Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond Problems?

We have a pond about 2.5 acres and are having a hard time sealing it to hold water. There were a lot of trees we had to take out to dig the lake out and was wondering if the water is seeping out where the trees were? Also the dirt is mostly silty loam with very little clay. When we fill it up the water leaks out and only leaves a pretty small area that is sealed. We are thinking of renting a vibratory sheepsfoot and packing it. Will it do a good job of packing this type of soil? Thanks, this is a great site!

Hello Camoman and welcome to the Pond Boss forums. Hang on for expert opinions. Thanks for joining up and posting.

Sorry I'm trying to post some pics but can't get it to work. I have them downloaded on flicker. Any suggestions?

Flickr

camoman, welcome to the forum!!!

As our Pond Building Guru, Mike Otto, likes to say, "ALL ponds leak". Your's obviously leaks more than is acceptable. It takes good sealing clay to seal a pond well at the least expense, dirt is just too porous to seal.

I'm sure a large (37,500 lb) Sheep's Foot Vibratory Compactor would reduce your leakage a great deal in your pond, but it's unknown if it would not still drain or leak at an unacceptable rate.

I suggest you contact your local NRCS agent at your county USDA office for ideas and suggestions on how to proceed. There are ways to seal any pond. Your budget and desire are the limiting factors. Few are cheap or easy.

"Very little clay" concerns me.

I don't know anything that I haven't learned here and reading the magazine but, it seems like you've got to have clay. Here in Georgia, all we have is clay until you get within a mile of our coast where there is clay under all that sand.

Camoman
First good to have you with us. Some of the best people on earth are here---You can meet a lot of them face to face in about a month at Big Cedar Lodge----make plans to get there you will love it.
Before you spend a lot of money, it would be a good idea to do a little checking.
Look at the ponds around you and see what they are doing, are they low or full?
Get a hand held post hole diggers. Dig a hole fill it with water and see how long it takes to seep out.
That will tell you if the dirt is any good. You may not have any material that will hold water.
You said “when you fill it up”. Do you have a well or some kind of irrigation ditch?
Otto

Otto, we have a submersible pump that pumps out of the nearby creek at about 300 gal/min. to fill the pond. We can only pump when the creek has running water in it which is not very often due to farmers irrigation needs. I did do a "bucket test" to test the soil. Drilled 3/8" holes in a bucket and packed about 5 inches of soil into the bottom with my fist. Went to check it today and the water did not drop any at all overnight. I think most of the pond will hold water with the help of a vibratory sheeps foot but I do think that there are a few spots that leak water pretty rapidly. What is the best way to find those spots? We had the pond over half full at the end of the summer last year and it basically all drained out except for a smaller spot by late fall, around November. I also made a few mud balls and set them in the water to see if they would be dry in the middle and they were still dry after about 30 minutes. When I squeezed them they broke in two pieces so I think the soil should be okay in most places but I think it needs to be packed better because we tore out a lot of trees where the pond is now and it only got packed with the tractor when moving dirt. Thanks for all the info and suggestions!

Just made the call on a vibratory sheepsfoot packer. He said it weighs about 12,000# and has a packing force of about 50,000#. We have a lot of 2-3 foot grass that is growing in the area to be packed, do we need to remove this grass before we pack? I'm guessing we do. Also how well would a packer like this get around without getting stuck if it is pretty wet? Thanks again!

Well we got all the packing done and we are starting to fill it with water. Our 300 gal/min pump got silted in yesterday and needs to be pulled and the silt removed from the hole. Any suggestions on getting the silt out of the well? Our well is a 20' piece of 3' diameter PVC pipe with a 16" PVC pipe sloped away from the creek to collect water into it. The problem is most of the silt collected in the bottom of the well and the part of the pump that sucks water in is cover with silt. Just trying to figure out a way to get it out without crawling down there with a shovel and a bucket?

Heavy duty trash pump?

Yeah, it's a 5 HP. 220V.

Anybody?

Rope with a hook or a wench and cable ?

I don't think a wench would want to deal with cables and hooks, but you never know...

Well we got the pump out but now we still have to get the silt out of the bottom of the well so we can get the pump back in. Any ideas on removing the silt?

Not sure just what you are tackling. Is the well 20 ft deep and 3 ft wide? I'm having trouble visualizing a strong well that you might have the ability to crawl down into. What am I missing?

we have a 3' diameter PVC pipe that is about 20' long and it is in the ground vertically. the creek is about 500 feet away from the well pipe. from the creek to the bottom of the well pipe is a 500' long stretch of 16" PVC to supply the well with water. our pump is a 5 HP submersible trash pump that is lowered into the well from the top and into the water. the water level is about 12' down from the top of the well pipe so the pump is submerged in the water at least 6'. there is a piece of 4" PVC hooked onto the pump to pump the water straight up and over our dam. the problem we have is the pump silted in from muddy water in the creek. we got the pump out of the well now but we still need to get the silt out of the well so we can lower the pump back in. Hopefully this will help you envision it a little better. Thank you!

Can you use another pump and pump water into the top of the vertical pipe, stirring up the silt, and then when the silt is stirred up, use the trash pump or another pump to suck out the slurry? (well, slurry might be too strong of a word, but you get the idea)

we were going to try that but i decided to climb down there and see what the silt looked like and it was about half trash (sticks, grass and leaves) and half actual silt. So I ended up just taking a pair of post-hole diggers and a bucket down there and started digging because i knew the pump wouldn't pump out all of that trash. I still need to do a little more digging but i think i can get enough out to get the pump back in.

Too bad they don't make a screen that would pop right on the end of the tube that would keep the trash out of it, but not clog up.

What are you doing to keep it from happening again?

Dave, I'm not sure what we are going to have to do to keep it from collecting trash again. We did put a smaller screen on the pipe that sucks water out of the stream but now we have to remove it and clean it daily just to keep it clean enough to have enough water flow to supply the pump. I guess we will have to try that for a while and see how it goes.

If you use a larger screen (not hole size, just larger in physical size) you won't have to clean it as often.

Another thing that might help is if you arrange the intake pipe so it is facing down stream, and put some rocks or cement blocks on either side of the intake extending for a few feet down stream, this will allow much debris to flow past the pipe without being sucked in.