Build Imitation Rock Waterfalls. fibreglass garden waterfalls

A lightweight, strong fibreglass garden waterfall makes installation simple in all backyard or garden ponds. A modular design garden pond waterfall allows a high or long garden pond water fall to be chosen.

This is how to choose your garden waterfall: 

Keep the garden waterfall in proportion to the pond dimensions. A small pond would benefit from a slightly inclined and short garden waterfall. Personally I prefer longish simple stream flows created form joining sections together. These sections then culminate in a small overflow and cascade into the pond ... whenever I drive in the countryside and see abridge over a stream I have to stop the car get out and peer into the stream to see what I can see (secretly hoping to see fish darting around in the current and taking flies off the stream surface).

If you want large volume flows down your garden waterfall or stream then you will need to select your pump carefully. Get your FREE excel calculator above. You also need to give thought to the pipes and fittings you will use in the pump circuit design.

For every inch of pond waterfall lip width allow 250 litres per hour of pond water flow down the garden waterfall (this is about 50 gallons per hour - see table below here which provides you with examples).

Height of garden waterfall: do not make them too high. For most small garden ponds (up to say 500 litres or 120 gallons) garden waterfall 18 or 50cm above the pond surface is good enough.

In this picture you can see the water flows mainly over 2 points. This combined pond and waterfall is made of fiberglass and takes only 5 minutes to install. It is light weight, strong and highly realistic.

Table to help you work out what size pump you need for a good looking waterfall

A word about friction losses or pressure drop in pipe systems ...

In practical situations I would always recommend that you add about 20% to the height you want to pump to. By doing this you compensate for energy, friction or pressure drop losses that inevitably take place in any real pumping system. The friction loss is the result `of bends, fittings, restrictions, kinks in the line and so forth. I always suggest that the pump specification should be based upon head calculated (ie height from pump surface to waterfall inlet) PLUS 20%. In other words if the height from surface to water fall inlet is 4 feet then add 20% which means base your pump specification on 4.8 feet NOT 4 feet. You can often improve the performance of any pump by about 20% by using larger diameter pipe and shorter straighter pipe routes using less fittings and by making sure the tubing is not kinked or flattened.

GOOD TIP: The best waterfall pond pump pipe you can use is black ribbed piping which when bent forms nice smooth curves and cannot kink or get flattened easily. The fact that it's black will also make it more difficult for pond algae to grow inside the pipe and make a restriction that will reduce pump flow.

If you want to switch off garden waterfall at night then a second pump must be installed in the pond to run the bio-filter which keeps the fish alive.

Make life easy on yourself buy one of the many preformed garden waterfall or backyard pond waterfalls available and made from fibreglass and designed to look like a real rock outcrop or stream. These synthetic rock waterfalls and synthetic rock streams are able to be matched to ponds in the same colours and rock designs.

• a fibreglass garden pond water fall is a pleasure to build

• a fibreglass garden pond waterfall is low cost to buy

• install garden waterfalls quickly and easily

• garden water falls just look so realistic ...  like building a real rock waterfall