Monday, May 22, 2006

Waterfall Design

One of the most important pieces of your new pond is the sound of the waterfall. Yes, I said sound. While the appearance of the waterfall adds to your water garden, the sound of the waterfall sets the mood and can actually make or break the pond.

Consider how loud you would like your waterfall to be. Do you live near a busy street? Will the sound of the waterfall interfere with your sleeping habits?

The volume of the waterfall is a simple function of drop and flow. Simply put, the higher and thicker the waterfall, the louder it will be.

Your waterfall should also include a mixture of tones. Water dropping into a deep pool produces a low tone while water dropping onto a rock or very shallow pool will produce high tones. A well-designed waterfall will have a full, rich sound. Be careful not to have just low tones, as this will drown out any conversions near the water garden

3 comments:

Randy Stewart said...

It would be much easier to useo pumps in this application- one for the waterfall and one for the pond fountain.

The 14" waterfall weir can be downsized by using rock and waterfall foam to reduce the opening down from the 14" to and width you'd like. This will also help camoflauge the waterfall weir at the top.

As far a pump sizing, you will have a 2' vertical lift and a short tubing run, so figure on 3' of head on the waterfall pump. Figure that you will need 100 gph per inch of waterfall width. If you have a 14" wide waterfall, you will need 1400 gph at discharge. Look at pump spec's to find a pond pump that will give you that flow at 3' of head pressure.

For a 14" waterfall, the Pondmaster Pond-Mag 18 would be ideal.

On Set Greg said...

any advice on design how the water starts at the top of the fall. I have a rock I bored a hole in which leads to a wider opening, but the power of the water coming out and flow is a "Fall" but instead way too sourced.

Any advice on building a more steady flow?

Greg

Randy Stewart said...

It sounds like you need a way to diffuse the water.

An easy way to start a waterfall or stream is to dig a small collection pool at the top. On smaller waterfalls and flow rates, it doesn't need to be over 16" x 16" x 8" deep. Simply run the tubing to the bottom of the pool and fill the pool with small rock or gravel, mixing it one or two larger ones for appearance. The water will then spread out as it flows upward through the rock producing a natural-appearing headwater.

I am unsure how much your drilled rock plays into the design and appearance of the waterfall or if space is an issue. If the rock is essential, simply split the flow so that you can use the method above on part of the flow and the use a ball valve to adjust the flow discharged from the rock to get the desired effect.