sealing a pond

[MotorSeven]

I haven't tried this, but the locals here swear by the "Pig Method".....

1- wait until the dry season.
2- fence off the pond with hog wire.
3- get your local pig farmer to deliver a load of pigs and loan them to you for a month or two.
4- keep the pigs in the "pond pen" and feed them very well(afterall they are "borrowed")
5- have farmer pick up pigs
6- fill pond which will now hold water because the pigs weight & hooves have compacted the bottom of the pond better than any man made machine.

;>]

hey at the cost of a few bags of feed it might just be worth a try..............

RD

 

[impdaddy]

CETCO makes a product called akwaseal (sp) that is a bentonite mat that is rolled out like a liner. Don't know the cost but used it on a 7c lake/pond for the city colf course and seems to be holding. just FYI

 

[2manyrocks]

I was thinking pigs, too.

We used to have a pond that held water well. Then some trees took root and now it's dry as a bone because the root system opened up the bottom to let the water out.

My Dad tried to seal a pond he had dug. Didn't matter what he did. Wouldn't hold water. 40 years later, there's a sink hole in that pond that you could park a bus in.

 

[rekees4300]

:laughing: @ the "Pig Method"

Nothing like a pond full of pig manure ... anybody wanna go for a swim?

 

[MMagis]

From what I’ve seen, more often than not it’s cheaper to bulldoze the dam and re-do it properly than it is try and put band-aid after band-aid to it.

 

[ray66v]

I have been told to use bentonite clay to seal the pond. Never heard of "sodium bentonite ". My little pond is about a 1/2 acre, and already has fish in it. Mine leaks down, too. But a couple of issues for me.

Cost - I recently saw an ad from a guy selling bentonite for $400. bucks a ton. I don't know how much my pond would need, but a ton is not very much. My bucket on my loader holds about 1100 pounds of dirt, which isn't very much. So do the math.

Damage to my fish. What effect would dumping bentonite clay into the water do to my fish?

The time to line it with plastic I think came and went when I was building it. Not sure what I can do now.

I sealed a 3/4 acre lake, about 20 yeas ago, with bentonite.

We got it in bags. There were 2 skids of them, so I guess there was about 40-50.

We wadded out in the pond, with the bags, and dumped them.

No fish were harmed by the process, and it was totally successful.

 

[bindian]

When laying bentonite to seal a dry pond, it is suppose to be tilled in with the existing clay and then compacted. When adding bentonite to a water filled pond, the lite bentonite will get sucked into any leaks and seal. But you need to dump it directly over a suspected leak.
I have heard about the pig method also. Their hooves push mud into the leaking holes.
hugs, Brandi

 

[valley]

I've been thinking about using bentonite on a small pond about 12' X 20'. But now I'm thinking concrete.

 

[2manyrocks]

:laughing: @ the "Pig Method"

Nothing like a pond full of pig manure ... anybody wanna go for a swim?

I don't swim in the pond cuz of the snakes. :thumbsup:

 

[Redneck in training]

I haven't tried this, but the locals here swear by the "Pig Method".....

1- wait until the dry season.
2- fence off the pond with hog wire.
3- get your local pig farmer to deliver a load of pigs and loan them to you for a month or two.
4- keep the pigs in the "pond pen" and feed them very well(afterall they are "borrowed")
5- have farmer pick up pigs
6- fill pond which will now hold water because the pigs weight & hooves have compacted the bottom of the pond better than any man made machine.

;>]

hey at the cost of a few bags of feed it might just be worth a try..............

RD

I heard that it is the by product (slime) of bacteria feeding on the poo that seals the pond. I was raised in an area where fish farming is the biggest industry. They use manure to stimulate bacteria growth to seal leaky ponds.

Another method used in Ukraine is a thick layer of biomas such as leaves covered by foot or two of dirt. The bacteria will digest the biomass and the byproduct will seal the pond.