Ponds, Rivers and Water Features

[Andrew H]

Hi all,
I am really taken with the idea of a river conecting two ponds, one of which will have a harbour. I have never done a water feature before so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also what sort of pump would be best and how much would it cost? I realy like Riks river although mine would be smaller.
Thanks,
Andrew

 

[Gizzy]

A plan would help Andrew?

I have a small pond known as 'the Old Quarry' which is now a 'man made lake'.

I dug a deep hole about 1/2 a metre, lined it with soft sand, then some old carpet underlay, and finally a Neoprene rubber sheet. This needs to be 2-3 times the size of your hole.

I brought a basic pond pump to keep it aerated, and later added an air stone. There is a large hollow breeze block inthe middle which the pump sits on. This also acts as a cave for 8 Koi fish given to me by my uncle when he moved. A few plants and it's done!

The railway runs around 3 sides as part of my main running loop, and is about to be double tracked very soon....

 

[jacobsgrandad]

I have built a stream about 30ft long folowing part of my track. it consists of a pond about 3ftx3ft and 3ft deep at the bottom, with a water butt pump reurning the water upstream, rise again about 3ft where it comes out of a slate cavern.
Comprises, water butt pump (not expensive) 30ft of ordinary garden hose. the steam only a few inchws wide and deep, offcuts of butyl pond liner from the piece bought for pond,stuck with butyl adhesive. covered in pebbles slate whatever came to hand. Not expensive at all

 

[yb281]

Sorry to drift a little with a shameless plug, I'd agreed a deal to sell this pre-formed water fall to a member of the forum a few months ago, but then he seemed to disappear off the face of the earth. Anyhoo, it's still here and I could do with getting rid of it. There's a free pump to go with it too.

If it's any use to anyone, drop me a PM. Just be aware that it's not suitable to post, so pick-up from Worcestershire only.

 

[ge_rik]

Hi all,
I am really taken with the idea of a river conecting two ponds, one of which will have a harbour. I have never done a water feature before so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also what sort of pump would be best and how much would it cost? I realy like Riks river although mine would be smaller.
Thanks,
Andrew

Hi Andrew
There's two bits to my river - a smaller upper section ..........

.......... and a larger lower section

If it's any help, I put together a http://riksrailway.blogspot.co.uk/2006/04/how-did-i-create-stream.html < Link To blog posting and ahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re37VVTJqMg < Link To short video showing how I created the smaller upper stream

I opted for a cheap method using a plastic liner covered in rocks and cement - which seems to have survived for six years so far OK. I went the for biggest pump I could afford which was in a sale reduced from £70 to around £50. You can always restrict the flow of a larger pump but there's no way you can increase the flow of a small pump.

I'm afraid I can't advise you on ponds - you'll see from this http://riksrailway.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/progress-report-7.html < Link To blog posting that I opted for a sump (basically a plastic dustbin with the lid inverted and covered in pebbles) because I wanted the space for a patio rather than a pond.

Anyway, if you want to ask any questions please feel free - and there are bound to be some with more experience of ponds than me on the forum.

Rik

PS - Here's a picture of how the stream looks now - from roughly the same positions as the photos above

 

[ge_rik]

Andrew

BTW - have you seen Mark Found's series on building a garden railway? You might find Programme 3 helpful.

http://youtu.be/zapTmic5ECM T...youtube.com/user/modelrailwaytv?feature=watch < Link To http://www.youtube.com/us...ailwaytv?feature=watch


Rik

 

[Andrew H]

Hi
Rik, your river is even more amazing now the moss has grown. Thanks for the link. I've got garden railway series on DVD, a very helpful program.
Thanks,
Andrew