Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations pond project 2008! help please!

Hello all!

I hope old man winter has been good to your pond and or hunting season! I am back as always with questions. Now that my hunting season is over with (exception still guiding snow goose hunts) it is time to get into pond project 2008! Last year my pond was ravaged by drought and I had to install a well just to keep my fish alive in 1/3 of the pond. When my ground water drops so does my pond and the well I installed was expensive to run and hardly keep up with the water loss.

I now have a new plain! I am going to build a BG/forge grow out pond out of my water fowl impound. I want to dig out the shallow pond (1 to 3ft) to a depth of 6 to 8 ft and install a pond liner. I have a contractor lined up that is in the dirt moving business not POND building. The pond liner is heavy duty and used in sewage treatment retention ponds. It is 150 ft by 100 foot. How big of a pond including depth can I build from this liner? Should I cover it with dirt….how deep, what grade to keep it (dirt) from sliding down the liner, I plain to trench around the pond and bury the liner then berm and cover in stone to hold in place? Can a pond that does not have a soil bottom establish and maintain a healthy ecosystem? The new pond will be kept full with a new 6in irrigation well powered by a gas powered pump with 100gpm rate and the over flow will go into the established pond. I am hoping to keep both full but at the least I will have a large water reserve for my established pond and a new pond that should be more drought resistant. I have searched the archives for pond liner experience and have found little useful information. I want and need this new pond to be the one pond I do correctly! The pond liner was a gift and most of the new dirt will go around our home and channel the water shed (13ac) back to the ponds. Now that our new house is done the pond have new significance to our property. We want to change it from my pet project to a focal point of our homestead with a decent budget and landscaping. Thanks to my pond boss magazines left in the bathroom the wife now sees what CAN BE! Help me before she changes her mind! Pics to follow on new pond site.

Salt welcome back. Go dig through the stack of back PB issues and find this one.

MAY - JUN 06 Pond Boss
9. LINING YOUR POND’S POCKETS. Down to Earth. M.Otto tells about pond liners and how a liner was installed in a 5 acre pond.

Here are a few past links.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=dosearch&topic=0&Searchpage=1

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=dosearch&topic=0&Searchpage=2

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=dosearch&topic=0&Searchpage=3

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=dosearch&topic=0&Searchpage=4

Thanks ewest I looked at the past post above and found very little info. I will have to request the above past issue as I was not a member then. I want to make this the best pond I can by doing my homework!

Leaving those things lying around is dangerous, NaClH2O. Here at Casa Gallus, it has led to such problematic questions as "When do I get a pond for my horses to swim in?" and "I want a floating island."

we have discussed HER Island and HER foot bridge to her said Island and the whole thing is HER idea..the fact that HER Island will have a goose pit with electric and flip top lids is still lost in her idea of HER Island with a bridge heheheh man you have to make it work for you! In order to get my pit on HER Island I had to agree to the bridge, seeing how the new pond will be to deep for chestwaders I had to have the bridge.......follow my thinking here? Now the new pond will have to have airation so HER fish do not die....and my duck hunting spot does not freeze!

Good Luck! Please keep us informed of your progress. I will be following your project with great interest. We are planning for a pond around our place in an area that seems pretty inhospitable for a 'natural' pond. We have gotten a price to haul in clay and it is just too much to justify. I understand the liner was a 'gift', but do you have any idea what a liner that size would cost if purchased? Any idea the makeup, mil thickness, etc?

I have been all over the net comparing prices on different kinds and thickness of pond liners. You can get a quality liner and underliner for around .37 cents a sqf. The liner we acquired is very thick industrial and black it is a woven type. The fellow whom gave it to us will give me a spec sheet when I get home from sea it is used in sewage treatment plants. My concerns are about the ecosystem verses liners? I know the pond will hold water and it will be a heck of a lot cheaper to maintain water level in the long run over constant pumping from the well. For the most part I am just excavating a preexisting dry hole and dropping in the liner, tucking the edges and covering in stone. The questions remain do I need to cover the bottom with dirt or stone or can I leave it uncovered and still have a healthy pond? I plain to feed and manage the fish but a pond without dirt just doesn’t seem right although it will be esthetically pleasing it will only reach half the goal! I have found a few links to large pond liner suppliers but I do not want to post them as they do not support the pond boss forum. But do a search on Reinforced, Woven Polyethylene Pond Liners and see what pops up!

Cool. I will check it out. My experience with a liner is with a small 23' x 14' pond. We have a large piece of rubber roofing in place with some carpet and foam underpadding underneath it in some areas. It has been in place for about ten years. The first time we put it in, the liner floated, presumably because of all of the water coming into the pond from below. We covered the entire pond with boulders (five pounds to two hundred pounds). After just one year we had muck in the bottom of the pond that smelled just like muck should I guess. We have frogs that overwinter in the muck on the bottom, so it must be good muck. Again, keep us informed. Lots of pictures!

Salth2ocowboy:
If you would like to talk liners with me directly, call my office at 1.800.882.3478 or email me at mikeotto@ottosdirtservice.com and set up a phone appt. with Sheri. She is there from 8 to noon monday to friday or she will return you call or email the next day.
Otto