You make really great points - especially the one about the newness of my pond (and it's true, I lack of knowledge/experience). The dozer compaction statement was just regurgitation out of Mr. Otto's book... and from the dirt guy that did my pond (and his decades of experience I don't have). There is lots of wicking going on because the clay hasn't reached any sort of stability yet... but I'm fairly certain that once that occurs, it will hold. The type of clay that starts a foot and half down is consistent to as deep as we tested (~11') and doesn't seem to be permeable.
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It is indeed a small dozer (15k lbs), but probably would still hurt my foot. 
)
The Vertex PondLyfe system is the smallest they make... comes in 4 models that are identical in cfm throughput and pond service capacity, but have different paddle configurations. The PondLyfe 1 is 2 diffusers on a single base. The PondLyfe 2, seen here, is 1 diffuser per base spread over 2 bases. They both push the same amount of air (compressor/base station is identical). The truth is, the local pond and lake management company I purchased the system from (authorized vendor) happened to have a "2" in stock and there was a 10 day lead time to order a "1". It made little difference to me and I actually like the idea of spreading the two paddles a few feet apart. No other reason for the configuration.
The extra length of hose is not really "extra". The compressor will permanently sit on the back side of the levee, so another 6 feet or so of hose was needed to reach that spot. The electrician is putting in a circuit and subpanel for future expansion there and I just was moving everything well out of the way so no nicks and scratches occur. Once I move the unit into place, there won't be much slack in the hose. (other than that, the manufacturer's installation guidance in the owners manual calls for 4' of extra tubing to be left on shore)
The misl hose you see to the front/right of the pond is the hose I'm filling the pond with from an extra tap off the well pump manifold. I ran it into the bottom of the pond rather than fill from the edge... no particular reason. It's temporary. The pond "fill" to top off during high evaporation months will be a 1" line on the back of the levee with a temp hose I can run over the surface when needed. I didn't put any penetrations into the pond for permanent fill lines.
My guess is the water clarity won't last. I wish it would, but it's just really, really clean (and very hard) ground water from the well.
Thanks for the comment... I appreciate the food for thought because I'm learning as I go.
Cheers!
/clayton
Many on this thread would differ (from their experience) with your claim that a dozer is heavy and that tracks "work well as a substitute."
The fact that you can see the tracks in your time lapse footage did not even make a mark in your grass is proof that if he drove his tracks over your boot you would not suffer an injury.
The pond is brand new so you don't have an idea yet on how it holds water. The banks have to saturate with water so there is some wicking usually. But you do seem to have some clay there based on your pictures that should help despite the absence of the compaction step in your construction.
I'm curious about the diffusers. For that size pond do they not usually have a diffuser setup where the 2 diffusers are mounted on a single base? Did you modify that set up for 2 separate diffusers on 2 separate lines? What was the rationale for the extra length of weighted hose? Is there a 3rd weighted hose in the fore ground of that picture? What is that hose for?
I love your pictures and your water clarity and view of the diffusers in action is incredible!
