Waterfall Question?

15 years ago

I have three water features, plus a spa fall over into my pool. The three "Waterfall" features are Jandy Sheer descents have have worked well over the last three years. My only regret is that we do not get the nice sound of water falling over rocks. No problem, our raised bond beam, and six foot equipment wall which have the sheer descents installed are all made of Bouquet Canyon natural stacked stone. We Love it!

Here is my question, if I gate down the two sheer descents along the back raised bond beam, and allow the water to flow down the stone, will it cause long term problems. I'm not as worried about the stone, obviously it is in a pool environment and gets wet all the time, but rather the gunite behind the stone(which was not sealed for this type of application). Behind the RBB is a 5 foot planter with landscaping, sprinklers, drains and lighting.

Thank you in advance for any comments, concerns and suggestions. I've attatched a picture for reference, but the pool is now three years old. I have also tried the "gating down" of the water feature on the Large Equipment wall with the 4' sheer decent, but have found water penetrates through the mortar and ends up soaking through the block wall on the reverse side.

Regards,

Mike

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

hmlinca
15 years ago
Mike, sorry I don't have a answer to your question, but noticed that your pool set up is similar to my pool design that we plan to start construction on this year. I've have a couple of questions that hopefully you could help me on.

1) Is your pool coping precast concrete? We would like to do a poured concrete coping but our pool consultant told me that they would not be able to glue the forms to any wall that had a stone surface. If you did a poured coping how did you do it.

2) What is the radius of the fire pit in the corner, we have two raised planters just like it and I was concerned that my radius was too tight for stone application (2' radius)

3) How do you control your fire pit by the pool, I'm thinking that I may want to switch my raised planter to a fire pit instead

Thanks.
devildog1989
15 years ago
Why would you have stone on your raises before you pour your poured in place? Besides that we don't glue the foam forms directly onto the gunite. We set up 2x4's level then screw the foam onto that. Sometimes we double the 2x4 so you can fit stone under the poured in place. 2' foot radius is fine. It just depends on the stone you pick.
Related Discussions
making a pond larger and waterfall questions
Q
Comments (2)
This wasn't totally true when I did my pond redo...I have 3 sections of liner before you get to the main pond...I sealed all of them but the one that goes into the main pond..it limits how deep I can make my pond because of what you call capillary refill I believe..this winter I removed all the rocks around the top of my main pond..pulled the liner up out of the way...added block to make the pond deeper..put everything back and covered it back up..started filling the pond back up and didn't gain any depth what so ever because the water was sucking back up stream and out of my pond...maybe one day I'll seal that bottom section..but it's ok for now..pond is around 28 inches deep now...hope this helps....I wasted about 4 hours doing all of that work LOL....thought I would save you some time..I got some sealant tape at The Home Depot...expensive...Happy Ponding! Dave in WV :-) Here is a link that might be useful: Pond Picture
...See More
Winter waterfall question.
Q
Comments (12)
donaldb, Ccoombs1 is right. Cold water has a lot of O2 in it so O2 isn't usually the problem. The problem is the other gases that can be produced in a pond. These include CO2 and HS both of which are poisonous. Then there can also be a build up of ammonia. The ammonia usually won't be a problem with the build up of CO2 the PH will drop and the ammonia won't be toxic. With the waterfall running the CO2 will be released into the air and the PH will not drop. The HS will be released into the air and won't be a problem. The bacteria on the pond walls maybe able to take the ammonia out of the water with the circulation. The problem with the waterfall running on a 600 gallon pond it will drop the water temperature but the frogs will be in any debri in the pond. This debri will produce heat as it decays and will keep the frogs a little warmer. In that small amount of water there is no way to know what the final out come will be. I have an outside pond at my shop that is 800 gallons. It is 18" deep above ground that is totally exposed to the weather. Last winter I used a pond breather for the fish and frogs in it. One frog did not make it but at least 15 did make it. A pond breather is a small pump that pumps water up an inner tube where it flows out down an outer tube above the water in the pond. There is a smaller heater to warm the water back up as it flows back into the pond through this outer tube. There are holes in this tube to exchange gases. It uses 40 watts of power. Good Luck. Mike
...See More
A waterfall question
Q
Comments (5)
Hello This waterfall is located in a shadehouse so exposed to the elements. Using a 150 gallon aquarium as the reservoir Water is released on an expanding foam "rockface" around 5 x 3 feet high. Set it up in March which is the dry season and was losing about 10 gallons a day.Now that the humidity is up it's dropped to about two. I'm using mostly epiphytes on the face and it took some time to grab hold. Has also been exposed to some very heavy rainfall but is no problem once established. I am getting a terrific amount of tannins ,washed into the aquarium but hopefully will stabilize over time. I used a top soil substrate in the aquarium and planted with a variety of submerged plants while using a fine gravel in the collection area,shagnum in pockets on the "face". This is by far the largest most complex setup I've attempted and I'm using only natural sunlight . So far it's working lol gary
...See More
PVC sprayer for waterfall question
Q
Comments (6)
I don't know what a fluval tube is. I think that 1/2 in pvc would be fine. You'll need a T for the center and a barbed adapter that the smooth side fits the inner diameter of the tee and that your hose inner diameter will fit over on the barbed side. A hose clamp to keep it secure. Don't forget the end caps and glue. It helps to assemble it somewhat in the store. I've bought everything to make a similar pump intake contraption at Home Depot, just had to get some of the parts from plumbing and the barbed piece from the 'specialty' plumbing area, where they stock hose by the foot. As far as buying a sprayer bar from the pet store, you might try that. You can always use a toothpick to unclog the hose. It won't flow like larger holes though. On second thought, aquarium pumps are not as powerful as those built for ponds and fountains, so the increased flow may work. What is the GPH of your pump that you are concerned about back pressure? You can typically restrict outflow but never input.
...See More
mkfmedic
Original Author
15 years ago
hmlinca,

I'll do my best to answer your questions based on our experience.

1. Pool coping is 4" Poured in place standard concrete. We have had no problems with the coping moving and other than a few hairline cracks, no other problems to report. As was mentioned by devildog, the forms were made of foam and braced with wood.

2. Radius of the fire pit is 5 feet.

3. To control the fire pit, there is a flush, inground "key-valve" located approximately 6" from the pit. When we use the fire pit, I stick a T-Key into the valve to control the flow of gas. When not using, I remove the key.

I hope this answered your questions.

Regards,

Mike
brandybee
15 years ago
Mike, we have a HUGE waterfall in our pool. The rock is red and man-made. It erodes and leaves red sand in our pool anytime we use the waterfall. We have changed from salt to chlorine to help perserve the rock, but would like to put a sealer on the stone. Any suggestions? We have used a sealer in the past for stained cement and wondered if that would work?
Thanks!
Brenda
mkfmedic
Original Author
15 years ago
Brandybee,

Our rock is natural stone and seems to have held up very well. We have never sealed our rock or our concrete. It was recommend that we not seal concrete because we are so close to the feet, we are only a few feet above sea level and there were concerns of moisture coming from below the cement and getting "Trapped" under the sealer.

I have heard of people using pool sepcific sealers, but I imagine if you post this under a seperate thread that many of the fine pool builders who lurk here will be able to give you several suggestions.

Regards and good luck,

Mike

Waterfall Question?

Comments (5)

hmlinca

devildog1989

Related Discussions

mkfmedic
Original Author

brandybee

mkfmedic
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Waterfall Question?

Comments (5)

hmlinca

devildog1989

Related Discussions

mkfmedicOriginal Author

brandybee

mkfmedicOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

mkfmedic
Original Author

mkfmedic
Original Author