steady waterfalls fed by rainwater?

I want to make a series of small ponds, each dripping into the next. The uppermost pond will be filled by my down spout, and thus its water level will fluctuate the most. In theory this should be very possible, my question is whether anyone has made it work. Electricity is not an option.

Let's say that I am willing to have the uppermost pond's capacity fluctuate by 100 gallons. After a long dry spell there will be 100 gallons of unused capacity, which will be filled in the next rainstorm. Then I have a waterfall to the next pond. If I want the water to last 10 days then I need to have the rate be 10 gallons per day. Well slightly less, because of evaporation in the top pond. Let's say that I lose 20 gallons per day, per pond. So I have 80, and I want it to flow at a rate of 8 gallons per day. This waterfall of course is

Now the second pond will have a much more steady flow. It gets water for 10 days after a rain then it has to go without if another rain hasn't come in 10 days. Let's say that it has a capacity of 48 gallons. So if we reserve 20 gallons for evaporation then we need to pass on 60. If we send 6 gallons per day we can go for 10 plus 6 more because of its capacity. So this second pond will be able to supply the third pond for 16 days.

Then the third and fourth ponds are similar to the second. By the end there is the fifth pond. It is getting water steadily even in periods of prolonged drought. All of the water that it receives it loses to evaporation.

Perhaps "waterfall" is not the right word. The last pond will get a drip every other second. Not very much at all. How hard is it to create a system that drips at that rate? The first pond will drip at maybe three times that. Now that was assuming that each pond loses 2 gallons per day. That won't be true, because they will all be different sizes, have different exposure to the sun and wind, etc... so I will need to be able to tune the dripping rate. Does anyone have experience with something like this?

I'm not good with doing math in my head, but I get the feeling your waterfalls would be more like "trickles" if you are only allowing for
10 gallons of water to flow a day.

Maybe you should get a gallon milk jug, fill it with water, then punch a small hole in the lid and the side (to relieve the vacuum), then hand it up and let the water drain out.
See how long it takes to empty. this should give you an idea of the amount of flow you would get.

I think one gallon will be a fair mock up to start, but I don't expect that to give an accurate report since the pressure applied by 100 gallons will cause much more significant flow.

I can't imagine 8 gallons a day being much more than a handful of drops a minute. I have a 10 gallon bucket with a small leak in it and it drains out in about 15 minutes with little more than a trickle.

If you can get this to work, PLEASE SHARE BECAUSE IT IS COOL .

I guess when it comes down to it, you really have nothing to loose trying this, even if it doesn't end up working like you envision, you
are still storing lots of free water, and you will have ponds.

So my advice is just go ahead and build the ponds and THEN figure out the manner and amount of flow from pond to pond.
Maybe have a concrete spillway between each pond and have a small slot in it where you can insert a little "gate" that can be drilled
or cut to experiment with different opening sizes to meter the water out effectively and for as long as possible.
(The gate could be removed to allow for cleaning and for letting large amounts of water pass from time to time.)


I have two small ponds directly in front of my house that are filled by water from roof run off.
Currently any overflow is just absorbed by plantings and beds around the lower sides of the ponds.
I have thought from time to time to direct overflow to additional ponds in the future.

I don't think that an adjustable valve (like a drip emitter) will have the precision required. I think that I am going to have to use multiple very fine tubes per waterfall. If I can get tubes that drip about 10 drips per minute that should be fine. Then I will have multiple tubes per "waterfall". Maybe I will have to use more regular-sized tubes with caps that have pin pricks in them.

I was hoping that these tubes would provide aeration in two ways: the drip falling into the lower pond, and the replacement bubble rising into the upper pond. However these are really low rates. Am I out of luck when it comes to aeration?

Right now for animals I am thinking of having mosquitofish, a small predator for pan frying (preferably a small one, like green sunfish if I can find them), and crayfish. Since I'm going for 3-5 ponds I don't have to have all species in each pond, though I will need mosquito control in each pond. Any advice on this aspect of it?

I think that the evaporation rates in such a small system would add up to being quite a significant percentage of the whole.

The aeration achieved by a few drops of water would be insignificant.

What are your on site assets? What are your objectives in terms of production and aesthetics? Maybe we can help you to design a functional system.

FWIW, I have a trout pond, and a frog pond, and really enjoy farming with water. So I'm not a total kook here.

I would be interested to hear what size ponds you have in mind and how much change in elevation you have to work with. If you have enough fall, you might consider a non electrical way to move the water from the lowest pond and lift it back up to the highest pond creating some good circulation. If you are planning to use drip emitters, you should think about a filter because the emitters will clog.

Hth
Kevin

Thanks for your interest.

Available materials: rocks up to about 2' long, dirt (seems to have a high clay content but it doesn't hold water), wood, exterior paint.

Goals, from highest priority to least:

Mosquito reduction (a place for unwitting mosquitoes to lay their eggs)

Something calm and interesting for the wife and kids to enjoy

Water for watering fruit trees.

Food

Edit: I haven't measured the elevation drop. I think that I have about 5 feet though. That's over about 50 feet.

Hi Patrick,
Do you plan to use a liner for each pond?
What size pond are you thinking about?

Kevin

I need some sort of lining because of the location (near house, retaining walls, etc...) but fancy pond liners are out of the budget. I'm thinking that I'm going to knead mud to get a semi-water proof effect, then line it with cheap plastic, then cover that with something to protect it. Maybe I should just paint the ground directly (once I've turned it into hardpan) with the exterior paint.

I'm looking to cover a curving area roughly 50' long and about 5' wide.

I would caution you about using paint as a pond liner, especially if you are planning to harvest food from your ponds.
5 ft x 50 ft x 1 ft deep will hold about 1,870 gallons. Any idea how much change in elevation you are working with??

Kevin

I have about 5' or 6' of elevation.