Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Newbie in midlands SC

I am about to start building a .5 acre pond on six acres that I bought a few years ago and finally got done building a house. I have a fairly well cleared out area, 100 x 200 and recently stripped the top soil off with a skid steer. But need a bigger piece of equipment, or contractor, to start pushing dirt and berm up a dam. My area slopes down hill about 15 feet in that 200 length. Where I'm at in SC, I have good clay based soil to work with. Average 45-50 inch's of rain, but don't know annual evap rate. Cant find that. I still need to find a accurate way to find out how high to make the dam to get the depth and length of the pond. I want 3 feet in the shallow end, with 15 feet in the deep end, when slam full. I'm also trying to come up with a drain, thinking of a 6" PVC/sch 40 pipe. But cant find a valve for it.

Hopefully you have read and studied the important information in this thread. If you create a leaker pond you will have many regrets.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92487#Post92487

Bill

I've read the 590 and Bob's book many times. I'm having a hard time being able to rent a good size piece of equipment, without an operator. I'd rather use a guy I know and we work on it together. I'm trying to be patient, but really want this pond finished! Been a dream for three years now.
Anyone suggest a drain valve for a piece of 6 inch PVC?

Look into gate valves. Maybe consider two gate valves in series in case one becomes leaky. Also learn about siphon systems that have been described here to control pond water level. Proper soil compaction will be your biggest problem to overcome. Digging a hole is easy. Building a water tight pond throughout the basin is an art form and science.

Make sure on the drain size. Without knowing the watershed and vegetation type, there's no way to know if the 6" pipe is enough.

Agri-Drain or Pond Dam Piping should have the valves you need.

Hey Shannon....i built a leaker, and am not proud of it...it's going to cost me only a little more than if i hadn't though from what i have figured...but that's a couple grand, so good luck on a good job of it...

rulg

Y'all, thanks for the valve suggestions. I'm surprised drains, pipe, and valves weren't covered that much, in detail, in Bobs book. If it is, I'm missing it.

Sorry to wait so long to update my pond build, but finally got it done in April 2016. It isn't quite full, but there's enough water now that I'm going today to put in 500 brim. I'll put in some channel cat and bass a little while later. I get 45-50 inches of rain every year, built a couple of hydraulic ram pumps to pump some water out of a creek over to the pond, and it holds water very well. The builder had never a pond before , but he did a good job of using clay soil to build the dam and rolled/packed it every foot. I used 6 inch PVC with a 90 degree swivel for a overflow drain. I can tilt it to drain the pond down in cause of an approaching hurricane or if I want to do some work. I put plenty of structure in the pond before it filled as well. I will put some photos up one day. Only thing left to do is get the muddiness out of it.

I put in 500 fish, a mix of shellcracker and bluegill, two weeks ago. They were 1-2 inch guys from Southland Fisheries. This morning I noticed 6-8 were floating dead, probably from not getting any oxygen in the pond. I dont have a pump right now and the water is still real muddy. I dont see how to post photos?

Here is the link to the instructions: http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92443#Post92443