Waterfall design and choice is the secret to saving money and effort.

A waterfall and pond should first and foremost be easy to install and once installed must work to your satisfaction. Waterfall design and ponds design should fit into your garden environment and match.

Howick falls and pond fiberglass water feature This means in my opinion fibreglass synthetic rock waterfalls and ponds are your first choice when considering your waterfall design. The question then of how to build a waterfall is almost irrelevant because the waterfall has already been built for you. All that is required is to place it.

The difficult bit of waterfall design and the one that is almost always got wrong by both retailers and consumers is how to specify the correct waterfall pump to ensure good effect but at minimal cost. To achieve this you must understand your waterfall and ponds requirements. These waterfall and ponds requirements are handled in depth in the book and made easy by getting the FREE calculators.

Waterfall design and pump choice:

The table below gives you the fundamental principle to assist you in choosing a waterfall pump. This aspect of waterfall design is very critical.

You only need 2 pieces of information. These are ...

1. Vertical height of waterfall inlet above water surface of pond (NOT bottom of pond) ... measure this in feet

2. Width of water overflow point for waterfall ... if overflow is series of smaller overflows add all together to get width in inches

Waterfall Pump Selection table

Check where height meets width in the table. This is the flow your pump model must deliver. For a wide range of guaranteed Great range of low priced  pumps for small to medium sized ponds and waterfalls

  Waterfall Vertical Height measured from surface of pond ... (feet)
Width of Water
Overflow
(inches)

See image above

 

   1 ft 2 ft 3 ft 4 ft 5 ft 6 ft
3" 350 gph 500 gph 500 gph 500 gph 700 gph 700 gph
6" 700 gph 700 gph 700 gph 700 gph 1200 gph 1200 gph
9" 1200 gph 1200 gph 1200 gph 1200 gph 1200 gph 1200 gph
12" 1200 gph 1200 gph 1200 gph 1200 gph 1200 gph 1200 gph

Example ... you have a waterfall 3 feet above pond surface and overflow is 9 inches wide. You need a pump that will deliver 1200 gph at a height of 3 feet. An example fo such a pump is  Danner Supreme Mag Drive 1200 gph as above.  If you have a waterfall 24 inches wide and 3 feet high you would need 2 model 1200gph pumps TIP: always go for one size larger if in any doubt ... Pumps for small to medium sized ponds and waterfalls 

 

Factors to consider when you choose your garden waterfalls and ponds: 

  • Keep garden waterfalls and ponds in proportion to the garden and the waterfall specifically to the pond dimensions. A small pond would benefit from a slightly inclined and short garden waterfall.

  • Garden waterfalls and ponds - think carefully about flow required. If you want large volume flows down garden waterfalls or streams then you will need to select your pump carefully.

  • For every inch of waterfall lip width (the point at which water overflows ... also call sill, or edge) allow 250 litres per hour of pond water flow down the garden waterfall (this is about 50 gallons per hour). See the table below

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

Garden waterfalls and ponds often need to run 24 hours per day. If you want to switch off garden waterfalls at night then a second pump must be installed in the pond to run the bio-filter which keeps the fish alive (using two pumps can actually save you a lot of money).

Make life easy on yourself and consider not how to build a waterfall but how to buy the best type of synthetic rock waterfalls and ponds choose from one of the many preformed garden waterfalls and ponds available and made from fibreglass and designed to look like a real rock outcrop or stream. These synthetic rock waterfalls are able to be matched to ponds in the same colours and rock designs.

Let's summarise waterfall design Considerations:

  • A waterfall design must work to please the owner

  • A waterfall design should be soothing and not irritating

  • A waterfall design should match the pond

  • A waterfall design should ideally be kept at low cost using fiberglass ready made rock like products.

  • A waterfall design should allow a diy installation for most cases.

Why every pond should have a waterfall

Water contains oxygen and when the water in a pond is circulated this oxygen is made available for the fish, plants and bacteria that clean the pond water. These bacteria live in the pond biofilter and on all pond surfaces such as stones, logs, plant material and so on.

This oxygen is used up by the bacteria and fish and so it needs to be replaced.

The easiest and cheapest way to add oxygen to flowing water is to spray it using a fountain attachemnt to your pump or let the water fall down a waterfall or stream. The act of falling allows water to come into good contact with air and the oxygen is extracted this way.

In summer it is especially important to aerate the waterfall as much as possible