Re: garden ponds and waterfalls

JJT · Jan 1, 2002

Re: garden ponds and waterfalls

I have a .25 acre pond in my front yard, about 60 feet from the house. No mosquitoes, but lots of frogs and salamanders. Since the pond is deep, (12+'), I was able to stock rainbow trout. They've grown to 16 - 18 inches in the past 3 years, (they started off as 4 - 6 inch fingerlings). I'd like to put in a waterfall and will be following this post. I do have a fountain I run when the water drops a few feet and there has been no rain to keep things aerated.

gotrocks · Jan 2, 2002

Re: garden ponds and waterfalls

Hope this will be of interest to a few. We have a 3/4 A pond that would drop 3-4 feet each summer drought. Had a well drilled and can get approx. 30 GPM. Ran a 1 1/4" pvc pipe to spot approx 40 feet up hill from pond edge. Started gathering rocks (Harv wouldn't send me his) and put down the heavy vinyl and began to construct "Luny Falls".

Found out my "creek" bed is not wide/deep enough to let the full flow run with rocks placed in the bottom, but not a big problem since 30GPM is way too much, have a valve to adjust flow. When the top of pond overflow pipe starts showing just open a little and in a couple of days... back full. I'll be happy to provide more info to those interested. Let's see if I can attach a picture.
Tried earlier and don't think I can attach two at a time so I'll follow with a second with next post.

Happy New Year ! Norris

JJT, we put some Grass Carp in when we started and two are still living approx. 10 yo. and over 30" long.
Named them G & H...... Graff & Hindenberg. Then last year purchased 5 more... named them S,N,R,T & L

Haven't bought any vowels yet.

gotrocks · Jan 2, 2002

Re: garden ponds and waterfalls

Here's the bottom where it gets to the pond, bordered a dug out section with rocks to give babies sanctuarary,
since my friend Gene help gather many of the rocks this is our "Gene Pool"

Harv · Jan 2, 2002

Re: garden ponds and waterfalls

<font color=blue>since my friend Gene help gather many of the rocks this is our "Gene Pool"</font color=blue>

/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Cute.

genelp · Jan 2, 2002

Re: garden ponds and waterfalls

We have a 1/2 acre pond and have far fewer mosquitoes than we had when we only owned one acre with no pond but lived in a woods. I believe that the shade was the culprit.

Gene

kiphorn · Feb 7, 2002

Re: garden ponds and waterfalls

After reading gerard's post I thought I'd do some investigation of pond liners. I've been in the roofing business 15 years and never knew that there was a fish friendly EPDM. I've built several ponds myself and never had a problem with the roofing EPDM. (More on that later)

There are only two companies in the US that produce EPDM. One is Firestone and the other is Carlisle. There are hundreds of companies that will sell EPDM for roofing but it all comes from the same two places. Carlisle and Firestone private label the material for them.

First I contacted Firestone. They produce a product that is called fishguard. It is fish friendly but the person I spoke to couldn't tell me why.

This past week, I was in Carlisle, PA for a roofing seminar. After the seminar we went on a plant tour and saw the processes involved in making EPDM. It just so happened that they were producing their own version of a pond liner the day of my tour.

The plant manager that gave the tour told me the following: What kills the fish is the oil that is on and contained within the sheet. The oil leeches out of the sheet into the pond water and kills the fish.

The oil along with carbon black give roofing EPDM its weathering properties. On the roof, the oil is baked out of the roofing material over time which eventually causes it to weather.

The formulation of the pond liner EPDM is slightly different so that there isn't as much oil in the sheet. It's not exposed to direct sun light and its not protecting a building so its weathering properties are not as critical.

He then informed me that if you use roofing EPDM that you should scub the EPDM with water and a light detergent, rinse the the EPDM, fill the pond and let it sit for a couple of days, drain it and then refill. Your pond liner should now be fish friendly.

EPDM is covered with talc so that it doesn't stick to itself when it is rolled up. I always scubbed my pond liners so that I could remove the talc. I didn't think the talc would be good for the fish. Unknowingly, I was cleaning the rubber and removing the oil from the surface of the sheet. This could be why my fish always survived.

If you know a roofer, ask them if they could salvage a piece of rubber from a reroofing job. They could get you a sheet that has already been weathered which would save you the time and water needed to clean new roofing EPDM. If asked, I'd do it for nothing (no $$$). A little PR can go a long way.

One last note. I've seen what they charge for pond liners in the stores. My cost is about 25% of what there selling it for. If I couldn't get a used piece for free, I think it would be worth the extra time to clean and prepare the liner if I could save a couple of $$$.