Large Scale Central

The Stream

John Spehar said:
I got rid of the fish pond on my stream and never regretted it. There is a system called the “Pondless Waterfall” . You circulate water over the waterfall, down the stream and into a shallow pond that drains into a holding tank under the ground. Using this system eliminates the need to filter the water and on the plus side you can turn off the water pump anytime you are not watching it and the water all drains into the undergrond tank. There is no need to run the pump 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year to keep the pond filtered and the fish alive. You get the effect of the running water with none of the work. The only thing you don’t have is fish. Of course you could put in some plastic fish that would float when the water is turned on and the pond fills up. I installed my system with a 100 gallon plastic tank buried in the ground and have been running it for two years without a problem. There are package systems you can buy but it is very easy to make your own. Google “Pondless Waterfall” and you can see the specifics of how to install one. I will never go back to a standard pond system again. John

Kind of a way wish i didn’t have the big koi pond. but it about 30 foot around and over 4 foot deep that has water falls and 10 foot water wheel with working beams on it. it hard to get rid of it now… Also, with koi that are around 3 foot long and about 70 of them. They have been there for 30 yrs now. So really the trains was a add on efect in the yard… and now have a remote Swing bridge to open up for my remote controled Tug and 4 foot Barge. [url=

(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/noelw/Swing%20Bridge/Tug%20and%20Barge.jpg)

[/url]Now need to filter out some fish poop that comes direct out of the pond and not settle in the stream. The stream has its own pump and not the large pump for the koi pond. My Fishing man in hip boots should be black and not poop brown when standing in the stream… … hahhahaha. Anyway … are we having fun yet…

Noel,

The filter that you can backwash would be the cat’s meow, if you can find one!

Very nice Noel,

If you have 70 Koi around 3 foot long- you are going to need a heck of a filter.
Ralph

Ralph Berg said:
Very nice Noel,

If you have 70 Koi around 3 foot long- you are going to need a heck of a filter.
Ralph


We have one for the Koi pond in a 6 foot deep pit about 15 foot from the pond…from there it goes thru 1 1/2 PVC pipe valve/manifold to a water wheel, a falls in Doves large outside hex.cage, a stupid frog in one corner of the koi pond that the wife had to have. and can be re-cyc in pit and back flush to or direct to reservoir in back of property. That auto goes to that reservoir once a day and takes off 2 inch of water off the koi pond. Float valve fill koi pond back up in 24 hrs.

At my age need auto sys. Now want to run trains… and just feed the fish.

Plastic fish is not a bad idea tho… lol Wouldn’t get in the way of my remote tug. Darn Koi got a habit to push the tug in to the bridge and ant. get stuck on bridge.

Sorry Hans… Getting away from what your are doing. and can’t wait to see how you landscape it… going to be real nice…

“Sure glad I found this site… nice people to take to.” tks Noel

Noel,
I’m glad you found us too!
Ralph

Noel you have a real pond. You probably spend more time maintaining the Koi pond than you do maintaining the railroad. I admit the Pondless Waterfall system is not for everyone. But I am not into fish and my water feature just adds to the background for my train. I also have found that there is very little alge that grows on my waterfall, stream and shallow pond. I guess turning off the water every night prevents the alge from growing. At the height of the summer season I used to have a thick pea soup look to my water before I went to the new system. Now the water is always crystal clear and you can see the rocks in the bottom of the stream and pond. I put in around two inches of soil in the bottom of the pond section and covered it with rocks. I can grow plants in the pond as the soil holds enough moisture for the plants when the water is turned off. I use what are called marginal plants that do not need to be flooded with water all the time. The birds love it and there are always plenty of them splashing and drinking the water during the hot summer days.

Some real nice Canadian rocks you have there, Hans ! I just got done digging my pond another foot or so deeper, tough digging with the clay at temps in the 90’s