Let the murderous rampage begin

[Shdwdrgn]

Wow... I woke up this morning, and the pond was crystal-clear again. What a surprise, considering how it looked 2 days ago!

Not a lot of work today - giving my back and knees a rest. I got the waterfall basin mostly drained out, though. Need to find something smaller than a bucket to get the rest of the water out, but there is probably only a couple gallons left in the bottom of the liner. Tomorrow I'll try and get the liner moved around into its final position and get to underlying pipes built up for the mini-bog. Wheeeeeeeeeee

 

[j.w]

Good for you Shdwdrgn, no green! Work on to the finish!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

j.w - naw I'm past the green stage here. In fact, despite having all the cement and dye in the water, the pond has been clearer this week than I've ever seen it! I figure with the partial draining and refilling, I replaced about 50% of the water, but all that dye is still in there somewhere...

I was able to readjust the liner today and tuck/fold it into position. I need to make some minor adjustments still, but it is now very close to its final position. I even got it draped around the barrels neatly, so I will have a smooth liner with no folds against the barrels to make gluing very easy. Wouldn't you know it, I went up to the hardware store to get some pipe to run underneath the gravel, and completely forgot to grab the PL cement while I was there. I swear I need sticky notes to remind me to take my sticky notes!

I figured out I can keep one filter running while I glue the other. I'm assuming the cure time on the PL will be 1 or 2 days, so I had to make sure I could keep at least one pump running during that time. The board you see on either side of the falls is the same width as the cedar boards I will use when I'm done. They just screw right up to the posts, and overlap the sides of the waterfall to give the bricks extra support. It would be really bad if the whole wall fell in the pond!

And finally, a peak behind the wall... Between the two rows of bricks on the left, you can see the top of a fold of liner. This fold is what causes most of the water to flow over the top of the bricks, rather than simply dropping down behind the falls. Once I start filling the basin with gravel, the inner bricks will be removed, and the gravel will hold the fold of liner in place. The basin depth is roughly 1 foot, and the width between the front fold of liner and the back wall is about 18 inches. As I said before, it's a mini bog but I'm hoping it will be a great place to grow some pitcher plants.

 

[addy1]

When I installed my skimmer I let the pl dry for a few hours then filled the pond back up. It cures pretty fast, but it is good to wait a little, also depends on how thick you make it.

 

[addy1]

lol double post sorry

 

[j.w]

You are getting there and sure will look pretty when that water flows over that wall and all your stuff is nicely hidden away and no leaking!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

No pictures today, but I did get some work done... twice. I cut out some pieces of 2" pipe to run under my mini-bog, then I took the angle-grinder with a cutoff wheel and cut a bunch of slots down the length of the pipes. Plenty of capacity for flow - when I tested it on one of the barrel outputs, the water easily ran out, using less than 1/4 of the available slots.

With that done, I dropped the pipes down in the bottom of the basin and got them adjusted in position, then poured in some lava rock I had laying around. I figured that would keep a nice open area around the pipes, then I can pour the pea gravel on top of that. To get some of the extra leaves out of the lava rock, I added water to the basin to float out the leaves. Unfortunately, I also managed to float my newly-buried pipes! After trying to fix the problem, I decided the only way to get the pipes back in their proper place was to remove all the water and lava rock, and do it all over again. This time I did it without adding any water, and the pipes stayed where they belong. I threw some large rocks over the top (just in case), but I should be ready to start adding pea-gravel now.

I also picked up some cement for holding the liner to the barrels. After looking around a bit, I noticed the PL states not to use it submerged under water. I guess it won't technically be submerged, but I got some help and we looked at the alternatives. I found another product for roofing that is neoprene-based, can be used fully submerged, and is rated for 30+ years. And it stays very flexible. Of course it cost twice as much, but I only needed one tube of it to do the job, so we shall see how it works out.

Going to be out of town all day tomorrow, so I'm planning on getting the liner glued to the first barrel on Tuesday morning. Wait a day, glue down the other side. In the meantime, go get that load of pea gravel and get it washed and poured in the basin, so once all the glue has cured, I can fire it up and let the water flow.

 

[j.w]

You got a lot done, good job!

 

[addy1]

Great going whiskey.
I noticed the don't use submerged on the pl tube, but have and it is holding great, on its third year now.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I decided to go for broke today. I shut off both filters, and have one pump running through a bypass pipe so there is still some flow through the pond. I was able to glue down the liner to both barrels today, so I can give the glue a couple days to make sure it is fully cured before turning on the water again. That stuff was very tacky, so I have good faith that it will work great for sealing up the liner. I also made sure to put down beads of glue on the inside and outside of the barrel, through the hole, and around the threads when I screwed the inside and outside pieces of pipe back through the barrel again. I should have about three different layers of glue preventing leaks.

Some of the liner got trimmed back a little over the top of the barrels to help keep it from stretching while the glue dried.I will probably cut the liner back even with the top of the barrels when I'm done, and the part that hangs over the backside may simply get stapled to the back of the board.

Sitting in the hot sun today, the liner didn't stay flat to the barrels, but after it cooled down a bit, the glue was still tacky, and I was able to flatten the liner in place again. It should look fairly clean by the time I finish folding and tucking.

So tomorrow I'll get a load of pea-gravel to fill in the basin. That should create enough weight to hold the pipes in place... wouldn't want them trying to float out again! The gravel will also create weight to hold the folds of liner down out of sight. There's a whole lot of twists happening in the liner through this area, I'd hate to try hiding it if it were supposed to remain visible!

 

[addy1]

that will look great when you are done, keep on trucking lol or is it ponding.............

 

[j.w]

Gonna look perfect but from your words it seems like it will be a long time still till it is done..............hmmmmmmmmmmmm :sad:

 

[Shdwdrgn]

What is this "done" you speak of? Some magical mystical concept you dreamt out of the blue???

Actually, I picked up some of the black waterfall foam today and closed up some gaps. I got the basin mostly filled with pea-gravel, and plan to top it off tomorrow with some 1" river rock to help keep the pea gravel from washing over the falls. First thing in the morning, I will be firing up the filters again, and get the waterfall running fully. I'm sure the fish will appreciate the water cascading down on them again (and oxygenating the water), and I will finally get to see the waterfall in its full glory with the rocks spreading out the water flow across the entire face.

The filters have obviously been doing their job -- for the last two days I've been bypassing them and just letting the water circulate, but this morning I noticed that the water is getting cloudy again, so it will be great to have the filters up and running, before the water gets dangerous to the fish.

Should have pics tomorrow, either of utter disaster, or of the culmination of all the hard work. Let's hope for the latter!

 

[addy1]

It will be culmination of all the hard work, no way a disaster.................we hope lol

 

[Shdwdrgn]

IT WAS A DISASTER... for all those spiders who have been hiding out in the folds of the liner! But the waterfall itself turned out awesome, and now it's nearly (finally) done. I still have a bit of trimming to do to finish everything up, but now its close enough that I can start putting in plants.

Beginning this morning, I shut down the pumps and got the cedar planks screwed into place. The 2x2 sticking out the left side was placed in case I got water running behind the falls again, I wanted to make sure the cedar boards helped prevent the wall from falling into the pond.

For anyone trying to plan out their own waterfall, my rock wall is about 5 feet wide. Here is what it looks like with a single 2900gph pump running (with head-height, approximately 2500gph flow). Not too bad a look, the water covers the entire wall and gives a bit of splash, without being very loud.

Of course, I have two 2900gph pumps, one feeding each filter. So here's the shot with both pumps running... Because of the flow from either side, a lot of the water ended up in the middle, causing a torrent to flow off that bottom step.

After placing some river rocks behind the falls, and topping it off with the pea gravel, the flow is now more spread out. By adjusting the rocks around the top of the falls, I can change where the water falls. What I find really interesting is that the flow of water is now so smooth that you can actually see the yard reflected in the sheet of water (the green shimmer).

When I fired up the pumps this morning, the water smelled horrible. Sitting for a couple days was enough for all the waste in the bottom of the barrels to turn putrid, but it cleared up in about a half an hour. Now that I'm done dumping gravel into the top, the rest of the pond should clear up by this evening or tomorrow.