Oh boy, another brain-storm is forming here. I've been saving blue glass to make a "creek bed" running past my deck area intending to run rope lighting along the bottom to illuminate it at night. Now I think I want to take the project a step further.
I have always intended to put a water feature of some sort in my garden area, but kept putting it off untill I could figure out exactly what I wanted. I now have something pictured in my mind but have no idea how do-able it is. I think I'd like to take the glass creek bed idea and turn it into an actual water feature. I know I'm going to have to do an aweful lot of research, and I'm hoping some one can point me to a good starting place. I still want to keep the lighting idea which is probably going to make it even more of a challenge, but before I ask a bunch of really silly questions I should first find out about liners and pumps, and what kind of lighting would work for something like this. Does any one know of a good research sight / book I can look for? Any comments, tips or advice would be more than welcome and more than appreciated!
La
Glass Creek Bed Idea
Liner material is readily available at many garden centers. I know that Home Depot and Lowe's both carry it in stock most of the time. Same thing with pumps. There is an amazing variety available out there. You would need to know what kind of volume of water you wanted to move. Do you have waterfalls or steep slope? That will affect the way the pump works.
As far as lighting is concerned there are a lot of options available here as well. There are both submergible lights and the rope lights you mentioned. I have never seen submergible rope lights, but I have not really looked either. I know that around here Harbor Freight usually has the submergible spot light types.
One thing that you may want to consider however is the fact that with an outdoor water feature you also will have things like moss and algea. That may take away some of the visual affect you were after. The sparkly blue glass may turn dull and dissapear in places depending on the algea or moss growth. Perhaps you could contact someone in your area that specializes in swimming pools and get their advice on how to keep the water clear. I am assuming that you do not want fish or plants in it because any pool chemicals would most likely kill them.
Let us know how the project progresses!
Thanks tetley, very sound advice! I wonder if I were to take my design (sketchy as it is at this point) to a DIY center if they could offer some starting points for me. My dad has a hugemongous waterfall at one end of his pond, and if all else fails I can rope him into the project, but he tends to think my projects are bigger than my eyes so I'd like to attempt this one on my own.