Thanks JW,
I will probably get a new one for my birthday at the end of May, but this will last until then.
As I mentioned earlier I got a little impatient and overzealous and tried to set up the waterfalls in the stream without a sitter and keeping an eye on my daughter to make sure she didn't get the waterfall foam on her hands. So it worked to an extent but does have leaks. I am trying to get them waterproof so that when it turns on each day it doesn't have to fill up lowering the level in the pond. But I think I will be able to get most of it fixed, but here is where the waterfalls are and the problems associated with each. A big part of this is I am doing it so I can go back and read this and know where I need to fix the problems without having to rerun water through it again. I mostly am waiting for warmer weather as I found out first hand the waterfall foam doesn't work as well when it is colder out. But live and learn and pay for impatience, but at least I found the Great Stuff Pond/Waterfall foam at Menards for only 8.98 a can regular price, so that isn't bad.
The biggest mistakes I made was not removing all the stones in the stream when I placed the base rocks for each falls, using the foam when it was too cold, rushing
, and trusting at the top of the stream the rocks were well sealed.
So for starters, since last year I wanted to raise the water level in the upper pool. So I built the following to accomplish this:
But it seams to leak around the other rocks. I did use foam under these and so I might not be able to pull those up like I thought about. Here you can see where the water leaks out from.
It is leaking from the left, the middle and the right.
So to avoid digging up the big flat rocks, not sure how well that would work, I think I will try some more waterfall foam at those 3 outlets and around the sides/fronts of the rocks to block it and then on the back side too if that doesn't do the trick. My plan is to have all areas dry as I can and ready to go on a warm day when I do it so that I can use each can of foam to its fullest without having it dry up or only using half a can.
Here is the first falls I built, the right way by moving all the rocks underneath.
Unfortuneatly it sits under the water level of the pond when it is full, but if I can't get these fixed and the level drains as it fills each morning it will look fine I think. Or I will add some rocks to the top for the water to go around, will be fun either way.
Here is the second falls.
I did pull all the loose rocks out from the bottom. The pond full water level is above the bottom leaks, but it must also leak along the sides somewhere because I tried running the hose above it to see if it filled up to the level of the waterfall rock, but it kept finding a way around it. The pond level goes about halfway up the rock, so the only real leak I have to fix is the side. I can't move the rocks next to the falls, but I can pull the ones behind those and add foam on each side of the rocks next to the waterfall stone.
These are the leaks I saw on the bottom.
This is the 3rd falls and I made.
It seems to hold water because it dams up, but leaks on the bottom.
So I will attempt to plug those up.
The last falls also has the same problem as the dam at the top of the upper pool. It sits over a big flat rock that was in the stream that I don't think I sealed. This one I might be able to lift up, but first I will try adding the foam around where it appears to leak.
Here you can see where the water streams out.
So I will try to fix these when the weather hits 60 to 65 degrees and the foam will work the best. I guess I will probably not be able to completely waterproof them, but I will definitely exhaust all my options out of sheer stubborness.
But this will be on hold until the weather cooperates, until then I will finish the feature on the upper pool, but I will not have that up and running until I start the filter again, just waiting on that until I know that I don't have to worry about any consistent freezing temps at night.
