2 ponds 1 stream 1 waterfall

[Jadenorris51]

Hello, I hope I am posting this in the right place, if not please direct me. Any who my mother wants to put 2 ponds in her backyard with a stream flowing from one to the other. I have an ideas on how to do this but I’m not quite sure if it’s going to work. She has a medium sized plastic pond that will be in the back of the yard she wants the waterfall to be connected to it. Then have a stream flowing from the plastic pond to a bigger pond in the middle. The land is flat so we’re confused on how to keep the stream flowing. As well as how to get the water from the large pond back to the plastic one. Basically keep it cycling with one another. The bigger pond will be dug up and created by us. She also want the plastic pond in the ground.How do we do this?? Someone please help.
I will include a few pictures of the plastic pond and hose for the waterfall as well as the start of the bigger pond, to hopefully help create a better visual.

 

[bagsmom]

Go on YouTube and watch the series of videos from The Pond Digger. How to Build a Fish Pond. He uses a liner, but does a good job of showing how to create a natural looking hill/berm, using the dirt from the holder dug for the pond. It is probably much more extensive than you need, but it can give you a general idea. Aquascape also has some good videos, as well as the Pond Advisor. I'm sure you will also get lots of great advice here! Good luck!

 

[bagsmom]

The Pond Advisor has a bunch of videos on smaller garden ponds, by the way. He films his with time lapse, but you can pause and go back to see things more closely. I'm pretty sure that a couple of them feature small streams.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our group!

Use some of the dug up dirt to make the top stream pond just a bit higher than the bottom pond. It does not take much height to keep water flowing. layer out the dirt so it does not look like a abnormal bump in the land. Add some rocks and plants and it will look great.

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome @Jadenorris51 ! What a fun project!

Here's a basic rundown of what you're going to do - your smaller pond with the waterfall needs to be slightly higher than the lower pond. Not a lot, but just enough so the water will flow downhill. The pump will be in the bigger pond - either in the pond or in a skimmer or even external to the pond. Your choice. You will then bury a line from the pump in the big pond all the way back up to the waterfall in the small pond where the water will flow into your small pond and find it's way down the stream to the bigger pond. Make sense?

Here's a few things I would suggest:
1. Scrap the preformed pond. You can dig a hole and sink it in the ground but it's a pain. They are difficult to level and KEEP level, as the ground will heave and settle underneath. And they all crack eventually. ALL of them. And then you'll just have a bigger issue on your hands. Since you're going to use liner for the bigger pond anyway...
2. Use an EPDM 45 mil liner for the whole project. They are way more forgiving when digging and building a pond and will make connecting your stream to both ponds very simple. If you use the plastic pond, you'll have a challenge where the stream meets the preform.
3. Make sure your stream bed is deep enough. I've seen lots of YouTube fails where people think a lined stream bed can be flat - it can't.
4. Make sure your bottom pond has an overflow. If something happens to the power, you'll need a place for the excess water to go as much of the water from the top pond will continue to flow down hill, even without a pump running.

Keep asking questions - much easier for us to help in the planning stages than the "ok, I did this thing wrong and now I need to know how to fix it" stage!

 

[addy1]

Scrap the preformed pond.

I had two large preforms, after two winters...............gone............ got liner dumped the preforms. They never stayed level and cracked.

 

[Jeff V]

Welcome @Jadenorris51 ! What a fun project!

Here's a basic rundown of what you're going to do - your smaller pond with the waterfall needs to be slightly higher than the lower pond. Not a lot, but just enough so the water will flow downhill. The pump will be in the bigger pond - either in the pond or in a skimmer or even external to the pond. Your choice. You will then bury a line from the pump in the big pond all the way back up to the waterfall in the small pond where the water will flow into your small pond and find it's way down the stream to the bigger pond. Make sense?

Here's a few things I would suggest:
1. Scrap the preformed pond. You can dig a hole and sink it in the ground but it's a pain. They are difficult to level and KEEP level, as the ground will heave and settle underneath. And they all crack eventually. ALL of them. And then you'll just have a bigger issue on your hands. Since you're going to use liner for the bigger pond anyway...
2. Use an EPDM 45 mil liner for the whole project. They are way more forgiving when digging and building a pond and will make connecting your stream to both ponds very simple. If you use the plastic pond, you'll have a challenge where the stream meets the preform.
3. Make sure your stream bed is deep enough. I've seen lots of YouTube fails where people think a lined stream bed can be flat - it can't.
4. Make sure your bottom pond has an overflow. If something happens to the power, you'll need a place for the excess water to go as much of the water from the top pond will continue to flow down hill, even without a pump running.

Keep asking questions - much easier for us to help in the planning stages than the "ok, I did this thing wrong and now I need to know how to fix it" stage!

Wish I would of read this a week ago. After dealing with all the problems of 2 tier preformed to liner. Only have one problem left top preformed pond 120 gallon to liner 80. Top pond slowly rises to over flow. Does my spillway need to be wider. 4in width 2in depth.goining to widen it. Hope that is it. Great information ran into every problem you said I would have in the worst way. Literally laughed out load when I read this.

 

[j.w]

@Jeff V