Shaping a Waterfall
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Shaping a Waterfall  When building and shaping a waterfall, keep it in scale with the Koi fish pond. If you have a small little trickle in a rather large pond, not only will it not be very dramatic, but it will not be effective in oxygenating and recirculating the Koi pond water. A large cascade that is gushing into a small Koi fish pond will make it difficult to raise plants, such as water lilies and other aquatic plants that prefer still water. And a large waterfall will make it nearly impossible to raise Koi fish as a large cascade will stir too much of the water's surface while churning up sediment. I actually have two ponds connected by a stream. I have a rather large waterfall flowing into a small pond connected to a stream which flows into a larger pond where the plants and Koi live. If you want a large splashing waterfall with plants and fish you will either have to design your Koi fish pond so that plants can be placed well away from the waterfall's wave action or do as I did and have a pond just for the waterfall.
When you design your waterfall try to resist the temptation to be overly showy. Remember in order to maintain the main pond's water level and to avoid speeding the loss of water in your pond through evaporation, the surface of the waterfall should be smaller than that of your Koi fish pond. If you keep your waterfall low you can keep evaporation to a minimum. Also, the deeper your basin the waterfall flows into, the less evaporation you will have.  As you begin to design and build your waterfall, you will need to minimize any possibility of leaks between the rocks, behind the waterfall, and along its bank. Waterfalls will look best and they are less prone to water loss if you use large, overhanging rocks for the lip of the falls. You can use flagstones that are flat and smooth to produce a wide, thin draping waterfall, or you can direct the water so that it produces a gushing effect by directing it through a narrow gap between large boulders.  |
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