Pondless Waterfalls
All of the sound and movement of a waterfall, with no open water. The water disappears into a gravel reservoir below and is pumped back up.
Why choose a waterfall over a pond?
Three reasons come up most. There is no standing water, which matters in a garden used by small children. There is less to maintain, because there is no fish population or planting to balance. And it fits a smaller space, since the reservoir sits underground.
What you give up is the pond itself: no fish, no lilies, no still surface to look into.
How it works underneath
A basin below ground holds the water and the pump. Above it sits the rock and the stream bed you actually see. Water runs down the face, vanishes into the gravel, and is returned to the top.
The reservoir has to be sized to the flow. Undersize it and the feature runs dry on a hot week; oversize it and you have paid for excavation you did not need.
Can an existing feature be converted?
Often, yes. A pond that has become more work than it is worth can be converted to a pondless feature, keeping the stone and the sound while removing the open water.
Pondless Waterfalls we’ve built
Our background is water treatment.
Before ponds, our work was wastewater treatment, industrial aquaculture and aquariums. All three come down to keeping a closed body of water healthy, and that decides whether a pond is still clear in its third summer. So we plan the filtration, planting and circulation before we dig, and we test the water before we treat it.
“Mike is very professional, there were no surprises with timing or the budget. There has been great after sales service and everything is functioning perfectly now.”
Talk to us about pondless waterfalls.
Serving Greater Victoria and Vancouver Island. We'll get back to you as soon as we can.