I'm not sure if this will help but we built a 45foot long stream this year and did not want it to look like a bowling alley but were limited by the space for curve potential. We did lay it out pretty much straight but the boulders we used to border it, were set in a way that made the stream appear to be very natural. We turned some in so that they were mostly in the stream bed itself, and turned others in or out a bit on both sides. Just altering the direction of the border rocks made it look somewhat curved. Also placement of plants helped with this look too. We use many that could actually sit in the water. Elephant ears were perfect for this. We also did not want to mess with cutting or bunching the liner because of potential leaking.

Meganmca,

If there is such a thing as water wicking up a liner I have never seen it happen or been able to make it do it. In the last 20 years that I have been in ponding I or my company has fixed probably close to a thousand leaks in ponds if not more. But I have seen water forced over the edge of the stream by being pushed though a fold that acts like of a funnel. The way to avoid that is the way the liner is folded. If the top of the fold goes in the direction of the flow of the water down the stream the water can't be forced out. If the top of the fold goes toward the source of the flow of water it will catch water and it can be lifted quite high above the water level in the stream. There is no need to tape folds in the stream.

Mike

Thank you both! Good to know, Mike, I'll watch the fold direction carefully & hopefully all will be well! Won't worry about the wicking & I'll be sure the landscaping accentuates the curves, that's a great plan.

Just to support those above; I have a 24' stream. I think it would take a lot of hard work to generate siphon folds in a stream. You probably heard about this from Horton regarding ponds. Ponds have high walls and possibly extra liner for pontential increased pond size. That is the case with me. I probably had a pond siphon leak at one point, but even with all my extra liner and bulky folds, I was able to reorganize the folds to stop it.

But one thought about the stream. You may like having the water come close to the edge in some areas as I do, and this can be a little risky. I have a couple of dogs who jump the stream and drink from it. They (and the clumsy master gardener as well) can trample the edge down and create a spillway that can take some time to be noticed or detected even when the pond drains.

if you buy a large liner and lay it out you can cut the liner to the shape you want. may be alittle expensive with alot of waste, but you will not have any wiggles, crease or overlaps

Here is a link that might be useful: Pond Liners