Hoping for pics. to show my excavator. I want to build a 1 acr pond with a long water feature resembling a natural stream, allowing the ability for fish to move up into the feature, and back down to the pond, so 6 or so very small waterfalls to break the grade. I understand that I will need a BIG pump, looking for recommendations on that too. I've seen some beautiful creations from members, but not the scale I'm hoping for, it's slow with dial-up :-) searching for images.
thx for any help!!
Large scale water features- photos?
I hope you have deep pockets$$$. Most of the giant water features that don't look crummy are very expensive.
I think this water feature is around 14,000 gallons and is currently under construction in a public garden area.
You can send me a D-mail and I'll write back about the ones I know about. There is a company I know of that trains pond builders. You might want to go take the training unless you want to wind up with a giant green algae, mosquito infested nightmare.
We have such a thing that is in the process of being landscaped. Although the fish don't swim up it, they could. I have Donaldson trout in the ponds (you can only see one, but it connects to another). I will send a couple more pictures.
Bill
Here's another
This shows how the channel flows into the first pond. The look of it has changed since these were taken several weeks ago because I have planted the bare areas with fleur de lawn, a meadow grass that features english daisies, baby blue eyes, yarrow, strawberry clover, and a very dwarf rye. In the spring, it look as though the whole meadow was painted powder blue!
I can't thank you enough Bill, I hope mine looks half as good as yours when its done. You are lucky that your waters stay cool enough for trout! (have to stick to bass down here in IN.) Can you tell me what the specs. are on your pump? also, I assume that your stream has a liner? -but the pond does not? If you brought all those boulders in, do you remember how many tons it was? I've attached a pic. of the feature I built 7 years ago on a big slope, looking forward to working with flat ground. You can see why I want to go bigger,. we start in Dec. It is amazing how natural yours looks, even at this stage! ! Can't wait to see more.
Fabulous you folks, those are some stunning water features!
Steve: Thanks for the kind words! It really is fabulous for us. The reason it turns like it does is so that we can view the top falls from our eating area. What a way to begin each day! The first and second falls spill into small ponds about 30" deep. That whole area has a rubber liner (actually past the bridge). Once it gets to the channel that goes out to the pond, that only has a fabric liner in it (the cost of the thicker liner would have been prohibitive for that distance), then as you say the pond is simply an earth pond/no liner. I thought about putting boulders all the way around the ponds so as not to have to mess with the grass that grows so profusely there, but decided against that for the time being. I have three pumps that bring the water up from the pond to the upper falls, and we pump about 300 gals/min. I have the ability to turn 2 of those off and only recirculate the upper ponds as well, but have chosen not to do that because we want the aeriation we get when it is all recirculating. The fish seem to love it! (Unfortunately so do the Herons and occassional Osprey). I'll have to find out how many tons were brought in because I frankly can't remember. Each large rock could be a ton, you know, but around here that goes for about $30/ton. So....I have more pics if you want some other angle, just let me know.
Steve: a bit more info. The pumps are 1/3 horse (3 of them), rated to pump about 97 gals/min (4 amp I believe, energy efficient). We put in 65-70 tons of rock, some being the large boulders, the rest varying sizes, so that it would appear much more "natural." At least around here, that's the way streams look - every size rock imaginable. Especially when the landscaping is done, our hope is that it looks like the water is coming from a natural spring as our lawn slopes toward the lower area. That, too, is ready to be planted and we will be putting in all sorts of grasses, birches, willows, etc. Hope that helps.
Bill
Bill; so your liner starts at the head pool, and stops just past the bridge? what size liner is it? that was clever to use the fabric for the lower sections, as the EPDM is so expensive! How did you know you wouldn't get any leakage or bogginess down there? -did you have it compacted? Also; are your big boulders on top of the liner? and is that soil, mulch, or gravel? (the brown stuff) Lastly; do you know what the elevation change is from the head pool to the pond? If that was mine, I'd be tempted put some trout into the stream and dry fly fish to them!! -or perhaps you could train them to come up into the stream for pellets? Love to see pictures of your mechanics! Thanks for all you've written!- Steve