Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations soon to have new lake built - have a few questions

My dad is getting ready to build a lake on his property that my wife and I just built a house on. The plans for the lake have been drawn up and it will be @21 acres in size. My question is how long should it take to fill & when will we know that we can stock it? Also, would a well help us out at all in filling it & then also serve some purpose as far as keeping the water cycled better down the road? I appreciate any help that can be given.

By the way the pond will be located in Northern Indiana if that makes any difference.

Thanks,
David

It depends on how big the watershed is, how much rain you get, whether or not you have a creek coming in. you should ask the engineer on the job, if you dont have an engineer at least in the planning stages you should get one.

We have an engineer that is working with us. I was really just curious about how much a well would help out.

Unless it is a farming type irrigation well, it won't be a heckuva lot of use on a 21 acre lake. I don't remember how many gallons of water there are in an acre foot but it is a bunch. Calculate gals. per acre X 21 X avg depth. Then look at how many gallons per minute your well produces to find out how much effect you will have. It's probably like spitting in the ocean. 21 acres is a bunch of water. I'd worry more about the watershed and the depth of the lake.

At this point I'd be more concerned that the bottom of the lake has personality to it. Make sure the builder puts in channels and drop offs, maybe an underwater island (not just a giant soupbowl). Then I would start creating structure because after it's built ,as it's filling is the easiest time to place structure out where you wantit. The best thing you can do right now is READ READ READ, there is so much information on this site and in Bob's books that will save you a ton of headaches later on.

It takes 27,000 gallons of water to raise 1 acre 1 inch. The is a tremendous task for a well. It may take several years for the pond to fill on it's own but at least you will not run your neighbors well dry.

David I ran a well on a 5 acre lake I owned - not to fill it but to keep it up during drought periods - the cost for the well digging itself is substantial, but the electricity cost to run it 24/7 can be high - it would run over $200 per month to run it - nice to have well water available but expensive - I also agree with getting a pro to help - worth the expense for sure

One acre foot of water, meaning one acre of water 1 foot deep = 325,850.58 gallons

therefore one acre of water 3 feet deep = 977,551.74 gallons or for quick figuring its about 1 million gallons

so 27 acres of water 3 feet deep is about 27 million gallons of water

you are going to need one heck of a well to make any difference in a pond that size.

Thanks for all the info. As far as structure is concerned, how much & what kind do we want for Northern Indiana?

Read the posts in thee section Creating Habitat, all the info you need should be there.Being from the north or south doesn't change structure needs for a pond,but the types of fish you stock may require certain structure.