Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions best way to find a leak?

I have a clay pond. I hit lots of clay while digging, (after 5ft of dirt i hit solid clay) brought the clay from the bottom and used it to pack the top 5ft of bank area where there was dirt. I never "broke" through the bottom of the clay while digging, stayed in it all the way to 18 ft. I have noticed enough leakage in the last 1.5 year to be worried. I have also been told that a pond can settle and seal up on its own in 2 years or so from the original dig date. Not sure how true that last statement is...
Anyway. I feel that i need to take action to find the leak or be forced to continually add water which i dont want to do. My problem is that i have seen no signs of leakage around a "core" or anywhere else for that matter. The clay in the bottom was very sticky and hard when digging it. My D3 Cat did more bouncing across the top than actual digging once i got into the good stuff. I ended up using a backhoe to dig and the dozer to push from there.once it was dug out. The clay is red/grey gumbo style and you could roll it up like a stogie in your fingers w/o it flaking or falling apart. Seamed to be good clay.
Is there a product i can put in that will color a leaky area to make it easier to find? It couldnt be that easy could it? Please share your thoughts with me on this.

Hmmm good question. How are you sure it's leaking if you haven't found a leak? I have also heard it can take awhile to fully seal up. I really have no good answers butill be keeping an eye on this thread o see what some of the pros say.. Good luck

New ponds can wick water into the sides and bottom for quite awhile before saturation. Actually the process is never ending.

I recently heard Lusk tell a pond owner that a pond can be like a bath tub; everything great except for a little hole that acts as a drain. To the best of my knowledge, the only to find a leak is to drain it down until the leak is found.

Another thing would be to take a wide shallow pan or tub and fill it with water, placing it near the pond. You can use that to check evaporation rates. You might be seeing waer evaporating away, or if there are any trees near the pond they could be sucking up the water as well.

How did you compact the soil (clay) in the upper 5' or so of pond depth? How thick is the clay that you compacted in that area?

Good to see the replies, thanks. I could just be seeing evaporation and i'm just overreacting. That being said, i'll loose over 18in in a month (est) on average this year in a .89 ac pond. I can't be the only one that would think its just evaporation with that much gone, right? Yes, i have oak trees on 3 sides within 25ft or so from the waters edge. Two of them are 4ft thick at the base.
Unfortunately when i was digging the pond i only had access to the dozer for a compactor (no sheepshead roller). With that said, i feel i did as good as i could with what i had. I estimated that for every 2ft of clay i put down i would compact it with the dozer. My calculations say 2ft of loose clay compacted equates to 12-14inches of compacted clay. Following that calculation i have an estimated 5ft thick "wall" of clay that covers the soil in the top 5ft of the pond. (I drove that dozer long enough during my "compaction sessions" that the ceramic tiles in some areas lifted from my concrete foundation in my house. Vibration is the only thing i can equate it to get tiles to "lift". I had no water leaks of other obvious things happen that would cause complete 12in tiles with no cracks to come up in hole pieces. The house is 50yds or so from the pond.)
Esshup: Can you expand on how to test the evaporation rate, as you were mentioning?

Take a container that has straight sides. Some will use a regular 5 gallon bucket. Fill it to the brim and set it on a level surface near the pond.

I'd place a yardstick in the pond and note where the water level is on the yardstick. I bought a yellow powder coated aluminum one from Lowe's that was very inexpensive and also bought a plastic 3' fence stake from TSC. I drove the fence stake into the pond bottom, then attached the yardstick to the stake. After a day or a week compare the water level drop in the bucket to the water level drop in the pond. If the 2 are comparable, then it's just evaporation. If the pond is markedly lower than the water in the bucket, then you got a problem.

I'd prefer to have the water at the top of the bucket. If it's a ways down in the bucket, then the wind blowing across the bucket won't be the same as what's blowing across the pond.

It's amazing what you think is a big drop in the level of the pond is really only a couple of inches if you don't have a measuring device in the water. I have both a yardstick and a 72" rule in my pond.

Esshup: Thanks for the info. I will get more scientific about my measuring and report back here with my findings Happy holidays.