • For every inch of garden ponds waterfall lip width allow 250 liters per hour of pond water flow (about 50 gallons). Remember your backyard pond waterfall should send out soothing sounds, not great roars.

  • Building waterfalls high? For most small garden ponds (up to say 500 liters or 120 gallons) building a pond waterfall 18" or 50cm above the pond surface is good enough. For large koi ponds 1 meter or 3 feet is probably high enough.

  • Do not switch off the pond waterfall (be it a fiberglass waterfall or any other kind) at night if you have a koi pond or a fish pond unless you run a second pump to feed the bio-filter, which keeps the fish alive. Oxygen required by fish and bio-filter bacteria is supplied from circulating water flowing down such a fiberglass waterfall.

  • Building waterfalls is fun and easy using synthetic rock waterfalls made from fiberglass. Certainly a preformed waterfall or preformed waterfalls stacked together is the way to go. Forget digging and concrete or liner waterfalls. They are too difficult and costly and add no extra value over any fiberglass waterfall I have ever seen.


     

     

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