First let me say thank you for all the replies - they were very
helpful:

Paul - thanks for the tips on the sump and stock tank. The sump
available from the Home Depot nearest to us was only 35 gals and
evidently rubbermaid don't seem to have a retail stockist within about
1000 miles of here!! I may be exaggerating slightly, but after looking
at several other newsgroups, they don't seem to sell any outside of
the midwest I would certainly have gone for the Rubbermaid stock
tank - if only .....

Lee - fabulous, fabulous advice .... thanks .... I couldn't find a
stock tank anywhere. I live in the heart of the Silicon Valley just
south of San Francisco and I tried a few feed stores and none had any.
Goodness knows where you can buy them - I mean, what self-respecting
software engineer doesn't have at least two head of cattle on their
4500 square foot lot????? I will keep looking though as I'm not sure
our solution (detailed below) will work. I looked at that project you
mentioned on HGTV - their hole was 4ft x 2ft x 20 inches which is what
we have ended up with. However their water wasn't flowing as far as
ours is. Hmmmmmmmmmm ......

EJ - too late .... have jumped in with both feet and will be
researching as I go along. Far too impatient - that's me I did
however, skim the book you mentioned when I was at Home Depot and will
probably end up buying it tomorrow, LOL! And I am taking pictures and
will hopefully have time during the week to put together a blow by
blow replay of progress so far.

Gale - All our running bamboo is contained with root barrier (hubby
did an excellent job, hand digging 3 foot deep trenches - he's
Scottish and therefore too cheap to go rent a trench digger). However,
we have now invested in a plastic tank so shouldn't be a problem.

And Pickmaster (?) - Dr Phil would certainly be a big help, especially
after today's foray into trying to work together on a project. I love
hubby dearly and wouldn't swap him for anyone, but we are better off
on separate projects, LOL. I can but hope that we will still be
married at then end of all this.

And so to today's conquests and subsequent questions:

We didn't get started until midday (see previous post and prediction
about husband sleeping late, messing about, etc.), and so far we have
managed to dig a hole for the tank, dig in a reservoir at the top of
the falls and carve out the flow. In between there was a lot of
discussion and rearranging

The largest tub we could get was 50 gallons and hubby, in his infinite
wisdom says this is enough. So we'll go with this for now and if/when
we need a bigger tub, we can search further for a tub and dig a bigger
hole. In other words we have room to retrofit!! And in my infinite
wisdom .... I will not utter the words "I told you so".

We dug a trench for the pipe to go to the top of the waterfall and
then dug a small reservoir (about 6 gallons) at the top. The top of
the waterfall is approximately 14 feet from the tank and about 5 feet
higher than the bottom of the tank. This brings me to a question -
does the gph at a certain height mean from the bottom of the pond or
ground level? I am assuming the bottom of the pond in my calculations
for a pump.

I used a veranda pot (no holes at the bottom) for the top reservoir,
have angled it slightly and hopefully the water will flow out of it
okay (another long discussion with the husband!!). The water will then
flow over a stone and down about 10 inches into a splash pool. The
water will then flow out two separate small streams which will come
back together just before getting to the tank.

I am considering a 10 x 20 ft EDPM pond liner - this should be ample
and hopefully I can pick that up tomorrow. We'll also be going rock
hunting tomorrow as we didn't go this morning. I like purple rocks,
with a few brown ones thrown in .......

More tomorrow, maybe ......
Jane

On 14 Jun 2003 19:42:49 -0700, (Jane Cooper)
wrote:

First let me say thank you for all the replies - they were very
helpful:

Paul - thanks for the tips on the sump and stock tank. The sump
available from the Home Depot nearest to us was only 35 gals and
evidently rubbermaid don't seem to have a retail stockist within about
1000 miles of here!! I may be exaggerating slightly, but after looking
at several other newsgroups, they don't seem to sell any outside of
the midwest I would certainly have gone for the Rubbermaid stock
tank - if only .....

Lee - fabulous, fabulous advice .... thanks .... I couldn't find a
stock tank anywhere. I live in the heart of the Silicon Valley just
south of San Francisco and I tried a few feed stores and none had any.
Goodness knows where you can buy them - I mean, what self-respecting
software engineer doesn't have at least two head of cattle on their
4500 square foot lot????? I will keep looking though as I'm not sure
our solution (detailed below) will work. I looked at that project you
mentioned on HGTV - their hole was 4ft x 2ft x 20 inches which is what
we have ended up with. However their water wasn't flowing as far as
ours is. Hmmmmmmmmmm ......

EJ - too late .... have jumped in with both feet and will be
researching as I go along. Far too impatient - that's me I did
however, skim the book you mentioned when I was at Home Depot and will
probably end up buying it tomorrow, LOL! And I am taking pictures and
will hopefully have time during the week to put together a blow by
blow replay of progress so far.

Gale - All our running bamboo is contained with root barrier (hubby
did an excellent job, hand digging 3 foot deep trenches - he's
Scottish and therefore too cheap to go rent a trench digger). However,
we have now invested in a plastic tank so shouldn't be a problem.

And Pickmaster (?) - Dr Phil would certainly be a big help, especially
after today's foray into trying to work together on a project. I love
hubby dearly and wouldn't swap him for anyone, but we are better off
on separate projects, LOL. I can but hope that we will still be
married at then end of all this.

And so to today's conquests and subsequent questions:

We didn't get started until midday (see previous post and prediction
about husband sleeping late, messing about, etc.), and so far we have
managed to dig a hole for the tank, dig in a reservoir at the top of
the falls and carve out the flow. In between there was a lot of
discussion and rearranging

The largest tub we could get was 50 gallons and hubby, in his infinite
wisdom says this is enough. So we'll go with this for now and if/when
we need a bigger tub, we can search further for a tub and dig a bigger
hole. In other words we have room to retrofit!! And in my infinite
wisdom .... I will not utter the words "I told you so".

We dug a trench for the pipe to go to the top of the waterfall and
then dug a small reservoir (about 6 gallons) at the top. The top of
the waterfall is approximately 14 feet from the tank and about 5 feet
higher than the bottom of the tank. This brings me to a question -
does the gph at a certain height mean from the bottom of the pond or
ground level? I am assuming the bottom of the pond in my calculations
for a pump.

I used a veranda pot (no holes at the bottom) for the top reservoir,
have angled it slightly and hopefully the water will flow out of it
okay (another long discussion with the husband!!). The water will then
flow over a stone and down about 10 inches into a splash pool. The
water will then flow out two separate small streams which will come
back together just before getting to the tank.

I am considering a 10 x 20 ft EDPM pond liner - this should be ample
and hopefully I can pick that up tomorrow. We'll also be going rock
hunting tomorrow as we didn't go this morning. I like purple rocks,
with a few brown ones thrown in .......

More tomorrow, maybe ......
Jane


Just a little further south, in Santa Paula, they have the rubbermaid
tanks.

Only about 5 to 6 hours each way, what better way to spend a day?


--

- Charles
-
-does not play well with others

You need to calculate in about 6.5 ft as your head - for determining your
gph flow rate!! Here is a link top the pump I have in my pond.
http://pondforum.com/NewFiles/SHOP%2...er%201200.html It shows
how much the flow rate goes down depending on the head. Depending on what
kind of water pressure you have there it looks like the above pump will be
about the equivalent of your garden hose.

Just remember to try the garden hose idea first before you buy your pump or
your tubing. You dont know what size tubing to buy until you know what pump
you need, and you dont know what pump you need until you try the garden hose
idea.

"This brings me to a question -
does the gph at a certain height mean from the bottom of the pond or
ground level? I am assuming the bottom of the pond in my calculations
for a pump." YES!!!!

Here's something else I learned the hard way....Do Not trim your liner right
when you get done filling in the rocks and water. Wait 3 or 4 days!! That
will give the liner and soil under is time to settle/shrink. Then trim the
liner the way you want it to look.

Just keep on asking questions I might not be able to tell you what to do but
I will probably be real good at telling you what not to do!!!

Any more progress? Or pictures yet?