Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help New property.....old pond

Hey guys,
I was searching around last night online and found this forum. You have some great info on here. About a year ago I purchased a 12acre piece of land for hunting that borders the Sumter National Forest. On it was a 2 1/2 acre spring feed pond. No one has been maintaining the property for over 10 years so you can imagine what the pond looked like. Although completely overgrown, the pond water was in great condition. At some point in the past the dam was reworked and the water level was brought down 5 feet for some reason. Also, early last year the spring dried up. Since then my water level is steady going down and with no fresh water flowing it is turning almost a light brown color with less clarity. I have a well located very close to the pond. My first question is, can I install a float valve to keep the pond full? Also, I am wanting to fill the pond back to its old level 5 feet higher. Should I do this?
Right now I am in the process of removing trees from the dam.
Thanks so much,
Mitch

Welcome to PondBoss. Do lotta reading- tons of info in various threads.

Post some pictures of your pond, we love seeing folks' places. Especially the dam. There was probably a reason why they dropped the water level. If there are trees on the dam, there could have been leaks. There is debate on taking out trees on dams- may want to read the threads.

And the standard question: what do you want with your pond? Fishing only? What species?

I'm sure you'll enjoy your pond. It gets into one's blood. We see pictures of folks with their families enjoying the resource and all the effort becomes worthwhile.

Found the Esshup wisdom..

Trees on dam:

General rule of thumb is 6" and less diameter cut down, treat stumps so they won't re-grow. Larger than 6" diameter leave and pray that they don't die so the roots stay alive. Dead decaying roots leave pathways for water to go thru the dam.

Ref:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post378635

I'll shoot some pics today. One of the old guys who lives down the road told me the pond used to have a spill way and the spring that fed it was a steady flow. The previous owner diverted most of the creek, did away with the spill way and installed a drain pipe that runs under the dam. The pipe had several leaks in it and I capped it at the rear months ago with plans to build a nice gravel spillway. After I sealed the drain the spring dried up and the water level has just steadily dropped, even after a good rain. As for the trees on the dam, none of them are larger than say 4 or 5 inches or so and they are all pines. The pond has a large population of blue gills, some bass, some channel cats, and from what I can tell, only one carp, but he is huge. The pond will only be used for fishing.

Mitch, welcome to the forum. If the pipe is leaking, there is the possibility of it leaking inside the dam, and the water going back down into the dirt. Raising the level of the pond will increase water pressure on the pipe, possibly increasing the leak. You might want to give some consideration to either capping off the pipe on the pond side of the dam, or replacing the pipe in the dam.

If you get a big rain, without a primary or secondary spillway in the dam, you run the risk of the dam being topped by the water and it completely washing out. Here's a booklet on building ponds that will make for some good reading. http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs144p2_030362.pdf

I guess I should have mentioned but the main pipe leaking was our fault. We went out in our canoe to put a cap on the top of the pipe with the intention of raising the water level and constructing a new spillway. When doing this we put too much pressure on it and cracked it about 7 or 8 feet down. I tried dropping saw dust down the outside of the pipe into the water and crazy as it sounds, that stopped most of the leak into the pipe. I could shine a flashlight down the drain and clearly see where I busted it. You live and learn I guess

Mitch

You might try stuffing feed bags down the pipe a little past the leak then dumping concrete in it to seal the leak, however you might have to wrap the leaky area on the outside if the water leak is real bad... Cement will set underwater
They also make a plumbers plug for that kind of issue