Hi all, I m new here and need some advice. I will try to get some pics going soon. I want to build a 40 by 40 pond. The spring has clear cold water and runs at a fair rate. I would rent a small excavator in the fall and dig it. I plane to dig the dirt up and put it around the perimiter of my pond to make it deeper. I have a question though;Should try digging up the spring more or should i leave it shallow around it?

Thanks

Hey Go Big - welcome to the Pond Boss Forum!

Sorry I don't have anything useful for you in terms of guidance or advice other than to say congrats on your pending project. The pond bug is about to bite you, but you'll be in good company here!

I'm sure some experts [Otto] will come along shortly to address this question. Keep us updated and get some pics posted soon.

A trout pond perhaps?

If possible the safest thing to do would be to leave the spring above the water line. Can the proposed pond be moved slightly down hill from the spring? Springs can give & they can take. If the water table drops the spring could become a drain.

Dang, you could make trout steaks with that thing!

Nice trout. Wow!

Cecil, yes i was thinking of putting a few trout in, to see if they make it.Ric Swain, it would be possible to make it further downhill, but should i just let the spring trickle down on soil to the pond or pipe it.

Hmmmm, anyone else notice that Cecil and the trout have almost identical expressions on their respective faces.

Brettski? Theo??

+ .5!

Yes, but Cecil's been losing weight, while the trout's been gaining.

How big is your pond in the backround there Cecil?

Btw very nice fish.

Another question would be if it had to be dug in clay soil because if wouldn't really be needed since water is flowing into it all year round. There is clay but since i don't have the time and equipement to compact clay and the works i m thinking to just dig it up and let the spring fill it.

Would trout work in such a small pond???

Just guessing but I would say it would probably work as long as the soil isn't absolutely horribly sandy. Obviously the amount of water going in will eventually limit you on the size... bigger the pond the more water can seep out.

yes the soil is probably 50% clay so i think that shouldn't be a problem. Further up the hill there is a drainage pipe which brings in also a fair bit of water when it rains although for a dry period it doesn't flow very well. The spring seems to run pretty consistant, any suggestions on how to measure the GPM of the spring?

Dig a hole if necessary and catch the outflow in a 5 gallon bucket. Compute the time it takes to fill it.

gb, water from a spring is normally pretty much devoid of oxygen so letting the spring run on top of the ground rather than through a pipe would help add oxygen before it entered your pond.

The pond below the spring is best--- either run the water through a pipe or maybe make a small creek out of rocks.

That's not me. It's my twin Vic.

1/10 acre. 88 by 59 feet or something like that. Smaller ponds are easier to keep cool with trout as long as you have well water or a spring.

Ok now I'm really confused, is it you Cecil or not you Cecil?

Can you even tell the two of you apart?

When you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror are you sure you are looking at you and not your twin?

Is one of you the evil twin?

That brown trout sure is big enough to eat a star mole!

Sorry I should have said, "that's not me." Sometimes I think the lacquer paint fumes have killed brain cells as many times I go back to a post and can't believe the typos etc.

We're fraternal and used to look identical when we were younger. Here he is next to me in the glasses at my wedding back in 1990. Sure wish I was that young again!

That's pretty funny Brettski!

On another funny note I posted the following picture on a taxidermy website of my neighbor holding my biggest brown. (It's been here a few times.) The taxidermy website is as wild and mean as the wild west (the mods are jerks and play favorites too). Death threats are not uncommon and people actually gang up on anyone that does not go along with the status quo. It paints a very bad picture of our profession. Anyway, I had a guy thinking it was me say, "I've seen your picture. You're no big deal. I could take you down." My neighbor in the picture is a marine that pumps iron every day, and I'm pretty sure is heavy into the martial arts. He doesn't take guff from anyone. I wouldn't want to mess with him. If the guy comes over I'll just invite my neighbor into the shop.

I was gonna say Cecil, your neighbor looks meaner than that brown trout would look to a rainbow smelt!

Oh sure Brettski, you can photoshop a picture of Vic holding a trout but you won't touch the one of Sunil cuddling a dolphin.

I'm beginning to think that Sunil has a blackmail folder on you Brettski.

Note to self:
Contact Sunil and find out how much cheddar it would take to get a copy of the Brettski blackmail folder.

I have a thing for dolphins. Besides, it was apparent that Sunil's gentle touch was making it smile.

My pond is in clay soil but has a 4 inch pipe at the water line that the well water runs in from. I have so much clay in fact that the trout pond sides are 1:1 with a minimum of sloughing.

(The net was supposed to divide the brook from the brown trout but they went under it.) Pond is not as deep as it looks. It's only 8 feet in the center.

Cecil, how did you dig those ponds there? What excavator did you use?

I have clay to its just a pain to put it on the sides and compact it with out the right equipement.

Your pond there is almost exactly what i had planned.

What you see is not compacted if you're referring to packing soil around the pond to make it deeper. It's dug, and it was dug in a day with a huge track hoe excavator. I believe the excavator did drive a small bulldozer up and down the banks though. However on the end you can't see (outside of left side of photo) there is somewhat of a dike where the ground slopes downward and the dike had to be built to keep the banks level. After about 10 years I still get a little seepage under that dike as the excavator later admitted to me not only did he not dig a core trench, but he packed the clay over sod. Fortunately the seepage is small and seems to be getting less and less over time.

Clay soil can be compacted, but it needs to be the right balance between wet and dry. Too wet and it sticks severely to the excavator shovel and too dry and it won't compact well.
It also needs to be compacted in approximately 6 inch layers just like any other soil. Am I right Otto?

I've never measured the percent of clay in my soil but there are areas in the bottom of this pond where it's like potters clay. But then one can find small sand lenses in some places.

If I had level ground and the right soil I would not bother building up the edges etc. to make it deeper. I would just dig deeper. There is no need to create problems you can prevent.

BTW that pipe you see is not the well inlet pipe. It's an outlet pipe from another pond in case i choose to use it. It's capped for now.

I just measured the temp of the water and it stands at 54.3.

Thats good for trout right?