watch out for rotting wood later on from all of the moisture...you might want to try something like really fiirm foam
building a second smaller pond for sound
- Thread starter D&RW
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i like the dog by the way
D&RW said:
The rock you are referring to is "lava rock", it comes from volcanos, that is why it is expensive.
ahh lava rock that makes sence
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
I was'nt aware lava rock came in sheets, my guess would have been featherstone.
Right about the wood rot. Probably only make it one or two seasons. I was going to use two treated two by fours, but my wife pointed out the potential of leaching of the treatment into the water where the birds drink. We have a homemade bird feeder station just adjacent to the pond & I plan to make a little shelf of the same kind of rock as the slab for the birds to land on and drink.
In previous pictures you can see a boulder shaped rock in front of the shell. This is what locals are calling air rock--comes in all sizes, some huge. We also have another common rock here folks call Lava Rock, but it is almost always red and is heavier by a bit than air rock. So, this air rock may be another form of lava rock--I'll find out specifics today.
The slab is not air rock! Hardly, it weighted 80#. I'll check on what it is called as well. I should remember these things, but from now on I'll write them down.
Today I'm going to play with arranging the stones on the "ramp" and then go get more air rock. So, I'll fill you in more later tonight.
Have a great Saturday everyone,
Rick
In previous pictures you can see a boulder shaped rock in front of the shell. This is what locals are calling air rock--comes in all sizes, some huge. We also have another common rock here folks call Lava Rock, but it is almost always red and is heavier by a bit than air rock. So, this air rock may be another form of lava rock--I'll find out specifics today.
The slab is not air rock! Hardly, it weighted 80#. I'll check on what it is called as well. I should remember these things, but from now on I'll write them down.
Today I'm going to play with arranging the stones on the "ramp" and then go get more air rock. So, I'll fill you in more later tonight.
Have a great Saturday everyone,
Rick
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
feather stone comes in slabs weighs half of what most slab stones weigh and is carvable,with a chizel and hammer,even a cut off wheel easily works it, i misunderstood which rock in the photos you were speaking of.
I tried to Google both Air Stone and Featherstone and was unable to isolate a source or proper definition of either. There is a lot of stuff named the same as these.
Has anyone found a good link?
Has anyone found a good link?
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
i wish i could remember where, but this site actually had a tutorial on working with feather stone. or thats what they called it. just like when i bought my stone,one place called it river rock one called it cobble stone. would be helpful to use the same names.
D&RW said:
haha i bet you wished that it was
I'm tired & frustrated. Put in maybe 4-5 hours today; that'd be maybe 15 hours total.
1st: neither rock store was open, so I couldn't go get more "air" stone. Just as well, but I will follow up on the identification for our general knowledge.
2nd: I had the slab ramp stacked completely with river rocks and both times while tinkering with the last rock or two I caused the whole stack to collapse with many rocks falling into the ice cold water. Like building a house of cards. Without glue or caulk the angle of the ramp would have to be reduced to maybe 30 degrees. Lowering it this much begins to reach the limits of the small shell for keeping the waterflow in the pond.
Maybe I should shelve the ramp idea. I could take that pretty rock slab & prop it against the cement block stack that holds the fast falls--this would hide the cement blocks. I could run the falls down the slab into the pond filled with river rocks, stacked higher next to the slab and then tapering down toward the middle. Might be lots of splash though, even with pond partially filled.
Maybe I should just shelve the whole waterfall idea. I could keep the pond, put both the tiny fountains that came with the two shells in and run them together. That'd be plenty of water movement for the birds to like. Spring we could put some plants in it and maybe a frog or turtle or two.
Any ideas are most welcome.
thanks everyone
1st: neither rock store was open, so I couldn't go get more "air" stone. Just as well, but I will follow up on the identification for our general knowledge.
2nd: I had the slab ramp stacked completely with river rocks and both times while tinkering with the last rock or two I caused the whole stack to collapse with many rocks falling into the ice cold water. Like building a house of cards. Without glue or caulk the angle of the ramp would have to be reduced to maybe 30 degrees. Lowering it this much begins to reach the limits of the small shell for keeping the waterflow in the pond.
Maybe I should shelve the ramp idea. I could take that pretty rock slab & prop it against the cement block stack that holds the fast falls--this would hide the cement blocks. I could run the falls down the slab into the pond filled with river rocks, stacked higher next to the slab and then tapering down toward the middle. Might be lots of splash though, even with pond partially filled.
Maybe I should just shelve the whole waterfall idea. I could keep the pond, put both the tiny fountains that came with the two shells in and run them together. That'd be plenty of water movement for the birds to like. Spring we could put some plants in it and maybe a frog or turtle or two.
Any ideas are most welcome.
thanks everyone
Hey, just read an interesting article on highway noise masking. It specifically addressed outdoor and indoor masking. For outdoor they mentioned water movement but they said "small waterfalls or water moving over rocks is not enough. What is needed is a fountain that shoots water 4-5 ft in the air and lets it drop back into a pond or flat surface" 4-5 ft.! Plus, a fountain spray going up is going to greatly disperse the water so that when it comes down it would be really spread out unlike a waterfall/fast falls which is pretty focused after it leaves the frame.
Tomorrow I'm going to start by raising the platform of the fastfalls to 5 ft. I can create some dispersion of the water by placing a block of somekind at the lip. This creates at least two streams, but I'm sure I can break up the flow even more with more blocks. The article above made a good point, i.e. create a way to adjust the flow so you can manage the masking noise. That would be easier with a fountain. Not sure how I'd do it with a falls where it'd be more on/off. I guess I could set up a secondary spitter and shut off the falls and just leave the spitter on.
Maybe I can mask that highway noise after all. My only concern is with splash. I may have to buy a 5-6 ft round shell and replace the one that's there now.
Tomorrow I'm going to start by raising the platform of the fastfalls to 5 ft. I can create some dispersion of the water by placing a block of somekind at the lip. This creates at least two streams, but I'm sure I can break up the flow even more with more blocks. The article above made a good point, i.e. create a way to adjust the flow so you can manage the masking noise. That would be easier with a fountain. Not sure how I'd do it with a falls where it'd be more on/off. I guess I could set up a secondary spitter and shut off the falls and just leave the spitter on.
Maybe I can mask that highway noise after all. My only concern is with splash. I may have to buy a 5-6 ft round shell and replace the one that's there now.
discarded the fast falls altogether. disassembled the cement blocks and emptied the shell, cleaned it thoroughly. Had a 5 ft. piece of 1in PVC pipe so went to HDepot and bought fittings. Connected the pipe directly to the pump with the ball valve inline. turned it on and joila--a ready made fountain at about 5 ft height and the falling water does not spread out too far to worry about splash. Meanwhile i had to repair a small dent in the shell i caused when i was removing the cement blocks. I used adhesive caulk and a piece of plastic shell on top of it. I have to let this dry thoroughly before I can hook up the new set up in the pond. When I do I'll send more pictures.
haha you do like tinkering a lot