New pond.. basically my first attempt.

[brc]

I put in 2 filters and it is much easier having a clear water pond if you over filter it .Great that he left the well it better to have clear fresh water than have to treat city water .Saves money also .I am surprised the pump must be a good one also .Gotta love free clear water from the earth .You could do this it helps really aerate the water ,it is just a sump pump hose I used 10 dollars and a ball valve and a splitter made from a regular pvc T pipe and clamps and has worked for over 3 years now

That's not a bad idea.. I never thought about putting a power-head in there before. The well has turned out to be nice! It probably hasn't saved me much money just from one pond fill, but it hasn't cost anything either. It should be great to have in a dry year.

I went out this morning and had another look, and decided that there really was too much unused liner there... I just couldn't BS myself into thinking otherwise. So, I rolled part of it back using a piece of PVC pipe (with the water still in) and dug the hole a couple feet bigger on one side. It actually worked out pretty well -- the new section is just as deep as the rest, and the whole thing is sort of shaped like two intersecting ponds.

The rocks are now set around the rim, and I started to mock up the waterfall. The two big rocks to the right of the waterfall that look out of place (due to being set way higher than the rest) are actually level with the patio; these will be the last couple stones that sort of overhang the water. Because they're sitting on the cement blocks, I put styrofoam under them; the visible parts of this still need to be trimmed away. That section may need more work in order to look right, but I guess you could say that about the whole project!

In order to (hopefully) prevent leaks, the main pond's liner continues under the end of the stream, and the stream liner follows it down under the water. The waterfall rocks are actually sitting in the pond, on top of both liners, so there shouldn't be any way for water to leak / splash / wick its way out.

The corner of the liner that's still stretched out in the pics is big enough that I think I can dig a hole there and use it to form a skimmer. This is a total afterthought, but it seems like a good one...

 

[sissy]

I did not use a skimmer no leaves or stuff can blow in so why build one .Never say never I did that and my grasses which are great water cleaners roots grow between the liners and grew in a mass and forced them apart and I sealed them and had rocks weighing them down and that was only after a year .Now I have it so hopefully I can stop it .I trim the roots off the grasses every 2 months now .I also ran the new liner up and under the filter tank so if it over flows it goes back in the pond .
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[brc]

Well, I worked on the pond again this weekend... no surprise there I guess. Of course, it's still FAR from completed (no surprise there either), so please excuse another round of ugly construction photos!

I did get the pump / waterfall / stream running today, and the "skimmer" area built. The stone wall has also grown a few more feet, and is starting to wrap around the back of the waterfall. After doing all that, I proceeded to make a typical noob mistake and dump a wheel barrel full of gravel in the stream, instantly turning my whole pond brown... Hopefully it'll settle. Thankfully there are no fish in there. I will need to get something to suck stuff off the bottom before long.

What I plan to do with the stream and parts of the waterfall, is build the soil up outside the liner. Then I can plant stuff alongside, and add mulch as needed, so it's like a flower bed with a stream running through it.

There are still roughly a billion more hours of work needed to finish the pond, patio and stream. Still, it was great being able to finally plug in the pump and see it go.

 

[sissy]

Love it but you really need to finish so we can see the whole thing .Yeh when the pump goes on and you hear the water rushing down and see how it is flowing is the best part of it because you know you are soon done and can enjoy it all

 

[rebelangel_3733]

looking good! At least you have your waterfall going and can hear the water flow...aww there is something about a waterfalls "rush" that just soothes the soul...I am still working on mine too. Have the filter running into my new pond right now until I find more rock to finish the waterfall...and thinking I might just add a bog to it...so many ideas aren't there!

 

[sissy]

and makes you have to pee :cheerful: :cheerful: :cheerful:

 

[addy1]

Love those huge rocks of yours!

 

[brc]

Thanks for the compliments! And believe me, I want it finished more than anyone! But I knew from the beginning this was going to be an all-summer project, and realistically, I'll still be touching stuff up next spring -- and then doing little improvements on it forever.

It's far enough along that I am getting pretty excited about it. I can finally start to picture it as originally planned -- surrounded by vegetation so it looks like its own little world, with a big fire going, and a bunch of friends enjoying beers and grill food...

As for the big rocks.. I like looking at 'em even more than I hated moving them! Thankfully, it's almost to the point where I can forget about that part and just enjoy the result.

Another thing I need to start thinking about at some point is the lighting. I know there are going to be LED lights in the pond, along the stream edges, behind every waterfall and all over the landscaping (I'm a huge fan of LED lighting lol). For anyone who hasn't tried it, backlighting a waterfall makes kind of a spectacular effect. LED light is perfect for this for a lot of reasons, not least because they are like tiny spotlights that fit almost anywhere. But yeah.. maybe tomorrow I can get the parts ordered to start doing that.

 

[brc]

It's been a while, so I thought I'd better post an update.

I have done a ton of work on this little project lately. It's still not finished! But, it is a lot closer.

The idea now is that I can get all of the construction 100% done this year, and when spring rolls around again, it will be time to think about plants and fish. That way, all the hard work will be complete, leaving only the fun parts left to do. I would have been surprised at the beginning to know that it would take all summer to get this far, but looking back on all the work that got done, it seems pretty reasonable now.

 

[mtpond]

Looking good!

 

[dieselplower]

Disregard.

 

[Lisaebetten]

It looks like it belongs there and has been there for in the nature for years.