Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Pond holding water...success notes

Been real dry here. I would say my pond is atleast 3ft down but holding like a bucket. I have no doubt that it will start leaking again once the spring rains come and it is at full pool again.

Steve I hope you have better luck with the DB-100, when I did my dam in 2009 it seemed to work for a while, but apparently my leaks were too large and the soil here is very poor.
Even though I concentrated the product by putting a barrier along the dam it only helped temporarily.

Ya know, all of us were hoping that stuff would work.

Cheezy, we've had 3" in the last week. Here is a pio of the runnoff from the back of our lot.

Yep, I was one of those hoping for a magic solution but the db100 didn't work. I'm thinking that a person could get about the same results with alum since the primary function of the db100 is to bind with the suspended particles causing them to sink to the bottom. I recall noticing a reduction in my seepage after my first alum application but it was only temporary and I posted about it.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=11368&Number=125508#Post125508

That is nice Steve. I wish we could get a 3 inch rain. Send it over here.

The Midwest has been hammered with rain. We got another 3"last week, we finally made full pool. Pond looks great, 7" below dock, if only it will hold?

On 6/23/09 posted a photo of my pond, that was seeping on the sides. Before treating it I bought $500 worth of DB-100, both granular and liquid and tested it on my neighbors small pond that really seeps. Applied granular directly into the soil of the pond, refilled it with water pumped out of mine, mixing the liquid with the water and the DB-100 did nothing to stop seeping.

Did save a jar of it for future use in removing things such as a ring stuck on a finger. It is slippery stuff when it gets wet.

Has anyone looked at the effects of surfactants on soil permeability? After reading this entire post I started looking in to what ingredients these companies are using in their products. There is a lot of information on the web about soil stabilization that include types of oils and surfactants to reduce permeability and for erosion control. Just curious. Surfactant would be much cheaper than any of these products for sale.

Here is just two of the examples I've found. Not sure any of this would work at all for larger leaks but for seepage it might.My pond is about 4 ft from pool but still seeping. Still pumping and gaining a little at a time though.


The use of vegetable oil as an electron donor to enhance the reductive dechlorination of chlori-nated solvents as an in situ remediation technology is gaining significant traction. Vegetable oil is a cost-effective slow-release electron donor with greater hydrogen-release efficiency than other electron-donor products. However, neat vegetable oil can inhibit distribution in aquifers due to the oil droplets blocking the flow of groundwater through the smaller pore spaces in the aquifer materials.


Surfactants are used as soil amendments to help soil retain water. Soil surfactants move water quickly off the surface of the soil and enable water to penetrate the soil and move laterally and vertically into the root zone.

Just read this entire thread and wondering if anyone has any updates on there ponds holding water as a result of using DB 110.