5/26/99

Question:
Hello,

You offered assistance. Now you'll be sorry.

I'm just planning my first waterfall/pond project. My wife bought an hourglass shaped 4'x6' preformed liner last fall. I never got around to putting it in until now. In the mean time I have done a lot of research and we have come to the conclusion that this pond is too small for what we want. So now my plan is to use a 1/2 whiskey barrel (maybe 2) as my bio-filter - have that cascade down into the preformed - and finally, have that cascade down into yet another pond made of a flexible liner. Grandiose plan, or what? I think it could really be spectacular though.

I have a couple questions that I hope you might give me some guidance on.

This preformed liner that my wife already bought is not made to discharge water. Can you give me any suggestions on how to cut or modify this thing so it will discharge water? Can I merely cut out a 3" x 12" slot out of the top rim? Then I can use liner material to some how make a discharge chute?
I am so afraid of ruining the thing.

Have you ever heard of anyone using whiskey barrels as bio-filters? Any suggestions on how to best do this? My thought is to drill a couple holes in the side near the bottom for feed and clean-out connections, install a liner, use some sort of a grate that is filled almost to the top with lava rock, cut a slot in the top, fill it with hyacinth, and let it go. This would be functional as well as pretty. I won't need to find a place to hide my filter.

I think I will need two barrels to give me adequate filtering capacity. I am looking at right around 3,000 gallons for both ponds. Your site says that I will need about 65 gal. of filtering capacity. Each whiskey barrel is only about 30 gal. Would you agree that I need two?

My wife also bought a 1200 GPH pump last fall. I'm thinking that is not enough. I am looking at about a 5 or 6 foot rise from the top of the bottom pond to the top of the whiskey barrels. Do you think I have enough pump?

Sorry for asking so many questions. I am an engineer and I have this need to try my very best to do this right the first time. Most "ponders" think I must be nuts to even think that I might do it right the first time!!

Thanks a lot,

Roy...

ANSWER:
Roy,

Sounds like fun and I'm not sorry. Reliably getting water into or out of a preformed liner is not an easy task. I would recommend using rubber (Pondgard) for the entire installation. By cutting the rigid liner you will void the warranty. And lower the water level in the pond so you can see more liner above the water line.

1/2 Whiskey barrels would be great way to do the filters if you use a insert liner in them. We also use a tee in the bottom of our filters 1 side of the tee is for drain, the side is for the water to fill it from the pump. We are not big fans of lava rock, it silts up rather quickly, and doesn't offer much surface area after it gets jammed up, also is heavy to clean. It sounds to me like you might need more pump to make this work depending on your desires for the flow of the waterfall. Around 100 gallons of water per inch of the width of the waterfall, will give you a clean sheet of water on a flat level rock.

It is not impossible to do it correctly the first time, think like a bug (nitrifying bacteria). If you can keep those guys happy they will take care of your water quality.

I hope that this was helpful