Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations ADVICE SOUGHT about equipment to dig a 50'x70'pond

I just bought a 2.7 acre farm and wanted to put a 50'x70'x8' deep pond on it with some koi, bass and sunfish.

I am in upstate NY in Orleans County near Lake Ontario. my soil type is: silt loam.

I have an area on the farm that has standing water for several months out of the year in the area I want to put the pond in. I dont know if this is because of natural runoff (it is in a slight low point on the farm or if there is a good spring source beneath. (see pic)

I was wondering if a TERRAMITE T7 Backhoe (see pic) would be adequate to get the job done.

Will I need to have a liner or use anything to keep water in? or if it is a spring, wouild tjhat keep it fed?

any advice would be appreciated!

The standing water looks like its from a recent rain the grass is mowed under it..? I doubt it's a viable spring water source.. Read alot here and look into the books offered from the site you'll get alot of knowledge from them.

Welcome! I am in Ontario County, NY. Very similar soils and conditions.

I am no expert, but here is my line of thought:

1. Take a shovel, dig some initial test holes. You are not doing to get 10' down, but at a few feet you may be able to see if your wet spot is ground water in sandy soils perking up, or if it is heavy clay preventing drainage. Ground water ponds are fine if the water table stays consistent, but others here have had poor luck with stable water tables recently. Poor drainage IMHO is better than ground water as long as you have runoff enough to keep the pond topped off. Something like 6 acres of runoff per acre pond in our area for a viable pond.

2. Soils in our area are VERY variable. While I have heavy clay and stone, only a mile away is a large deep sand and gravel pit. You may find out you don't have a good site for a deep pond. Find out before you make the investment.

3. With that thought in mind, have a few deep test holes dug where you plan to have the pond. Pay someone or see #4 as it may be included in the price.

4. Next thought... unless you really really want a tractor and to play with it, it is much more cost effective to have the pond dug professionally. That tractor will take a very long time to move the quantity of soil you need to make a viable pond. Figure out the volume of soils to move vs. the size of the scoop vs. the number of scoops per day. You may need to scoop more than once if you need to move it further. You will need two machines digging a crater pond for better efficiency, because you will want to take the soils someplace else with something like a dump truck.

5. Paying someone else will also more likely get you a good pond the first time in short order. Read up around here of some of the challenges both emotional and financially that leaky ponds have done to people. Get the book "Perfect Pond, Want One?"

6. If you insist on digging the pond yourself, a wet site may be too wet and you find yourself stuck a lot, or wearing the machine out as working in mud is a tough thing on machines. Plan on lots of rain delays.

My rough estimate is a pond that size would be around $3K-6K based on running into no real problems for a pro to dig it, and it would take under a week. You would have to wait until fall for the soils to dry out as much as possible. Note: My estimate is based on my 0.6 acre bomb crater (see picture gallery).

edit: Adjusted costs, smaller than thought.

My pond is 20' by 50' and I dug it all by hand my tools were a pick and shovel. But that's probably not an option for you

thanks everyone! I really appreciate the advice. I've since learned that the equipment is really too small for the gig. I am going to follow the advice and see if I can get the ground checked 6 feet down

I know I am silt loam on top according to the county soil and water guys. For $ reasons I am thinking about bringing it down 57% to 40x50' and 6' deep.

QUESTIONS

(1) do you think this is big enough to hold some bass? seems too small but if so, how many can I transplant here?

(2) what is the take on using pool liners for at least the bottom of the pond to retain some water in the event that the pond only gets rain and runoff as supply and the soil type does not hold well

I would be worried about winter kills with a pond that shallow in NY.

If I were you I would hold on and save some money to get what you really want the first time. Much harder to increase a pond size later than have it done right the first time. I don't want to be a party pooper, but if you are thinking of using it for swimming, it may be the right way.

Also it doesn't hurt to get some quotes from a local excavator to see what the cost really is.

To answer questions:
1. It will hold bass, but they wont like it as it is pretty small. Make sure and establish forage base of minnows and things the first year. Plenty of other choices than bass which may do better. Lots of folks here to help on this subject as I am no fish pro.
2. Pool liners suck. Really too thin and they don't last near as long as proper pond liner. You don't really want bits of plastic floating around 10 years from now, or one deer hoof hole draining your pond.

I appreciate the info everyone. About the depth and winter kills, I have been to many ponds in the area no deeper than 6 feet and fish survived, but they had bigger surface area. I was just thinking of transplanting 6-8 LMB/SMB with some sunfish, frogs and minnows as forage. I would be fine with supplimental feeding. We just want a nice pond for the visuals and some ocassional fly fishing - somewhere between a large garden pond and small farm pond would be acceptable.

With so many variations and unknowns (would it hold the water once dug?, etc) it is hard to commit to the expense of something larger not knowing if there is clay to hold the water (50% of the standing water in the photo I posted has since evaporated).

we should have consistant runoff to the pond area from rain and snow melt, I dont know if we'd luck out about a spring feed.

I wish there were some guarantees to this!

So basically you just want a small pond you can use during the spring/summer months?

The only guarantee in life is that are no guarantees.

[quote}So basically you just want a small pond you can use during the spring/summer months? [/quote]

and fall, yes