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Fountains n Slate
How to build a Hidden Fountain 

We bought this fountain in late February (2011) mainly because it was so darn unique. The fountain is from India and is all laser cut and made out of marble. I named this my Golf Ball Fountain. Below you will see how we started and finished installing the fountain which took roughly 12-14 man hours to do. We did not use any machinery at all. This was all hand installed.

In the photos below you will see the fountain in progress. Right now I'll fill you in as to how we did this.

First, we knew where we wanted this fountain to be and so the next step was to dig the hole in the ground which houses the base, pump & liner. The liner is 45 mil. so it is very strong and needs to be because this fountain alone is over 900 lbs.

Once the hole was dug we used a very sturdy mason box which holds roughly 150 pounds of round river rocks. The rocks are used because the water has to be able to filter around every part of this underground plumbing. We used an ordinary 5 gallon bucket which houses the pump. We drilled 3/8" holes (30 - 50) all around the bucket and 6" up from the bottom, this will help to keep debris from getting to the pump. Then we added more round river rock to the pond area of the fountain. The rocks go all around the plastic crate as this will support the crate and anything heavy that will go on top.

On this particular fountain we couldn't have it sit flush on the crate because we had to have room for the piping (pvc) so we used some pavers and made a stand for the fountain base to sit on. This also allows room for the tubing to exit from under the fountain's base. We then added elbows to go to the pump in the bucket. The pump we used was the Fountain Pro WT-2200 Submersible Fountain Pump. We could also have use the Jebao WP-5000 Submersible Fountain Pump

Before we could do what seemed like the impossible, was to level the pillar, Rodney & Quan both worked very hard in getting the pillar level. Hard to believe but it took nearly a half an hour to do this. Keep in mind this is not a lightweight piece of marble to work with. But they did get!

Next we had our "human fork lift", Quan along with Rodney and his son Keynan lift the 400 pound sphere, my Golf Ball up and over the top tubing so it sits flush on the pillar. Both Quan & Keynan said the piller needed to be black and let the cut out remain grey in color. The sphere is grey as well so yes, we did the pillar in black and it looks absolutely beautiful.

With the sphere on top, it's now time to fill the pond area with water for a test run.. Lord be willing there's no leaks!!!  And there wasn't.. Once we saw how the fountain was running, we all took a break. Assembling the fountain, not including digging the hole or placing the liner in, it took over 5 hours. Remember we use no machinery at all. This was all hand installed. This assembly took 2 days to complete.

OK, it looks great! But what about at night?  Got the answer!  We installed a dusk to dawn timer with our 3 way 10 watt spot lights.. Now we can enjoy our fountain not only during the day but it looks even more spectacular at night!

I want to personally thank our good friends for helping us set this fountain up. We're lucky to have some VERY special friends. Our main lead man: Rodney, his son Keynan and Quan. Without their help we could not have done this alone.

Soon as we have more time and it will be soon, We'll have an updated and more finished look to this fountain..