After much study, deliberation and contractor research, here is our new pond! We were building new house and barn pads, the pond was our borrow pit.
I haven't done final measurements yet, we just finished on Friday, but it is approximately 1/2 acre i believe. The shallow end (unseen to the right in the picture) is a bowl with about 9', the deep end is 14 feet. There is a shelf on the left of the picture that will have about 3.5' of water and there is a small channel in the middle that we dug with the trackhoe. The pile of clay next to the channel comes up to about 6 or 7 feet from the surface.
Our land is red clay with sand and then gray clay in the bottom. I'm going to get soil samples off this week and then plan on liming the pond.
I am still planning on adding some structure around the hump, maybe PVC type trees. We will also be using this as our geothermal exchange source.
Any observations or suggestions? The standpipe obviously doesn't have the vertical installed yet.
MRW
ok, now that i'm at the end of my typing i don't see how to add a photo. I'm going to go ahead and post this and then go back and post photo, so b there shortly.
Did the builder use a sheepsfoot roler for compaction? The tracks on a hoe or dozer are designed not to compact and a leak would be no fun after water is in it. I like the different levels...a lot! Maybe the shely should be another foot deeper to allow for evaporation and prevent too much vegetation growth.
Any plans to add some rock or gravel? What type of fish are you thinking of putting in?
If using it for Geo-Thermal, will it be a closed loop or pump-n-dump? You may want to lay the plumbing now while it's dry....
Again, welcome to the forum and keep the pictures coming! We love the fish porn!
We had a sheepsfoot roller that we did the pads and the road with, but we didn't do the pond with it.
My thinking is to do the red-ear/bass thing, I know it is optimal to have more than an acre for that, but money being what it is, couldn't swing that. I don't mind eating a catfish occasionally, but would much rather do the bass thing.
I'm still debating the merits of fertilizing, but since we are going to be living 600' away from the pond, i'll probably fertilize.
The geothermal is going to be closed loop, there is a bridge at the middle where it squeezes down to 28', the geothermal will go at the bottom of that. It should make good cover and be obvious where not to drop a hook.
I wish it was going to fill up so fast I couldn't get a vertical on fast enough, but I'm more afraid of the opposite. I have the vertical, it is sitting there behind the damn, just gotta get level shot and the piece cut and installed.
And on the goals, I want a nice healthy pond with some fish and where the grandkids can hangout and discover all the cool things that don't involve ipods or video games!
Wow! I'm sure not reading everything before posting. SOrry, i'll try to do better.
On the gravel question, I was thinking of graveling that shelf on the left of the picture. I have room with the vertical to make 3.5' of water on that shelf and I was thinking of graveling about half of it. I know you don't want it too shallow as you can end up with plants and bird predator issues.
The sides are too steep to hold dirt. Mostly because of the construction process we ended with pretty steep slopes on about 50% of the pond. It is mostly select fill or 80/20 red clay/sand so i'm hoping it survives filling and doesn't wash too bad.
I'm going to get the soil tested before figuring out the liming thing, but anybody got a clue what red clay with sand and plain old gray clay will look like? Is that going to definitely require liming or just make it a good idea?
K, finally getting around to posting again. Not a spec of rain since we dug the pond. 14 yds of limestone distributed(wudnt necessarily call it spread). Bridge frame built. Edges seeded. Now trying to post pic.
No luck adding files from this device. Ill have to try from the computer later. They just started our well today so we should b able to start adding some water this weekend. Shooting at 35gpm on generator.
And here is the anchor on the overflow pipe. It's 10 sacks of sakrete, should be about 6 cubic feet. I guess about 600 pounds if I remember correctly. I have better pictures, but there are two rebar loops stuck in the ground, looping up over the pipe. Shouldn't want to go anywhere. We compacted during installation of the pipe and then tamped all underneath and behind before installing concrete.
Now we just need to shoot the level and install the upright... finish the little pier for access, weld up the screen for the top, install the dry hydrant system for the house, get the well finished, deck the bridge, install handrail, etc, etc, etc...
After MY observation , deliberation and contractor research, here is our new pond! The shallow end and there is a small channel in the middle that we dug with the track hoe.. Our land is red clay with sand and then gray clay in the bottom. I'm going to get soil samples off this week and then plan on liming the pond.I am still planning on adding some structure around the hump, maybe PVC type trees .We had a sheepskin roller that we did the pads and the road with, but we didn't do the pond with it.
My thinking is to do the red-ear/bass thing, I know it is optimal to have more than an acre for that, but money being what it is, couldn't swing that. I don't mind eating a catfish occasionally, but would much rather do the bass thing.
It was a good weekend, never mind a couple of generator problems. Here is what we were able to do with our new well.
Anybody used that aqua one pond clarifier stuff as a pond "starter"? It seems like it would give the eco a good jump start, but I don't feel like just pouring money into the water for no benefit.
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