I have a pond that is about 150ft x 70ftx 8ft deep. Then I have a inground cellar with a mound of dirt that is about 100ft from the pond and about 12ft above. Would it be possible to build a waterfall with a waterway from the top of the cellar to the pond? John
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It would take one huge pump to accomplish it. You might check with a plumbing company as to the size pump it would need. I don't think it's impossible, just costly.
Sounds do-able to me. Maybe have a separate pump just for the waterfall. Calpumps makes some pumps specifically for large waterfalls. If you call the folks at www.pondliner.com and tell them what you are wanting to do, they are very helpful. You'll need to know the head height, which you are saying is about 12 feet, and also the length, width, and depth of the planned stream so you can calculate the number of gallons you'll be pumping. They can help you with this.
It might be costly, as Hsfrank says, but if you use two separate pumps, it might not be that bad.
Also, you might strongly consider a non-submersible pump. They can handle a lot of water and, while more expensive up-front, they are less expensive to run and easier to fix if something goes wrong. You might get away with one pump if you go with one of these. Again, I strongly recommend consulting with the folks at the website I gave you. One of their salesmen spent about 45 minutes talking to me about my pond design, pumps, etc, without even knowing for sure that he would make a sale. He was extraordinarily helpful and I did end up ordering from them.
JOHN the key is how much you need to raise the water. That will be stated on the side of the pump box you select. I raise water about 30ft from the intake in the lake below my dock to the top of my yard with a 11/2 HP 110volt pump. The higher it goes the weaker it get but I can still drive my walking sprinkler in the upper yard 300 ft away. I would say 1/2 hp are less would do your job, provided you have about a 11/4" outlet for volume. At the distance and height it should be pushing a lot of water. I bet all you would need to do is reduce the 1/14 outlet and attact a 5/8 garden hose and use that to run the water up to the top of your waterfall. Just be sure you buy the right kind of pump. A jet pump is made to run all the time. A deep well pump will burn up. What are you going to use as the base under the waterway as a liner. My son uses a real heavy plastic in ponds and water falls. He also uses spray foam under the rocks in the pools to fill in the cracks below the stones and get the right flow. Only thing I see might be bad is if your pond has a lot of moss and weeds. In that case you would have a hard time keeping the well point clean.
What they do in large pools and ponds is use mulitple pumps and boosters. My son is a pool contractor and builds all kinds of pools ,fountains and ponds. He finished one last summer has 5 pumps with waterfalls in the pool,a pond and a creek running thru the property. And yes it is expensive. This one was $350,000 before landscaping. But what John wants to do is not going to cost much. I have talked to him on other forums. He is good at figurung things out. I would expect he would get this done if he wanted to.
John how is the composter coming. They will not sell me any of the composted chicken manure at the place I told you about with the giant barrel composter. It is all headed out your direction in Okla to some great big nursury farm that is connected to WallMart. They sent out 9 ore hauling type 18 wheelers last week.
Hey, Ozarkian, I have a 110v 1-1/2 hp swimming pool pump, and am planning to build an inlet on a floating slide, to keep inlet out of the debris. I am planning to use some 26ml plastic liner, and I have all the rocks and stones right here on my property. I have a natural creek on the back side with numerous natural waterfalls I will steal a few of the rocks from there. And as far as my tumbler, so far so good I now have three of them. John