Concerned about false bottom

[bshmerlie]

Im not sure but that false bottom is no good for a water feature. Won't the hydro balls eventually leech into water system? For all waterfalls I've seen u have to PVC legs and egg crate, then screen then dirt. Look at Gerrrit's build. U have to separate water and everything else

You do not have to have the whole PVC leg and egg crate setup to do a water feature. In fact I don't use them in any of my tanks as I think they are just a big hassle. I want to disclaimer that a little bit...some designs would require the PVC/Egg crate type depending on how elaborate your design is. But for a simple water feature with a typical waterfall the Leca at the bottom is fine. Just make sure the water level does not go above the LECA into the soil. The point of the LECA is to keep the water out of the soil. You water flowing out of our water fall just needs to go into a section that is blocked off or walled off from the soil. Some use large stones, some use bark but there are many other ways to accomplish the same thing. Just keep the water out of the soil. Just clear a section where the water is going to be a mini pond and have the waterfall drain into it. Hope this helps. John shows something similar in his "how to build a dart frog terrarium". If I get a change I will build a thread on setting up a simple waterfall feature in a tank. Nothing elaborate just to show simple way to do it that looks cool. If anyone already has pictues of something like that please post them to help out members who are doing this for the first time.