Ponds and Water Gardens - waterfall/pond ideas

Can anyone help with suggestions for a first timer on where to go or where to look for ideas. In response to some one else's post Bill Wilder's 48 hour waterfall site is a scam but I was able to get my money back.

What sort of information do you need?
What kind of water feature are you planning to have?

I went to Target, and picked out a very nice (small) pond kit. Had a pump, liner, rope to outline the feature, and a fountain feature.

It took about 3 hours labor to outline, and dig out the pond. Worked great.

Only caveat, it DIDN"T include any sort of filtration system. I ended up with a UV filter/bio filter that I bought online. The UV system was actually the most expensive part of the system.

After stocking pond, total cost was about $300 USD.

I would look at book stores for pond books, lots of ideas there as well.

But for the money, beginner kits are great for the 'beginner'. Not too much money invested if you don't like it. Its not permanant, if you need to expand (You will! :) ) unlike concrete.

Good luck!

Well what I hade in mind was having 2 seperate water falls merging into 1 pond . Any thoughts on this or is getting to involved for a first timer?

That would be pretty involved. You need to push 2 water sources 2 different directions. Not to mention your filtration system (however, you COULD set up 1 waterfall AFTER your UV/Filter).

Your pump would need to be about 800 GPH ($65.00), and your filter large enough to support it. About 1000 GPH w/ UV.

At this point your pond would also need to be fairly large, or it wouldn't look quite right to have 2 waterfalls only about 3' apart.

I would do 1 pond, minimum 600 GPH pump, and a larger 1000GPH UV/Filter. The pump will be on the LOW end of the filter, but will allow expansion later without having to buy a bigger filter (most expensive part I have found).

Pond size would be about 6' long, 5' wide, and about 30" deep. This would give you lots of room for fish and what not. And next year, you could drain, put fish in kiddie pool, and expand. Your equipment would be fine for a pond about 10' long, 7' wide and 36" deep. It sounds big, but like most things in life, it will never be 'big' enough.

As you expand, the liners become exponentially more expensive.

I used a 1300gph pump for a waterfall and it was just the right volume to get the effect you want. If its too slow, it won't be much of a waterfall.

1300 GPH pump might be a bit powerful for a starter pond. Unless hes setting up a 'mock' Niagra Falls, then it may be better for his purpose.

OP how large a "waterfall" are you looking to make. More of a babbling waterfall with a small drop 6-12" or are you looking to remake Niagra?

The waterfall I created starts with a small pond(like 2.5' dia) with large rocks on the outside and small to tiny ones on the inside. There is a small waterfall there about 10" wide and a 4" drop. The river from there is about 1.5' across with bigger rocks on the outside with medium and small ones in the middle. The river is about 7' long and has a small curve. The final waterfall is about 10" wide slate that drops into the pond. When I first bought the pump I thought it was going to be too large but it actually has a great effect. It doesn't rush over, it just flows over. The actual pond is about 3' X 7' and 1.5' - 2' deep. I have pictures but I need to scan them in.

EDIT: I just did a search for waterfall kits and all of them that I saw had much larger pumps than what I used.

What size pump are you using??

Thankyou for the info is there any where you know of that has pictures I could refer to?

Its a 1300gph pump. It goes up about 3-4feet of height.

I like the books created by Ortho. Heres one from Lowes: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=236418-2137-005914&lpage=none

EDIT: Didn't mean to add another reply. Meant to put it in my other reply.

Thanks Adam B I will check out those books!!!!