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Well, our project at the Botanical Gardens, the creation of a 22 foot high 12,000 gph waterfall is basically complete (except for some fine tuning).
I would like to thank the many volunteers from our club who took part in this “little” idea I came up with! Ed Dore, of Dore Landscaping did the basic excavation. With the help of John Stark, Patrick and Eileen Martin (along with their granddaughter), we were able to clear out more boulders and dirt in preparation for the retention pond that would receive the water from the falls.
Subsequent to our work, Ed Dore arranged to have a cement pond put in place.
Ed McKee suggested a shape for the waterfalls themselves, which Ed’s crew formed with a dry pack gunnite (concrete).
Once that was complete, we fired up the system, and saw the disappointing results with the 220 volt 1.5 hp pump we use to supply the bead filter for the Koi pond. It flowed well, but the stream was too small and weak (for my tastes anyway).
I acquired a 220 volt 2 hp 9,000 gph (at 30 ft of head) pump, to supplement the pump in the basement that feeds the Koi pond. The 3 inch line (fire hose as the Botanical garden staff called it) was anchored in place on the outside wall on the side of the concrete structure with the help of one of Ed Dore’s staff helping me.
We discovered there were no 220 lines running in any of the buildings up stairs, so that led to the need to acquire and install about 175 feet of metal conduit in the basement, to carry the 220 volt lines needed, as well as about 35 feet of flex conduit to take the wiring up through the ceiling of the basement into house 3, where the falls is housed, and finally 15 feet of buried electrical pvc pipe to take those 220 volt lines to the base of the falls, to a switch that would control our new pump. Ed McKee, Loren Prucnal, Phil Grefrath and I spent the entire day installing said lines and conduit.
When the pump was activated, all I could say is WOW, 9,000 gph at 30 ft of head from that new primary pump, plus 3,000 gph from our Koi pond pump resulted in a combined 12,000 gph flow. To give you an idea, that is 200 gallons per minute.
It was apparent in seconds that the flow was so strong it was shooting out beyond the falls farther than anticipated, impacting the ledge on the forward shelf of the retention pond, so we shut it down, until we could extend the pond further out, away from the falls.
It was at that point, I decided to approach Mike Masterson about spraying polyelastomer, to extend the size of the retention pond, plus to cover its concrete base. We needed to cover the concrete, as it was causing an elevated water ph to 9.5, even though it had been sealed!
He agreed to take on the job. On Sunday, following the pond tour for the AKCA seminar, I went out to the Botans along with my son-in-law Aaron, to clean things up, and get ready for the spray later that evening. We wound up moving about 6 heavy boulders, and finished cleaning things up, just as Mike, along with his son Brian (who is the primary polyelastomer spray man), and Tim Zubrick from Washington (who pioneered the process), arrived and did their magic.
The spray was ready for use within minutes, but as the setup and spraying went late into the evening, we were unable to fire things up.
Later that week, I came in, filled the retention pond up, and let her rip!
All I can say is what a show! Unlike a standard flat waterfalls (those that have a sheet of water flowing over a flat lip), the design of this falls emphasizes an irregular, more natural face, which breaks the water up as it falls, allowing for a greater depth to the falls, altered sound patterns, and causes light to reflect off it in variable patterns as the water descends. It sounds and feels like a mini-Niagara falls!
When you get a chance, stop out and see our little “project”.
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