Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Pondless waterfalls

I have had questions lately about pondless watefalls. They are not all that different from regular ponds. First you dig a hole and line it. Put rocks around it. Then you build a waterfall. Fill the pond with water. Put a pump in a cylinder made just for pondless waterfalls. If you looked in my shop at my website, you will notice I do not sell them. There's a good reason for that and here it is:

You have dug the hole, built the waterfall, put the pump in the aforementioned cylinder, put the cylinder with pump in the water. Now you FILL UP THE POND WITH ROCKS. Some of you have already seen ahead far enough to see the problems coming. The water gets dirty. Grass clippings, leaves, dust, dirt from the air, doggy and kiddy toys all find their way into the water and eventually the pump needs to be cleaned. And where is it? Under all those ROCKS!! Hmmmmmm.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey there, i'm in BC Canada. I have built and seen many pondless water features built the wrong way as you mentioned, but anyone who knows anything about building a pondless water feature would know better. This is why you have to be creative. I build them by setting a metal grate or similar product on top of some block so all you have to do is pull away a small layer of rocks and reach into an opening you have left yourself to reach the pump. It's very easy, if you have any more questions email me at Wade@EssentiallyStone.com

Anonymous said...

If you do a bit of research about 'Pondless' waterfalls you will find that Aquascape Inc has been ahead of the 'just fill it with rock idea' by creating the Aquablox. These enable the consumer to have a larger capacity reservior in less space, and you are only filling the top 3 - 4 " of the basin with gravel. Used in conjuction with Aquascape Inc's snorkel and vault to house & protect the pump you will have success with installing 'Pondless' waterfalls. We have professionally installed well over 50 of these features in the last 18 months. Pieter van Westervelt
Premium Aquascapes
Certified Aquascape Contractor.

Unknown said...

Pete, thanks for your comment re Aquascapes and have seen the box used. I just do not recommend Aquascapes products because of their marketing tactics and poor building practices. I'm sure you are a fine contractor, but unfortunately many Aquascape folks are not.

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