The gully to pond project

[MarkV]

Just to add a bit more, the PH of your pond water effects the fertilizers effectiveness just like the soil PH does in your garden. It is common to add lime to ponds here to balance the PH. Often several tons per acre. Managing a pond can get expensive when talking acres.

MarkV

 

[pacerron]

No, but I have a stool sample. Does that count?:laughing:
All kidding aside, the well driller didn't do a bore sample and made no record, but from working on many locations around my property, I can tell you that this is a common strata where undisturbed soil is present. Sometimes it's thicker or thinner, but is pretty widespread like the thick red and gray-blue clay layers.:

Maybe your stool sample will clog the leak
I took a look at your soil type and tried to get a better perspective and understanding of your topo. Since you have posted your location many times
and told me it was ok before, here's what I came up with. The red dot on the topo should be where your leaking pond is located?
I can see why you are working so hard to capture the run off.

 

[jinman]

Maybe your stool sample will clog the leak
I took a look at your soil type and tried to get a better perspective and understanding of your topo. Since you have posted your location many times
and told me it was ok before, here's what I came up with. The red dot on the topo should be where your leaking pond is located?
I can see why you are working so hard to capture the run off.

Ron, if you move your red dot two widths right and one width up, you'll be in the middle of the little knoll that has the sand layer and is causing the leak. The protrusion of land right above your dot is now gone and about the middle of the pond. I'd say your location is spot on for this little pond. The topo features show why I really need more ponds. All the water runoff for about 50+ acres comes through my two ponds before going to the lake. I'm tired of them filling up and all the water hurting my fish population by allowing them to escape. I want to capture this water up high on my place and release it when I'm ready and really need it to keep my lower ponds full, but not overflowing.

 

[jinman]

Pacerron, I measured the finished dam with my grandson's help. It is a total of 118' long and the solid clay portion I built is 70'. The rest of the dam is native soil.

I didn't make a Secchi disc, but used a hoe with white ribbon wrapped around it. I got 12" to 14" visibility which is way too much plankton. I'm gonna be aerating my pond so something bad doesn't happen due to a plankton dieoff. I hope to avert a fish kill.

 

[bikerdib]

IMO, that much visibility won't give you a problem this time of year. It's later like in July and August when the wind dies completely and water temps get pretty high that you would have a problem. Again though, that's just my opinion. If you have the equipment to aerate it certainly can't do any harm I just wouldn't go to any extremes.

 

[pacerron]

Pacerron, I measured the finished dam with my grandson's help. It is a total of 118' long and the solid clay portion I built is 70'. The rest of the dam is native soil.

I didn't make a Secchi disc, but used a hoe with white ribbon wrapped around it. I got 12" to 14" visibility which is way too much plankton. I'm gonna be aerating my pond so something bad doesn't happen due to a plankton dieoff. I hope to avert a fish kill.

So if you end up with an approximate circle of 70 feet of water that is deep enough for good fish life during the Texas summers you have about 1/8 acre pond.
Does most of the run off water that fills it come from the road and the open caliche pit above it? If so, I would think trying to maintain a good balance for fish life in that small a tank would be a constant job.
I originally thought you were making stair-step ponds to control the flow, filter, and condition the water on the way to your 2 main ponds near Res #14 where your fish are already established.

 

[jinman]

IMO, that much visibility won't give you a problem this time of year. It's later like in July and August when the wind dies completely and water temps get pretty high that you would have a problem. Again though, that's just my opinion. If you have the equipment to aerate it certainly can't do any harm I just wouldn't go to any extremes.

Thanks! I know the cool water is on my side. Later in the summer with the sun beating down and being reflected by the hillside, this water will warm up a bunch. I'm hoping that we'll be fortunate enough to get a nice big rainstorm to add 18" to the pond's depth and cause some overflow to the next pond. That would dilute this pond enough to make things about right.

Ron: I've always wanted to have some fish in this pond. I think "live" ponds are better than sterile ponds with no fish. I don't see a problem maintaining the pond with catfish and bluegill as long as I aerate when temperatures heat up. I also overstock with fish because blue herons seem to find a way to share my fish population. I would say that less than 1/4 of the water comes from non-grassy slopes.

Yes, I want to control the water flow to my bigger ponds, but the real reason for having several ponds higher in elevation is that they are close to my house and the land is good for very little else. I'll have the enjoyment of the wildlife they attract as well as fish in a controlled environment. I cannot control the ponds by the lake since about every 5 years we have a rain storm that backfills the lake above the level of my pond dams. :shocked: That flow doesn't come across me, but from a creek that drains down from the highway and surrounding several hundred acres.

Once I build the bigger pond, I'll have bass filled gullies and structure for a fish paradise. For tax purposes, the gullies are considered defects in the land. My guess is that the ponds will change these gullies from defects into assets and give me the control of water you alluded to.

 

[jinman]

I haven't posted much on my project in a long time because I've used all my spare time to do maintenance and fix broken tractors. I believe my New Holland TC45D's hydraulics are back on line after many replacements of one seal that kept blowing. It turns out that I damaged/bent an o-ring flange and the o-rings extruded themselves out of the gap after about 4 hours of use. It took me awhile to figure it out, but I've replaced the rigid tubing with a new part and its flange is nice and flat, so I expect success this time around. After having the tubing off about 5 times, I'm really good and quick at it, but I'd rather be successful that good or quick.

In the last couple of weeks, I've made good progress on building up my 2nd dam and I'm about 3' to 4' from finished. The dam is currently about the height of the full level of water I'll allow in the pond before overflow. Most of my work has been on getting water redirected so that it fills my new pond instead of going down to my gully and filling an already-too-full pond near the lake.

I've marked up the aerial photo below to show two main runoff paths that I want to catch in my new ponds. The yellow lines show the paths of water flowing into my first little new pond and the blue lines show the path of water to flow into my 2nd and bigger new pond. The red line shows the current path Mother Nature selected that goes directly into a valley and into the ponds by the lake (see pacerron's photo here). After verifying that I could make the water flow to the new pond with a surveyor's transit, I set out to dig the trench with my backhoe. I couldn't do a really neat job because of all the trees. I'll have to remove some of them eventually because they will die anyhow. I also brought in many loads of clay from another area to build up the terrace. After the first good rainstorm, I'll complete the trench and remove the excess materials.

The 1st photo below shows my yard and driveway where water runs off. This area flows quite heavily in a rainstorm. As you turn 180 degrees, you can see where I built a high berm to direct flow down and to the left. This is the area that usually flows down to my valley. The next two photos show the flow continuing through the trees The 6th photo shows the inlet to my 12" culverts with rip-rap. Next, the road over the culverts and then the outlet side two photos: one looking toward the culverts and the other looking toward the pond. I also drove down into the pond area and took a photo of the culvert drain from across the pond. The level where the rocks end will be slightly below the normal water level. You can see I've really raised the dam level since the last time I posted photos.

Finally, my runoff trench looks really rough now, but after a rain I can tell how well everything works. I'll make the square trench more of a swale and lower the level of the terrace so it is a gentle slope to keep water in the swale as I've shown in the illustration. Having my smaller tractor fixed and available for the tight spots will be a big plus.

 

[ronjhall]

Have you had any rain since we left your place?

 

[jinman]

We had 27 drops yesterday afternoon. But hey! May is supposed to be our normal wettest month. I tested and fine tuned the trench by turning a garden hose down it. It took awhile for the water to quit soaking in, but it finally made it all the way to the pond.:thumbsup: