CW's Back Yard Water Garden Begins!

[combatwombat]

na ahhhh that wasn't your pond you morphed to a a a alternate reality ...........



LEAVE IT RUNNING ADD AMONIA TO THE POND START YOUR CYCLING

Haha. I would do that, but... I have to drain it one more time.

 

[combatwombat]

HOLY CRAP. PVC prices are on a tear again. 3" hard pipe is $43 per 10' stick. Bought a couple sticks a few months ago at $30. 2" fittings I paid $1 for back in November are $3 now.

 

[GBBUDD]

It's all self inflicted.. i HAD MUCH MORE BUT WON'T PLACE IT ON YOUR BLOG.

 

[combatwombat]

False alarm on the PVC prices. Something screwy is going on w/ Home Depot. Everywhere else has the stuff for normal prices.

Bog is ready for some edging. Realizing I made a bit of a mistake making it a perfect rectangle—no great way to dress up the shape, but I have some ideas. If I had more space, I’d have dug a shelf at the top to give the perimeter more curves.

Will tweak the waterfall a bit tomorrow and then start in the last few details inside the pond. Then I need to finish the intake bay, buy pumps and do all the edging.

 

[GBBUDD]

Keep up the pace , I have money down on you that you'll be done before covid is

you can always turn the rocks outward or inward. the string of pearls is every rock end to end there longest direction. turn them a 90 degree every so often. and place those rocks outside the pond area no rocks anywhere but at the pond will look out of place

 

[brokensword]

Keep up the pace , I have money down on you that you'll be done before covid is

you can always turn the rocks outward or inward. the string of pearls is every rock end to end there longest direction. turn them a 90 degree every so often. and place those rocks outside the pond area no rocks anywhere but at the pond will look out of place

you can stick some rocks actually IN your bog, along with stumps, logs, branches to break up any line of rock.

 

[combatwombat]

you can always turn the rocks outward or inward.

and place those rocks outside the pond area no rocks anywhere but at the pond will look out of place

you can stick some rocks actually IN your bog, along with stumps, logs, branches to break up any line of rock.

All great ideas. Back to work for me.

 

[Lisak1]

I was going to say the same thing. Most of the big bogs the pros build are pretty standard rectangle shapes, but once you start putting rocks on top, you'll see that you can break up those straight edges very easily with some creative placement. And before you know it the plants will hide the edge completely - you won't know bog from surrounding earth.

 

[TheFishGuy]

wow! the pond has come a long way since the last time I saw it, looking good and keep up the progress!

 

[brokensword]

wow! the pond has come a long way since the last time I saw it, looking good and keep up the progress!

shoulda been here when CW got Barney stuck in the hole...had to rush GB out there with his hog to pull him out!! heh heh

 

[combatwombat]

Have the (probably) last load of boulders coming tomorrow. Was a muddy mess tagging them at the yard today. Gonna be a muddy mess installing them, too. I miss summer.

Going back and forth on pump selection. Initial plan was to do 3 small submersible pumps pushing to 4 outlets (bog, stream, jets, bottom filter) but have been recently turned onto the ES8500 which is an extremely energy efficient external pump from a company who's pump curve I actually trust to be accurate.

Kind of changes the plan if I do that, though. Didn't have any plan for where to hide an external pump. Could tuck it into the bamboo on the fence line and put a fake rock over it or something.

I guess I better figure it out. I know you all are tired of waiting to see a waterfall.

Oh, and I think I found my boulder coffee table for the future patio. It was buried under 2 really giant boulders. I'm hoping the lady that runs the yard doesn't ignore it when she picks my load. She's good, though. I've tagged boulders way in the back of the pile before and she picked them for me without mentioning any desire to strangle me.

 

[GBBUDD]

External pumps today can be very quiet. And for a swim pond which we both know your kids will be in, an external pump is hands down wayyyyyyyyy safer. The only disadvantage to external is the draw. Depending on the pump lets say your cistern is 5 feet deep theres a good chance your pump may not be able to prime it's self when the water in the cistern is low. One way around that is to have a vault/ enclosed can be smaller or an open vat that will hold water all the time

 

[combatwombat]

External pumps today can be very quiet.

I'm glad to hear that. Just have to figure out how to hide it. Imagine externals make service/cleaning a lot easier too.

And for a swim pond which we both know your kids will be in, an external pump is hands down wayyyyyyyyy safer.

Agreed. As long as you bond it to ground with a ground rod. Otherwise, I'm not totally convinced it's much safer than a submersible–at least in my case, where the submersibles would be in a vault attached to a body of water (cistern) where humans can't submerge. Electricity can travel to the rest of the pond, of course, but that is a problem for externals, too.

The only disadvantage to external is the draw. Depending on the pump lets say your cistern is 5 feet deep theres a good chance your pump may not be able to prime it's self when the water in the cistern is low

Not following on that one. If the end of the intake is at the bottom of the cistern with a check valve, what issue can you run into? Do you mean that a 5' lift on the suction line might be too much for the pump?

And on that note, no good way to do a flooded suction on a cistern either, is there? You'd have to bury the pump very deep to account for times when cistern level is low.

 

[GBBUDD]

I'm glad to hear that. Just have to figure out how to hide it. Imagine externals make service/cleaning a lot easier too.


Agreed. As long as you bond it to ground with a ground rod. Otherwise, I'm not totally convinced it's much safer than a submersible–at least in my case, where the submersibles would be in a vault attached to a body of water (cistern) where humans can't submerge. Electricity can travel to the rest of the pond, of course, but that is a problem for externals, too.



Not following on that one. If the end of the intake is at the bottom of the cistern with a check valve, what issue can you run into? Do you mean that a 5' lift on the suction line might be too much for the pump?

And on that note, no good way to do a flooded suction on a cistern either, is there? You'd have to bury the pump very deep to account for times when cistern level is low.

YES Standard check valves suck. They leak and loose the back pressure that makes them work
And on that note, no good way to do a flooded suction on a cistern either, is there? You'd have to bury the pump very deep to account for times when cistern level is low. Pumps push water they do not have suction. If the water is not far away and is not to far down in elevation it won't be a big deal but even with TWO CHECK Valves on a 2 inch intake it could not pull the water up from a elevation that was between 4 to 8 feet lower. Even with the pump drawing from a stationary point "water is at a constant level of 2 and a half feet the initial priming can be a pain. to solve this i installed a hose bib " faucet" onto the line and i just hook up the garden hose to it and turn the water on open the valve and fill the pipe start the pump and it fires right up. check valves are generally only good for so long until they leak to the point they do little.
My idea is a closed old pool filter have the pipe from the pump extended to the bottom but the pipe from the cistern be at the top of the pool filter so when the power goes out the check valve stops the siphon and when it does leak it stops as the water drops.
Now when the power kicks back on it will have enough in the filter house to prime and once its primed it will pull the water from the cistern.
the other thing i have done is a garden bib on the top to add water if ever needed like in the spring or to purge air out

I hate when i type a response but come back latter and find i never sent it

 

[combatwombat]

Current state of things: