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- Jan 3, 2021
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@brokensword Thanks for the suggestions. Although I'm going to have to reread that a few times to fully grasp it.
So you think it would whirlpool?Why not just the bog feeding the waterfall? I mean, you can have more than one waterfall on a pond, I just don't know about the water coming from two different directions. Won't it just whirlpool in the middle? Is the left side still meant to be a stream?
Love your pond and thats' probably the best shot i have seen of it in it's entirety. If you had to do it again would you have the pond come up to the edge of the patio and off set the negative edge to one side?
Lisa, that is so helpful. And if I haven't told you previously, I love your water garden. Mind if I ask a few new questions now that I see your negative edge?So a negative edge would work with a stream. You simply build an edge that waterfalls off into a pit or underground water storage system. @GBBUDD refers to his a cistern. The edge needs to be just slightly lower than the rest of the pond so the water will flow out. We have a negative edge on our pond - much prefer it to a skimmer, but the skimming action is identical. Everything just floats right out of the pond where we can scoop it out from the gravel pit. (That sounds not so pretty, but it really is!)
When we were planning this, everyone told us "but your fish will swim right out!" They don't. They seem to have a sense the edge spells danger. They swim right up to it, and then swim away. We will occasionally lose one over the edge during spawning and we have had sick fish go over the edge when they become to weak to swim away. But normally the healthy fish stay in the pond.
Here's a picture of our negative edge. That gravel area that you see plus about four feet on either side is all underground water storage. We can hold 1000 gallons underground. Those hostas are planted right in the gravel - they get huge by the end of the summer.
View attachment 135949
In this design, would there be whirlpools where the water from A and B meet? Does a return jet require cutting into the liner or is it piped from inside the pond? Also, would your design mean I don't have pumps at my B and C, or would I have those two pumps plus two in your point D?Making the design a horse shoe helps to remove the dead pots of the previous using just the one skimmer or negative edge . but it makes it difficult to make the negative edge on the side of the pond where your plumbing lines are on your design. . With a negative edge look at it as a slightly lower side where the water will escape the perimeter of the pond the wider it is and the shallower it is the more efficient it will work and the deeper it is the less likely you will loose fish look at it as a water fall set back from the edge of the pond. it literally can be any distance from the pond giving it a 24" wide shelf before it drops will make the construction easier as you wont have to worry so much about the sides giving way i did not do as i am talking i Used large boulders and wished i had done a 24" wide berm before it came up to the drop and the boulders. constructing the damn per say and the 18" drop where i am holding back a 35 foot long area. meant there was going to be some serious pressures to hold back . lessons learned.
Like @Lisak1 has in her pond the entire area from the blue pot to the two green bushes/ hostas toward the pond is the entire cistern area so as it may start to clog the water will rise up over the clog and flow through just past the clog into the cistern this can go on and one for quite some time . if she went on vacation for a couple weeks i doubt water over flowing or clogging at this area "unlike a skimmer" she won't have any worries Thats why placing it to one end of your shape design is easier to build and make look natural .
A simple design yet efficient would be like this
A. is your stream it can be made to have as much water as you want depending how wide and deep the opening is in the bog .
B. can be the larger water fall as the opening is larger and or deeper.
c. is a return jet that would have a ball valve on it so you can control how much water is discharged out the jet. and how much goes to the bog . oh and yes you'll want a ball balve on the line that goes to the bog you only need the one line depending on how many gph you use will determin the size of the pipes. and you don't need to cut the rubber in order to put the jet in the pond but you'll want a vacuum breaker whether its a hole just below the surface , a vacuum breaker . or a check valve
D. Is the water chamber negative edge cistern what ever way you decide to go.
E. oh and your arrows infront of d would be turned toward D ... MY letters
B.View attachment 135950
I don't mind scooping either but when I travel I wouldn't be able to. I'm trying to avoid covering with a net. I like the negative edge idea because it sounds like they all accumulate in one place and I can just collect them from there.Concerning leaves:
I have a lot of trees which equates to a lot of leaves.
I don't have any intake bay, skimmer, etc. I had a skimmer a while back, it kept clogging and debris was jamming the pump.
I use a large bag type pool net on a long pole to manually capture leaves during the Spring and Summer. I cover the pond in the fall with nylon pond netting. It stays covered until Spring.
The point is that, to me, it's no big deal scooping a few leaves now and then.
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