I had an approximately 7 acre lake built on rural property in central Texas - 800 foot dam, excavated 25,000 cubic yards for 8 foot minimum water depth at back to avoid lilly pads. All went fine until a slow leak was confirmed last summer where I lost all but 1/4 surface acre and virtually all my fish.

I'm drilling a water well now but am not sure I want to pump forever to keep full and have read there are means of applying bentonite to bottom without draining the entire lake (now almost full again due to rains).

I've also heard sprinkling bentonite on the surface is not effective. Does anyone know of a means to fix not requiring drainage and applying a clay liner?

RS, welcome to Pond Boss. My condolences. I've never had any luck with Bentonite and have tried it either 5 or 6 times. As much as it hurts, I think the best bet is to drain it, let the bottom dry enough to get equipment in and put down a 2 ft layer of clay. Pack it with a sheepsfoot roller and not a dozer. Dozers don't pack anything very well.

I think if you do this, you'll be able to sleep nights.

Welcome RS - wish your initial post was on a better topic! Dave speaks with vast experience and it's your best course of action. If you are drawn down again this Summer best to pump the remaining water and rework the basin. Your contractor should be willing to help foot the bill, if not perform it for free. Can't imagine the cost of construction for your 7 acre lake, so sorry to hear about your problem. It's one many of us share...wish you could have found us prior to breaking ground - might have saved a ton of heartache. Keep us in the loop - we're all here to help with our collective experience.

Thanks guys - hearing your view is reassurance that I won't go out and spend the money and regret not asking around first. My contractor may be helpful on the costs and did prescribe the sheeps foot roller and a foot thick minimum on the clay layer. He also said I'd need to have a water well ahead of time so we can put a layer of water on the new clay liner immediately to keep it from cracking and leaking.

I'm thinking if I can invent a lake sealant I might save people a lot of money and make some along the way. Seems those silica gel animals that grow to 20 times their size could be dumped down and would slide into the low cracks and expand - although not sure how long they'd last!

Yes, yes and yes. I'd feel a lot better at 24" thick. The clay has to have water in it so he can compact it properly too. If it's too dry, he'll have to add water, get it to the proper moisture content and compact it. Once it's in place and compacted, if it drys out, like he says, it'll crack and all the effort was wasted.

Hey RS, what's a silica gel animal?

My grandkids have had them. It's a small jelly like animal figure. When submerged in water it swells up something like 10-20 times its original size.

Gotcha; thanks.