Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat My Pond Project

Thanks for the pictures, They look great

Here is a picture from April 2008:



Picture from the same spot in April 2009:



Here is a bunch of the latest pictures taken today. Going to do landscaping & seeding of grass on the rest of the bank of the large pond soon.

Ponds 04-23-09

Looks good, is that an island?

Yes, that is an island that I will be building a bridge to get on to.

Very cool set up... Keep us updated with future work via pictures!

I dug a test pit last week, let the pit fill in with ground water for 24 hours. Then compared the water level in the pit to the levels in both ponds with my transit & survey rod.

The larger pond level is 8 inches above the test pit level, and the smaller pond 23 inches above.

It looks like my clay lining is holding so far.

Great looking pond, that island would be a great place for a Gazebo or small cabin.

Latest pictures, finally finished landscaping around both ponds, planted the last bit of grass seed. Now my attention turns fully on grading out the rest of the area that will be my yard.

Pictures

I have a clay lined pond and so far it is holding good.

I'm wondering if someone has any advice on a valve I can use to manage the water level in my ponds.

Unfortunately, there is not enough watershed to refill my ponds during the fall after a dry summer.

I dug a ditch to the pond from neighboring farm fields, and that filled the ponds up in 1 day after a good rain. I know field runoff is not the best option, but it's all I have.

With the water at it's highest level, the ponds are still 6" lower than I want the water level to be in the spring.

What I need to do, is have a culvert with a shut-off valve in it. In the fall, I open it, let the ponds fill up, then shut the valve. Then let them fill up with snow melt in the spring, this will get the ponds to their maximum level. Then as summer rolls around I'll start to lose water via evaporation. Re-open the valve the next fall, etc.

I have a length of 15" dia plastic smooth bore culvert pipe. I have been unable to find some type of gate/butterfly vale to use with it.

I have found a 10" dia PVC butterfly valve, but it is $700, and just not the right application for it.

Any ideas?

Look at this thread and look at the links.

culvert valve

I have a similar discharge from my 1.5 acre pond in Michigan. I got some help from Agri Drain. They modified a water level control box for me. They raised the discharge rubber boot that fits a 12" CM culvert, to the top of the box instead of having it at the usual bottom of the box. Basically this is a stop log type device made of very heave duty thick fabricated plastic material. I ordered a 2' deep and 20" wide standard box and the modification only cost $25. I also bought an extra 3" high "board" because it comes standard with 5" and 7" high boards which did not allow fine tuning of the pond level. I put this device on the end of a 24 foot culvert which goes under my wagon trail and so far it is working great. The whole business cost me about $450. (excluding the culvert)

any pics TMK?
during installation?

I'll take a pic of the installed unit if we get a snow melt, but did not take any pics during the install.

Here is a picure of the installed overflow control box attached to the end of my 12" dia CM tube.



You can see that the water level is about 2" below the top edge of the "stop Log". My main discharge plumbing is actually trough an 8" dia pipe from the bottom of the pond. This box is intended as a flood control only. I added the expanded metal mesh to keep the muskrats out of the tube.

How well do they seal up to keep water from leaking out around where the "boards" are?

The boards have what look like felt strips that are lubricated to seal in the aluminum channel, and on the bottom of each board. They are water tight. The box comes with a special tool to lift out or slide in each board. I have another smaller box for my main 8" bottom discharge control. I don't see any leakage in either box.

I'm also intending to build a bridge on my pond. What kind of structure are you planning to use?

I took pictures yesterday:

Water Level

The water is as high as it can be at the moment due to drainage. I would like it 1 ft higher. I will definitely need an Agri Drain setup, because when the water recedes in the late spring it will be 1.5 ft lower than these picture show, which is 2.5 ft lower than I want.

The Agri Drain setup will go in the swale I show in the above pictures.

As far as the bridge, all I have is bridge peirs so far:

Peirs

I'm not sure how I will construct the bridge yet. Maybe as simple as steel I-beam with a wood plank deck. Not sure. It's a 50 ft span.

Great foundation planning, ETD. 18" base pier? 10" columns? What are you using to tie them together?

The base of the center piers is a plastic 55 gal drum cut in half, so 23" diameter x 17.5" tall.

On top of those I have 4 ft of 12" sonotube, then on top of those 6 ft of 8" sonotube. The piers on either end are just 4 ft of 8" sonotube in the ground.

Inside the center concrete piers is a steel 3" I-Beam structure I welded together and poured the concrete around, you can see two cross members in a couple of the pics. I also added rebar vertically in all columns about 1-2 inches from the wall of the sonotube.

The word "stout" comes to mind. Nice work.

I like it. Have to ask; what is "sonotube"? Looks like maybe a square steel tubing? Are you thinking about raising the bridge high enough to get a small boat under it? I'd like to see your plan for the top structure when you get that far.

Maybe I should pump my pond down next August and do a similar foundation. I had been planing to use 4, 4"x6" pilings to support a 32' span, and I'm having trouble finding a contractor to do the job w/o costing an arm and a leg. Your approach looks like a good do it yourself project for a reasonable cost.

sonotube info My best try at describing them is layers of waxed constuction paper in a tube form.

a little more visual stuff with sonotubes