Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Read the book now ??

dant, welcome to the forum.

The key is needed if you have a ravine that you are creating a dam across.

If your pond is an excavated pond without a dam, you still need to pump out water, and compact clay from the very bottom to slightly above the high water line in the pond.

If you dug the pond and water came in, if it wasn't compacted, it can go out the same way once the water pressure in the pond is greater than the groundwater pressure. Ponds that have water seeping into them from the ground are hard to properly compact, and are called groundwater ponds. You are at the mercy of mother nature with them. Water levels ebb and flow according to the water levels in the ground. I have such a pond, and it will vary 6' in water level from wet to dry years.

I dug mine 22' deep to keep enough water in the pond for the fish to survive.

Typically you should have enough of a watershed that rainfall can run across the ground and fill up the pond. If not, then you'll have to fill it from a well.