I've had several pondless water features and they are an absolute joy. As long as you have power near by they can be very easy. Smallest -------- Bury a 5 gal bucket, or smaller, so the rim is slightly below the surrounding ground. Place small fountain pump in the bottom of the bucket. Remove any filter. Connect a length of hose to the pump out flow. Put some bricks around the pump to form a opening around the pump. Buy a piece of pond liner. I like EDPM but anything will do since it is protected from UV. The piece can be any size you like but the bigger you make it the less splash will be a problem. 3'x3' would cost less than $10. Cut a small circle in the liner maybe 4" in diameter. Position the opening over the bucket and kind of push the liner down into the bucket. Fill in the bucket with rocks which will hold the liner in place. More gaps between the rocks the better. Put dirt under the liner so it slopes to the bucket. Can be flat, slope away is no so good. Berm around the outside to create a lip. Test with water to make sure the water ends up in the bucket. Cover the liner with more rocks, any size and shape. Build your water falls anywhere you want on top of the liner. Med to Large ------------ Basically just like a regular pond. Dig the hole, cover with pond liner. I like EDPM. Cut holes in a 5 gal bucket to let water in. I use a hole saw, 1" or so. Soldering iron will work, torch, or even matches. Nothing fancy. Bucket goes into the pond ideally so the top of the bucket is just below where the rock surface will be. Brick in the bottom of the bucket, pump on top of the bucket. Plumb the pump to wherever the water feature will be. Remove the pump's filter. It serves almost no purpose in a regular pond and absolutely no purpose in a pondless feature. Put the top onto the bucket. I like the screw on type. For snap on I'd just lay the top on for easy access. Fill in around the bucket with good size rocks, hopefully larger than the holes in the bucket. Fill in the pond with rock. I like 2" river rock, sometimes called drain rock. Build your waterfall anywhere you like. Pretty easy to move it later if you think it can be improved. Build it so it will drain when the pump is off and you won't have algae problems. Plants ------ In both setups you can add potted plants that like wet feet. A few plants can really improve the look. Water Source ------------ You can just top off with a garden hose as needed. Or for top of the line... I put a livestock water tank float valve in the pond. Less than $15 at feed stores. I connect that to a sprinkler valve on a timer. I set the timer for about 2 min each day. Water is only added if the float is down enough and the sprinkler timer is on. So if the float fails the worst I do is overflow for less than 2min which is fine. Here in Phoenix 2 min a day is more than enough. Pondless features use very little water. Electric -------- You want GFI protection. For top of the line... Another nice thing is a remote switch. Cost like $10-15 at Home Depot etc... One end plugs into the outlet and the pump plugs into the other end. Little remote control to turn it on and off. Just make sure the plump isn't too large for the switch. For crazy cool... I use an Intermatic lighting controller. I set it to start the pump just before we wake up, off when we go to work, on just before we come home, etc... Way cool but pricy at around $150 for everything. Maintenance ----------- I've been running 2 of these features for more than a year and I've done nothing. For most ponds zero maintenance means a few hours a week. But these pondless deals I've done zero, nothing. I haven't added a drop of water, the auto fill does it. I don't even turn them on and off the timer does it. No string algea since it isn't on 24/7. Most of the water is in total darkness so unicell algae doesn't really grow very well. No exposed water so no mosquitoes. You can put a clorhine tablet in the water once a week if you want but I not had the need. Leaves are no problem. Rake them of the top like the rest of the yard. Birds ----- Birds love the sound of moving water. If you make a place for them to bath you'll have lot's of birds. An easy way is to place the bowl from a bird bath on some rocks and run the pump hose into the bowl. If you drill a hole thru the bowl at its lowest point to run the hose thru you'll hide the hose. No real need to seal the hole since a small leak is fine. When the pump is off the water will drain out back down the hose so the bowl is empty and no algae or mosquitoes will form.

I could see a nice espaliered 'Mojave' firethorn to the left of the maple to kind of play peek a boo with the fence and maybe some 'Cameo' flowering quince to the right. I grow both on the cedar fence above my pond and it adds a little character. You get lovely white bloom in spring and gorgeous orange berries in fall and winter from the firethorn and the quince is stunning in bloom. You could underplant the firethorn with 'Lemon Tip' honeysuckle or 'Kaleidascope' abelia for contrast and maybe even place one of the smaller barbaries to play off the lime and the green. I could also see some escallonia to hide the retaining wall. Because I have so much rock for structural reasons, I tried getting creative to mute some of it and interupt the manmade lines both inside and outside of the streambeds and pond. I use floating planters with 'Chamelions' and love the effect. The foliage is very colorful and kept in pots the invasiveness is negated. You could tuck them in pots in your rocks. Two other plants I love near any pond are cardinal flowers and agastache. Just a few more points to "pond-er"...... Mine is now about 5 years old and I'm still tweaking. The great thing about most plants is if they begin to mature and throw the site out of balance, you can always move them :-) Here is a link that might be useful:

As it turned out, the unit was installed between the cold water intake and the water heater. However, now I wonder about the first plumber (highly recommended by the bldg manager) who apparently didn't realize that the filter could have been part of our problem. That wasn't his only deficiency. And of course aliceinwonderland is quite right about that claim by Evenpure that it might reduce scale buildup. What nonsense. This entire experience has been particularly galling because of the incompetence of various building managers as well as the dumkopff who did the initial installaion. What we have spent on repairs is really infuriating, not to mention the time we have spent without hot water (almost a month) or a dishwasher (six weeks -- that was a year ago). Anyway, I won't work there forever and I guess I just need to not worry about it.

This is a 2010 ProFit Kit 30164 with vault & cap, half centipede & end cap, Tsurumi 9PL Pump (3K to 4.7K GPH), 2" check valve assembly and an Installation Kit. This does not include a spillway, liner or aquablox. Price will be available before the end of the day.