Creating a Lake

[JayDavis]

Wow some of us are pretty close. I am also north of Eddie. I dug a 6ft deep pit about 15ft x 15ft the clay is close to the surface there so only the top foot is sand. The rest and the bottom is thick red clay. After that rain last night, I now have a 15x15ft pond that is 6ft deep. I doubt it will dry out before next year!

 

[marimus]

Hows that pump coming along? You're not the only one who's impatient.

 

[EddieWalker]

The pump is up and running. I sort of over thought the hole thing and ended up wasting a few hours because of it. In the end, I just tossed the suction tube into the creek and left the pump on the ground. Then I rolled out the discharge hose and realized I'd really messed up. It's way too short.

I don't know what I was thinking, but I only ordered one 50ft hose. That is only long enough to make it almost to the top of the dam. I have a ten foot length of 3 inch grey plasic conduit that I put a fitting on the end.

That just made it ten feet longer and not enough to make a difference. But it was enough for me to slide 60 or so feet of 4 inch corrigated tubing over. The tubing is the cheap stuff, but it will move water and it's big enought that it shouldn't cause me to much restriction.

It's not a tight fit and leaks a little, but that's just something I'll have to live with for a little while. I ordered another 50 foot lenght of 3 inch hose, so when that gets here, I'll do it right. In the mean time, I'll keep messing with it just in case I figure it out.

First picture is of the pump.

Second picture shows the fitting to the pipe.

Third picture shows the pipe to the tubing transition. This is were the leak is.

Fourth picture shows how much water I'm losing from the leak.

Fifth picture shows the tubing as it goes into the lake.

Sixth picture shows the water coming out of the 4 inch corrigated tubing.

Eddie

 

[KiotiDK35]

Eddie, looks like your on your way to a full lake. I just want to share that I just picked up a new 3" X 50' discharge hose at my local RSC rental for 75.99. May be an option for you if you have one close by.

 

[wushaw]

Where's the blazer fuel tank???
There needs to be a poll on how long it will take to fill the lake with a 3" trash pump running 24/7

I say two weeks.

 

[marimus]

Where's the blazer fuel tank???
There needs to be a poll on how long it will take to fill the lake with a 3" trash pump running 24/7

I say two weeks.

I think 2 weeks would put about 5 inches across a 4 acre lake. Thats guessing the flow is about 30gpm which is what that photo looks like to me. Mabey i'm way out on that figure, but even 60gpm is only going to be 10 inches in 2 weeks.

[edit]
(which would put my guess at 3 months )
[/edit]

 

[California]

Eddie, I think you could move more volume if you set up the path over the dam as an airtight siphon.

Blue hose is ok for going part way up the hill. But then if you use something the rest of the way up, and going down the lake side, that is rigid enough to not collapse from suction, and airtight, it will 'pull' water up and over so the pump isn't working against so much resistance. Every inch of net lift, without a siphon, is killing the volume you could move. At present you are pushing water clear to the top of the dam. With a siphon you would push it only up to the equivalent of the lake's water level. (in theory)

On the intake side of the pump the lift is even more critical. If you could put that pump on a float it would increase the volume or pressure coming out.

I've used my gold dredge pump, a 5hp 3 x 2 pump similar to yours, to empty a swimming pool. This was driving a 4" venturi (like I described in your pump thread) into 4" corrugated flex for the outlet. The stream coming out the outlet 100 ft away was 4" diameter for 2-3 feet before it began to flatten out.

My buddy said don't worry about erosion, but after the outlet cut a nasty ravine in his lawn he went and bought another 100ft of flex to reach the street. Your rig should erode a hole the size of an oil drum at the outlet, when it is working at capacity.

Your project is fascinating to watch - please keep posting pictures!

 

[Tim_in_IA]

Eddie, have you considered a sustainable pumping solution such as solar or wind power? Since you have a stream that you are pulling from maybe even hydropower from the stream?

 

[EddieWalker]

Kioti,

Thanks for the source of the hose. When I realized I messed up on the length of hose, I racked my brain trying to think of who would sell 3 inch hose in town. I couldn't come up with anybody, so I ordered another length through Northern Tool. Price with shipping is about the same as what you paid. If I'd been smart, I'd have gone to one of the many rental stores we have. I'm sure one of them would have it.

Wushaw,

The gas tank from the S-10 Blazer is still in the Blazer. I'm thinking this morning would be a good time to pull it out and build a rack to support it. I bought an inline fuel filter to connect the current fuel line on the pump to a line that will lead to the fuel tank, so it should just be a mater of building a rack and sealing off the fuel tank. I'll post pics of how it works out.

Marimus,

The pump is rated for 15,000 gallons an hour. With my leaks right now, I realize I'm not even close to that, but hopefully it will get better when the new hose arrives.

Currently the water from the rains has it around 4 feet deep. That's on the deep end and covers almost half the bottom of the lake. The islands that will be underwater, are all islands, so they are taking up allot of volume right now too.

After running a tank of fuel through the pump, the water level is up over 2 inches. Of course, the higher the water level, the more surface area I have. The math is way beyond what I'm capable off, but it's safe to say I'm making progress.

California,

Your advice makes allot of sense and I can see how it would speed things up. Unfortunatley I've already bought the cheap hoses and feel commited to sticking with using them. They are over $70 each and I don't even want to guess what 100 feet of a stiff hose will cost. hahaha

The goal with the pump is two fold. First, I want to hurry up Mother Nature in filling it up. The ground is saturated now, so I'm getting good runnoff when it rains. There is a good chance that the rains will fill it before Christmas, but just in case, I'm gonna help out as much as possible. On Christmas Eve, we're having the family over here. It would be very, very nice if the lake was full when they get here.

The second reason for the pump is to be able to add water to the lake when it gets real dry and evaporation starts lowering the water level. I don't plan on being able to stop the water level from droping, but I think I can prolong it enough to keep the fish I put in there healthy.

Tim,

Yes, I've been weighing the different methods of pumping water without electricity and may do just that. The problem I run into is there cost to build versus how much water I can get from them. I don't think anything under 100,000 gallons a day will be of any use to me. To my knowledge, that's just not possible without a power supply. I think a Ram Pump would work in my situation, but even a large one will only give me a few thousand gallons a day. In a four acre lake, that's not gonna help very much. I even thought about building a dozen of them, but realize that's just crazy talk. A windmill would also have similar results. We don't get allot of wind here, but might have enough to run a windmill. I priced them out a few times and keep comeing up with more money than I'm comfortable spending for the amount of water I'd be getting.

One day I'll have electricity in that area. I desperately want lights in the trees along the shorline. I'll also put a few electric water pumps in the creek and have them run 24/7. Nat mentioned swimming pool pumps, and there are all sorts of water garden waterfall pumps that are getting more and more energy efficient, so that's another long term idea I have.

If I wasn't so impatient and maybe if we where not having everyone over for Christmas Eve, than I might not be doing this now. Too late now. hahahaha

This is copied from the listing on Ebay and gives the ratings of what the pump is supposed to do.

"This is a brand new in the box 'E.T.Q' brand 6.5 hp, 4 stroke overhead valve Water Pump. It has electronic igination - low oil allert - on & off switch - throttle & choke levers for accurate adjustments - 3" inlet and outlet - with hose fittings and strainer - engine meets new EPA certification - lightweight portable size - easy start and smooth running motor - self priming - Steel wraparound frame - vibration mount - all aluminum die cast pump housing - carbon ceramic mechanical seal - pump lifts to 91.9 feet - suction height 26.3 feet - pump delivery volume 264 g.p.m. - will run continually at full volume for 9 hours on a 3.96 gallon tank of gas - industrial grade pump for use in all weather conditions - large muffler for quite running 69 db - spark plug wrench and manual - makes a great pump for farming, mining, portable water tanks, dredges, marine use, emergency flooding, huricanes - or just a great pump for pumping out the family pool, or whatever you need a industrial pump for. With a one a year warranty."

It fired up on the first pull, it's very quiet and it did self prime itself. For the money, I think it's the best deal around.

Eddie

 

[slowzuki]

I've got about 50 hours pumping per inch when the pond is near full and assuming the pump is able to discharge 264 gpm at the head your are using it at.