Adding a water stream to my koi pond. Any ideas?

I want to add a small stream as an inlet to the pond (1.5m) in stead of my current 110mm pipe

Just as a background- 2 returns via a high pressure system- the waterfall and a pipe with a surface skimmer.

The third is what I want to change. Some water currently return via a trickle tower, veggie filter and a home-made bakki shower. This is low pressure.

Now please consider and think what we might do:

The current system and I hope the plants will grow soon.


The wall to the neighbours




Now the advice that I need- a low pressure 110mm pipe to the pond:



R= rocks



Distance of the stream will be 1.5m. The fall from the pipe to the water= 15cm. I thought the stream could be 30 cm wide.

I was considering removing all the rocks, except for the rocks on the sides to keep the natural look, and build a stream in stead





My questions:

1. I would like to add plants- should I have "side streams" and plant them in there or have small puddles or dams, plant them in the puddles, and let the water flow over them? Any ideas?.

2. The cement to use - normal cement mixture and painting with a butamen cover or Coprox in the cement mix? Or both? Or use a durable plastic?

This is how the stream will look like, but we will need an area for plants as I said above. I need guidance here.



This is a long post- I hope people respond!!

 

1) Your choice, matter of personal taste, and speed of water

2) Never heard of either:

If you mean bitumen, that should go no where near a pond. Coprox (According to google) is a brand name for a variety of products.

I would suggest a sealant such as G4, its made specifically for ponds. I should think you can get it in S.A. I would try an aquatic shop

 

Thanks for the comments.

Coprox is a powder that one can mix with cement to make it waterproof- but I was thinking, perhaps I should use a liner under the cement.

My biggest question is to get examples of water streams. Thought I might put pebbles on/in the cement to give a natural look. Then my other query is how to secure some plants in a stream, that would look natural.

Any ideas?

 

Digressing

I've often though of adding a 40ft self-contained rill to my koi system. I actually planned it out, it would be separate from the pool and would start at a small waterfall against the back fence next to my tea-house and "appear" to be entering thre pool under the bridge which covers the filter return. With a sump at the head containing the pump and a key terrain 4" pipe under the rill returning the water by gravity from a small tank to the sump, I reckon I could get a pretty impressive flow with a fall of just a few inches. Unfortunately, my wife thought there was enough water in the garden already.

 

avz10, I would not use any waterproofer or liner as in my opinion, in this case both, would be a waste of money.

Any "mix in" waterproofer can not coat all the surface. You need to coat the surface for 2 reasons.
1) Keep the water in
2) Stop the lime getting out

A surface applied sealant does both.

As it will be completely sealed the liner is not required.

If you do opt for concrete in order for it to never move (so it can never split or crack) its going to need to be around 4 inches thick with reinforcing (Chicken wire works)

You don’t seem to have that much room (width) judging by your pictures, so why not use a liner that already has stones “glued to it” as you only want 1.5m at most, so it will not be that expensive, it is ready made, its g’teed not to leak and it does almost what you want.

In such a narrow and short stream if you put plants in it, as they grow there is the possibility they will reduce the water flow, causing the water level to rise higher than the sides. Some do have “veggie filters” but these are often in trays just above the water, or when the plants start to grow too much are severely cut down or removed.

You could even opt t have just a normal liner and wait for algae to grow on it

 

This is what I did:











Any thoughts, suggestions for plants,etc?