How to Make My Stream Look Natural

[seandelevan]

Ive had 3 small(like 3 foot wide by 3-4 foot long) “streams” flowing from under my deck and into my pond. These have been working fine for 3-4 years now.

But here’s the thing….it looks fake as hell. I look down and it’s super obvious there is black pond liner at the bottom Of these “streams”. Over the years I’ve put rocks and stones and pebbles on the bottom…and various problems erupt…...for one it slows the water flow down, and or it pushes most of the stone into the pond, and or collects muck, junk, and soon get covered in algae…and soon water starts overflowing over the liner…..I eventually take it all out and it’s back to the fake looking black pond liner bottom. This spring I want to tackle this problem again. I’ve looked all over this forum and other places and all I’ve seen is the generic “just dump rocks and stones on it” …

how are some of you getting nice water flow that is going OVER the rocks, pebbles and stones? Cement? Some kind of filler? Thanks!

 

[brokensword]

Ive had 3 small(like 3 foot wide by 3-4 foot long) “streams” flowing from under my deck and into my pond. These have been working fine for 3-4 years now.

But here’s the thing….it looks fake as hell. I look down and it’s super obvious there is black pond liner at the bottom Of these “streams”. Over the years I’ve put rocks and stones and pebbles on the bottom…and various problems erupt…...for one it slows the water flow down, and or it pushes most of the stone into the pond, and or collects muck, junk, and soon get covered in algae…and soon water starts overflowing over the liner…..I eventually take it all out and it’s back to the fake looking black pond liner bottom. This spring I want to tackle this problem again. I’ve looked all over this forum and other places and all I’ve seen is the generic “just dump rocks and stones on it” …

how are some of you getting nice water flow that is going OVER the rocks, pebbles and stones? Cement? Some kind of filler? Thanks!

the obvious answer; get a stronger pump. The stones will eventually be covered in something, even if it's a thin film and not some aggressive algae combo. You say you want natural, but do you? Natural is algae covered, often mud covered, more often can't see the bottom of, type creations. Anything shallow, yes, will show the bottom IF the current is fast enough to move all the debris down and out of the way, along with keeping algae short and sweet.

So, get a larger pump, put in some stone, have a valve on all the stream feeds so you can regulate the flow per your vision, and relax back into the hammock. The only other suggestion would be to get 'rock on a roll' and use that as your 'bottom', but again, you'll need some sort of good flow to keep it 'clean'.

JMHO

 

[combatwombat]

Share some pics. End of steam can have large rock holding back gravel. Need enough spare liner on the sides to raise water level.

 

[seandelevan]

Share some pics. End of steam can have large rock holding back gravel. Need enough spare liner on the sides to raise water level.

Well everything is covered with snow as of now lol. But I think I have some ideas now I’ll try….again lol. We’ll see.

 

[GBBUDD]

SMALL ROCKS WILL ALWAYS LOOK A BIT IN NATURAL THE BIGGER ROCKS are what you'll see in nature and adding some wood and moss go a long way . YOUTUBE YOUTUBE YOUTUBE '. I MYSELF WOULD CREATE A SMALL POOL HALF WAY DOWN AND HAVE THE STREAM OFF SET A BIT MORE A STRAIGHT LINE IS NEVER A NATURAL STREAM THE MORE OFFSET THE MORE UN EVEN THE BETTER . Shame on the video they did not mention waterfall foam and how it controls the flow from getting under the rocks . THIS IS KEY . ALSO you need to have the rocks on a shelf that the bottom of the rocks will be under water and this hides the liner. and while the rock is 3/4 exposed to the water side of the stream it should be 1/2 exposed or less on the outside . This way you can fold the liner up and burry it while it controls the water from leaking out. and then on the outside throwing a few rocks around the stream but are not pert of will help break up the string of pearls and the straight even ly wide stream

 

[addy1]

I tossed some pea gravel, some small rocks, a big rock here and there, into my stream it worked. I do need to pull plants that decide to grow, leaves that block the flow, but over all it flows well. My stream is on a steep hill and around 85ish feet long, switch backs. I also dug it 10 inches deep, more or less.

The down hill slope side I had to build up the stream edge as water did tend to flow over that edge.

 

[poconojoe]

Maybe your stream needs to be deeper? This way you can add gravel and stones to hide the liner and not affect the flow as much.

These stated ideas are good ones too:
Rock on a roll.
A valve can give you the ability to fine tune your flow.

 

[TheFishGuy]

I will say that solving the problem of water flowing under and in beetween rocks can be solved with a bit of waterfall foam and rock dust to cover any gaps beetween rocks.

I couldn’t really be of any help for anything else, but looks like you got some very insightful info from others!