Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Advantages of a drain?

I was just reading Bretski's poste about a drain under his dam and I'm at that stage of construction that I can add one or not.

My question is if there's a real advantage to having a drain? Why would you drain your pond or lake? Has anybody actually done this once it's built?

If there is some good reason to drain it, would a siphon work and I could avoid having a pipe run under my dam?

I just read an article that said it was good to do so in winter to mow down the weeds and let them air dry, but if my shoreline drops down really quickly to 4 feet, will I have a weed issue anyway?

Thank you,
Eddie

eddie_walker,

Some people like 'em, some don't. Some have trouble with them leaking, some don't.

Reasons to drain....what if someone puts a bad fish in your pond..a drain could help solve that problem. Of course, there are other ways to solve it as well. What if you want to expand and/or renovate the pond. A drain could help with that, but again there are other ways to attack that problem as well. Livestock can be watered without having direct access to pond...but again ways around that too.

My personal opinion is that anything through the dam should be avoided if at all possible...because of the leaking potential.

I've renovated two ponds now and neither one would have benefited from a drain. On one I just knocked a hole in the dam and on the other dug a trench through the spillway. Much less worry than something through the dam...but that's just my opinion.

Look into siphon systems...they have been discussed considerably. Also, a trash pump can be rented or purchased much cheaper than installing a drain through the dam. Admittedly, I am biased on this question. I've seen many posts herein where folks have had to fix ( at significant expense) a through the dam drain.

Hopefully others will give you the other side to help with your decision.

If you don't put a drain in it how do you get the dam built and finished before the water gets too deep in the pond to work on the dam?

Mossie,
See Ric's post below.

I am pretty new here, but all I have read secures my respect for Meadowlark's savvy in pond construction...we just agree to disagree.

I have found drains mainly used for forage ponds and commerical operations. The catfish raisers and fee fishing places need to periodically drain the ponds, either partially or completely, for health reasons. For commercial reasons, they pretty well overstock and then remediate.

mossie,
There is further discussion on pond drains here:
http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000109;p=1

Mike Otto, our leading pond construction authority, says he almost always recommends a drain pipe. If installed properly, a pipe won't leak. With a drain, you can...lower the pond to manage some invasive plants; drain 'bad' water off the bottom; move water to another pond below; let water out if big rains are imminent...there are many other reasons to have a drain. Of course, there are fishery reasons to have a drain, as Dave Davidson explained above. You may want to harvest some fish, or alter the dynamics, or do a partial harvest, or remove fish to restock, or....lots of reasons to have a drain. There's only a few reasons not to have a drain. If your contractor doesn't know how to install it, your pipe could leak. If your pond is an excavated pond, you don't want a drain pipe. If most of the depth of your pond sits below natural ground level, don't install a drain pipe.