Pond

[dtd24]

I bought a house w/ 5 acres 2 years ago. I have done alot to the house and now I would like to address my pond. It's small, but the previous owner said it was spring fed. I tend to just let the things he says to go in one ear and out the other because of past experience with him. The pond, like the house, was never maintained, and not very deep. Weeds have taking over most parts of it as well as brush around it. I am in the process of cleaing around it. I would like some suggestions on digging it out a bit. I have a JD1070 w/ 8b hoe. Do I drain and dig? Do I dig with water in it? I saw the lake building thread, but this is more maintainence.

 

[meadowlarkponds]

Dtd24,

Perhaps the toughest problem is getting out the "muck" that has accumulated over the years in that pond. There are different ways of attacking the problem, depending on the depth of the muck. The best way I have found is to drain and dig. It is very difficult to dry out the muck in place to be able to bring in a dozer and remove it from the pond. Hence a track-hoe is my weapon of choice. One thing to be very careful about is that in removing the muck, you must be sure you do not damage the integrity of the pond bottom and create a worse problem with a leaking pond.

I'm not sure about your back-hoe, but doubt that it has the reach or lifting capacity to do the job right...a track-hoe will do the job.

 

[dtd24]

Glad I didn't get rammy and just start digging it out. I can get a hold of a track hoe so thats no problem. So, I pump it, dig out the muck..........what if it's not deep enough to keep fish year round? What about digging deeper? What would I have to do to create a new bottom. Just starting to familarize myself with this project. Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!!!! I read some on pondboss, but need more info.

I will post some pics tonight, I am planning to do some more clearing tonight. I really want to revitalize the pond so I can possibly get water from it to my horse barn, and so I can control the misquito breeding ground that it is now. Beats the heck out of 5 ga buckets.

 

[dooleysm]

Don't give up on pondboss.com. There's alot of bright guys here, but you're asking questions that the guys over on pondboss are much more qualified to answer.

I don't know how deep you need to go to support fish over the winter, but I'd think it's well within the bounds of what a track-hoe can do.

You're going to need some place to put all the 'gunk' you take out of the bottom of the pond. My own feelings are that there will be alot of this 'gunk'.

The bottom of the pond needs to be lined with good, compacted clay, as I understand it, to hold water.

If you dig down too deep, you may get below the dam's original keyway and have a leak develop there.

Good luck!

 

[dtd24]

where would it leak to? Down?

 

[schmism]

where would it leak to? Down?

the water table.

the ground is "porus" and allows water to "move" in it.

IN this part of MO its not uncommon to run into sink holes and such due to the limestone geology.

infact we just had a HUGE sinkhole open up next to the drain on a LARGE 15 acer private pond/lake thing.

drained the entire lake overnight. People said they were out looking at the pond at 10pm... woke up at 7 to find a muddy hole in the ground.

 

[EddieWalker]

You need to do a search here in the projects section called "silt happens" by Jinman. His pond was already dried out, but the silt had built up over the years to just about fill it up. He went with a trackloader to haul it out. The trackhoe is a good choice too, but it's hard to haul off all the muck with it unless you can reach in all the way to the middle with it. Otherwise your digging, then piling it up, then digging up the pile and moving it over and over again. A trackhoe is tarrible at moving material any distance, but it's amazing at digging.

A big trackloader can haul three yards at a time and put it where you want it.

In Jinmans post, they dug a ramp down under the silt so the operator could get into the pond on a solid footing. This is critical if you want to dig out an existing pond. It's also a good reason to forget about trying to do it with a CUT. Just too small to accomplish very much.

Eddie

 

[gsganzer]

The trackhoe is a good choice too, but it's hard to haul off all the muck with it unless you can reach in all the way to the middle with it. Otherwise your digging, then piling it up, then digging up the pile and moving it over and over again. A trackhoe is tarrible at moving material any distance, but it's amazing at digging.
Eddie

Eddie's steering you in the right direction. When I had my pond dug out, they used a trackhoe and a dozer. It's an unbelievably effective combination. The track hoe was used to just dig and loosen. The dozer actually moved the soil. Once they started getting things dug down, the dozer would sit in the bottom of the hole while the hoe loosened up an area. Then the dozer would drive up out of the hole and push all the loosened soil out, spreading it and grading it. A dozer is most effective (also less wear and tear on the track components) pushing in a straight line. The dozer/hoe combination just kept working out in all directions, like the spokes on a wheel.

 

[CharlieTR]

Might want to check with the county agent. They may be able to tell you about the soil and maybe how to tell if it is spring fed. If that guy is right and it is spring fed, how do you drain it enough to work in it? I was reading about pond veg a few weeks ago, the article mentioned that only if more than 25% vegitation in the pond, then some should be cleaned out. But that was for fish habbitats. The soil type and how ponds are built in your area is vital info. Compact clay is not the only pond container, SILT IS ALSO.

 

[dtd24]

Sorry, No pictures yet, but I was up at the pond doing some clearing and I took some time to really look at it. The pond is the highest elevation of my property and close to the town's highest elevation. King of the hill! Anyway, the ground in front of the pond is at a lower elevation of the pond and is almost always wet. The pond is probably leaching that area, right? So, if I were to fix the pond, I could actually use that piece. I'll post pics tonight.