Has anybody built a pond?

[Anonymous Poster]

Here's a canada goose in "duck weed." I really like duck weed, I think it looks cool.

Blake
WA

 

[rdbrumfield]

A 15' wide pond won't be very deep in the middle and won't have any flat on the bottom at all. I wouldn't want to have a slope any steeper than 2-1. At 15' sloping from both sides will meet at the middle at about 3 3/4' of depth with no flat, will be a vee ditch.

 

[Heath]

Good point about the size calculation. I wrote this post while trying to size the potential pond in my head. 15' may be more narrow than I will build it, but you bring up a very good point about the depth measurement.
My main concern is the water issue, not the size issue. I know I can move as much dirt as I need to, I just hope that I can keep enough water in the hole that I create!
Heath

 

[soarkrebel]

The property i have now already had a pond on it when i bought it.
it's about a acre in a size and going to be a pain in my a**. the levee leaks. the water seaps out and runs through my field. now once it reachs a certain water level it stops leaking. talked to a couple of folks who said i need to drain it by busting the levee and put clay in the levee.
Oh estimates around $1500 +.

i am thinking about paying a dozer to level the whole thing . but then due to the rocky terrain i will have to put top soil down to get grass to grow. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Always something . i am probably going to let it be and see if it won't seal itself naturally. maybe time . it's only about a year and half old.

I mean they are great my boys love throwing rocks in it. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

i really wanted to raise some catfish . good luck with yours.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Hi,

Our pond is something like 80 x 50...5' deep at one end...maybe only 2 at the shallow end.

Fist question is whether your soil will hold water. Here we have a lot of clay. I did not dig the pond myself, but had a guy come in with a tracked loader to do it. We stopped digging when we started hitting rock. Were afraid that it would not hold water if we got down below the clay.

So the first question is wil the soil where you want to make that pond hold water after you dig it? Another concern is muskrats, if you have them where you are. They can dig holes in the section that is above ground if you have to make dam like wall...someone told me if you keep the level very close to the top of the dam then the muskrats will not dig in because then have no place to make an air pocket in which to live. Seems to work for us...

If you don't have a source of make up water, you will have to live with dropping water levels between rains...

We are lucky that we have a spring and so even in drought it trickles in and keeps the level up.

Geese have a way of keeping the pond muddy...we only have three and the only time I have seen the pond bottom was when we had no geese...

I would try to do some kind of test to evaluate whether the ground will hold water. My neighbor has a hole in the ground where he tried to make a pond but failed. I think that may have been due to muskrats...I think he probably tried to make his dam with a tractor, while ours was packed down real well by the tracks of that high lift.

Good luck in your pond making. Ponds are real nice things to have on your property.

 

[theboman]

They are lots of posts on pond building here, I find it very interesting. Like most the folks here on the earlier posts get an excavator (trackhoe) or dozer.
Your tractor with a FEL will cause a mess, wear it out, take forever and more than likey you'll have to get the dozer to pull your tractor from the mud as what starts getting into the pond as you dig and dig.
Check county/state laws too. Many a places you just can't build a pond these days without it being approved, inspected etc. They'll usually have some nice advice too.
You more than likely need to find a clay source to line the pond so it holds water.

 

[dummy]

It's possible if your soil is clay based. I started this one last spring. Approx. 30x60x5 Equipment pictured is what we used to dig pond. Should have made it larger (less grass to mow). The rock waterfall is being replaced this spring.my small pond SMKYMTNMAN is working on one just a tad bit larger /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[WCarlson]

My soil down to 20 feet is a mixture of clay and shale, then limestone. The way I was able to get it to hold water was to line the pond with plastic pond liner.
Bill

 

[herbenus]

Link did not work.

I've heard of farmers throwing bentonite or some other powdered clay into pond to seal. It will settle to bottom. I don't know how well it actually works.

 

[gerard]

You can get an excavator with operator for about 100/hr. They could put your size pond in in one day. Figure about $1000 and you can do the clean up yourself. (removing the big rocks, dragging the berms smooth, seeding etc). Re the bentonite - it's a clay that swells when it gets wet. Same stuff they use in the clumping cat litter. Doesn't work as well if the water is already in the pond as it starts swelling as soon as it hits the water. (I've used some). Directions say to apply to dry pond bottom in a uniform layer. Better if you can even till it in a little, compact the soil/clay mix, then let fill. Then the bentonite swells and seals. You could also get a truckload of clay after the ponds dug, spread it it out uniformly on the bottom and use that as a sealer. Not too expensive - about 200-300 per 10 wheel dump. (We used it as a base for an indoor horse arena and had to get quite a bit)