Roughly 15 years ago Greg Wittstock, owner of Aquascape, was talking with a client who had started building ponds with waterfalls and putting milk crates in the pond and covering them with gravel. He called Ed Beaulieu, his top design guy, and had him start working on this idea right away. Little did they know they had stumbled upon what would become the pondless waterfall and change the industry forever. The systems have come a long way since then, and us at Amen Corner Ponds would like to fill you in on what the incredibly popular pondless waterfall really is.
A pondless waterfall, also known as disappearing waterfall or disappearing stream, is exactly how it sounds. It is a waterfall that disappears into a bed of gravel with a basin beneath. It is in fact a pond-less waterfall. This revolutionary idea has changed who can have a water feature forever. You now no longer need a pond in order to have a waterfall. You don’t have to worry about keeping the water clear because there is no visible sitting water anywhere and maintenance is almost nonexistent. But let’s not just talk about the benefits, let me show you how it is the amazing feature that it is.
The first change from a pond to pondless is the spillway. #1 in the diagram above. The spillway is a small easy to hide yet strong spillway allowing it to be easily hidden. #2 are the rocks and gravel that make a natural looking waterfall. #3 above is the pondless vault. The vault is where the pump is housed in the deepest part of the basin and makes for easy access to pump for maintenance. #4 is the pondless pump which is specially designed to give a beautiful amount of water and maintaining energy efficiency. #5 is the AquaBlox. AquaBlox are a water storage module that allows us to maximize the water volume without having a huge basin. #6 is the liner and underlayment keeping all of the water inside the stream and basin. And #7 is the pipe running from our pump the the spillway at the top of our waterfall.
The pondless waterfall is perfect for people wanting a super low maintenance water feature that can fit into almost any landscape and add a focal point to the yard. These are also popular commercial features. Perfect for entryways, drive-thrus, lobby’s and many more locations.
We hope this fills you in on what a pondless waterfall really is. If you have any other questions please feel free to reach out to us here at Amen Corner Ponds. Thanks for reading and please feel free to check out our other blog posts.
