Sealing a barrel? (Garden water feature mk.II)

meth · 9 Apr 2019 at 16:13

Some pics would be great, am looking to do something similar.

uncle_rufus · 9 Apr 2019 at 18:47

Alright fellas here we go... apologies the pics aren't great I'm trying to learn how to use this camera still

The barrel, with the pond sealant painted on the inside...

The bird bath part, tube will be cut and connected to the pump

The nozzle (an end cap with hole drilled in it)

The underside of the dish where the hose connects

uncle_rufus · 10 Apr 2019 at 11:42

Now, I know what you're all thinking - it looks like I went to the tip and grabbed whatever I could find then mashed it all together and it looks like cheap, nasty rubbish...

But have faith... I reckon once it's in the barrel with water, the water plants sticking around the edge, maybe a layer of pebbles in the bottom of the dish and the fountain running it's gonna look a lot better

meth · 11 Apr 2019 at 15:07

Looks good so far, will be interesting to see how it fits together in situ. Will you be testing the water seal prior to installing?

uncle_rufus · 13 Apr 2019 at 22:23

Well I put it together earlier... initial observations/tweaks:

The pond seal seems to have worked brilliantly - so thanks again to all who recommended it. I certainly can't see any signs that the water is leaking out anywhere which I'm super happy about
My macguyver'd bird bath also works fine, although the initial design pictured above with the two plant pots underneath was way too tall (should have seen that coming really), so in the end I took the lower pot away (but that was actually too short so it's stood on a few bricks!
After messing about for some time trying to get it to be perfectly level I've concluded that it's going to be very tricky to do so (it doesn't help that the "floor" of the barrel is far from level) and even things like the gusts of wind we had today are enough to affect where the overflow happens. I've gotten it close and that's fine for me

Here's a video of the finished article:

Al-Ectrician · 13 Apr 2019 at 22:29

Did anyone mention CT1.....waterproof sealant ?

Al

NoobCannon · 13 Apr 2019 at 22:39

Gold seal is fantastic stuff.

Useful to have around the house As fixes water leaks in anything, recently used it to bodge a toilet cistern back together!

Glad it worked out for you. Looks good

meth · 14 Apr 2019 at 10:14

uncle_rufus said:
Well I put it together earlier... initial observations/tweaks:

The pond seal seems to have worked brilliantly - so thanks again to all who recommended it. I certainly can't see any signs that the water is leaking out anywhere which I'm super happy about

My macguyver'd bird bath also works fine, although the initial design pictured above with the two plant pots underneath was way too tall (should have seen that coming really), so in the end I took the lower pot away (but that was actually too short so it's stood on a few bricks!

After messing about for some time trying to get it to be perfectly level I've concluded that it's going to be very tricky to do so (it doesn't help that the "floor" of the barrel is far from level) and even things like the gusts of wind we had today are enough to affect where the overflow happens. I've gotten it close and that's fine for me

Looks pretty good to me

I may have to steal your idea! What pump did you use? and can you hear it running?

uncle_rufus · 14 Apr 2019 at 10:31

meth said:
Looks pretty good to me I may have to steal your idea! What pump did you use? and can you hear it running?

It's a pretty cheapo one from amazon, I could look up exactly what model if you like but it's made by "Blagdon" and cost maybe £20 (really doesn't need much to pump the water barely 1ft)... I can't hear a thing as it's completely submerged (can feel it vibrating if you touch it while it's on though). Comes with an extremely long lead which was handy as we had to run it up the wall, into the garage and across to a plug point

WoZZeR · 23 Mar 2020 at 10:45

Slight thread bump

Well done, a splendid project indeed.

I have acquired a 91cm diameter half barrel from a salvage yard and am wondering how best to spread the weight of the water across the entire base of the barrel, they have a rim underneath that is perhaps 25-40mm proud of the timbers forming the base. It's for a wildlife garden so would prefer not to use gravel as I wish to surround the feature with plants. Any ideas chaps.

FNG · 23 Mar 2020 at 15:32

Those barrels normally seal themselves over time being out in the wet. I did a similar thing and needed a liner at first, which kept leaking, but after 6 months of being soaked over winter found it held water on its own. Don't know it that really helps!

uncle_rufus · 23 Mar 2020 at 18:46

WoZZeR said:
Slight thread bump

Well done, a splendid project indeed.

I have acquired a 91cm diameter half barrel from a salvage yard and am wondering how best to spread the weight of the water across the entire base of the barrel, they have a rim underneath that is perhaps 25-40mm proud of the timbers forming the base. It's for a wildlife garden so would prefer not to use gravel as I wish to surround the feature with plants. Any ideas chaps.

Cheers!

Not sure if I'm fully understanding you but my one did use gravel, only I found a tree ring that was basically the exact size of the barrel - so looking at it you wouldn't know that it's stood on a gravel base. I didn't concrete it in or anything just dug out the area, shoved the tree ring in and poured in the stones

FNG said:
Those barrels normally seal themselves over time being out in the wet. I did a similar thing and needed a liner at first, which kept leaking, but after 6 months of being soaked over winter found it held water on its own. Don't know it that really helps!

I think it might have done during the wet winter we just had, better than it was before at least - you always lose a surprising amount to evaporation in the summer as well. My biggest problem now though is that it's difficult to keep the water clear - towards the end of the summer last year and over the winter it has filled up with horrible blanketweed. Last year I took it all apart and cleaned it out about this time, quite laborious and annoying particularly scrubbing all the weed/algae off the rocks - I might try and get a power washer this year and just chuck them in a bucket and blast them.

My understanding is you need to put enough plants in the pond to absorb maximum nutrients out of the water, otherwise the weeds go crazy on all the excess - so assuming I can ever leave my house again I'm going to pack as many underwater plants etc. into it as I can this year and see what happens

FNG · 23 Mar 2020 at 18:54

It's hard with smaller ponds to get a balance that will stop blanket weed. Like you said, get a load of oxygenators in there and you will start to get it under control. Make sure there is a level nearby for animals to get to it too and before long you will have a thriving eco system in it, normally with newts sitting at the top of the chain.

WoZZeR · 23 Mar 2020 at 19:39

uncle_rufus said:
Not sure if I'm fully understanding you but my one did use gravel, only I found a tree ring that was basically the exact size of the barrel - so looking at it you wouldn't know that it's stood on a gravel base. I didn't concrete it in or anything just dug out the area, shoved the tree ring in and poured in the stones

Excellent, that's a good idea. So I just need to find a strong circle, ideally a good fit for the bottom of the barrel.

FNG said:
Those barrels normally seal themselves over time being out in the wet. I did a similar thing and needed a liner at first, which kept leaking, but after 6 months of being soaked over winter found it held water on its own. Don't know it that really helps!

I have a load of pond liner in the garage, I was wondering if that Gold Seal stuff could be used to glue down the folds in the liner to neaten it up.

uncle_rufus · 23 Mar 2020 at 20:44

FNG said:
It's hard with smaller ponds to get a balance that will stop blanket weed. Like you said, get a load of oxygenators in there and you will start to get it under control. Make sure there is a level nearby for animals to get to it too and before long you will have a thriving eco system in it, normally with newts sitting at the top of the chain.

Fingers crossed! There's plenty of life in it, no newts but plenty of little water snails and other things...

WoZZeR said:
Excellent, that's a good idea. So I just need to find a strong circle, ideally a good fit for the bottom of the barrel.

I have a load of pond liner in the garage, I was wondering if that Gold Seal stuff could be used to glue down the folds in the liner to neaten it up.

This is the one I bought, not that expensive either and looks good (I didn't buy it from here but that brand, can't remember where I actually bought it from):
https://www.pitchcare.com/shop/ever...1AZDyt7kxpqCcDTqdWpP21HHCDy1CqkxoCdv4QAvD_BwE

It's 900mm so pretty much perfect for the barrel... just take your time getting it level (although to be honest it's pretty much impossible to get it perfect - the water never flows evenly over all the edges but it doesn't really matter)

I used a liner at first and it was fiddly, looked kinda bad and didn't stop it from leaking... the gold seal stuff was much better (although again still not perfect)

WoZZeR · 24 Mar 2020 at 10:11

That tree border is a very ingenious solution indeed!

Thank you very much.

uncle_rufus · 24 Mar 2020 at 14:37

WoZZeR said:
That tree border is a very ingenious solution indeed!

Thank you very much.

No probs - good luck with it

uncle_rufus · 10 Apr 2020 at 11:50

uncle_rufus said:
I think it might have done during the wet winter we just had, better than it was before at least - you always lose a surprising amount to evaporation in the summer as well. My biggest problem now though is that it's difficult to keep the water clear - towards the end of the summer last year and over the winter it has filled up with horrible blanketweed. Last year I took it all apart and cleaned it out about this time, quite laborious and annoying particularly scrubbing all the weed/algae off the rocks - I might try and get a power washer this year and just chuck them in a bucket and blast them.

My understanding is you need to put enough plants in the pond to absorb maximum nutrients out of the water, otherwise the weeds go crazy on all the excess - so assuming I can ever leave my house again I'm going to pack as many underwater plants etc. into it as I can this year and see what happens

Little update on this... I did get a power washer and it allowed me to once again strip the whole thing down and clean it - but being able to chuck the rocks and stuff into a bucket and blast them clean with the washer was incredible - took about 30 seconds versus a whole afternoon of painful scrubbing last year...

Sadly the plants I had in there were so tangled and overrun with the blanketweed that I couldn't do much with them, but I ordered a pack of new pond plants as per my plan above and once I'd scrubbed everything clean and re-assembled (I shortened the hose on the pump a little so that the pump now sits directly beneath the bird-bath part instead of out to the side, to save space for more plants) it's all set back up again. I got a pack which had 3 marginals, 1 oxygenator and 1 floating/surface cover type plant, so will see how they do. Also getting some barley straw extract to treat the water with through the summer which should help it avoid growing more weed

As an added bonus it happens to be very slightly more level than it was before, leading to a more pleasing cascading of the water - result!