Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat New Pond, New Structure. What do you think?

Well after months of building Im getting close to finishing the build. Rains have held off for over a week now. Anyways I've been reading on here about structure both natural and man made.
So I decided on both. Im attaching pix so tell me what you think, and any suggestions/comments would be greatly appreciated?

What was used to compact the pond basin? Are you sure it'll hold water and not leak out?

I see the "natural spring". Do you know where the water is coming from? Is it at a higher elevation than the full pool level of the pond?

Unfortunately springs in the bottom of the pond do not act as a one way valve. They flow water in when the water pressure is higher outside of the pond, and acting as a drain when the water pressure in the pond is greater than in the ground.

Clay is the in the basin and packed in using the track hoe and dozer.

Yes that part of the spring is about 5 ft above the basin but there are springs coming out all over the the western slope side of the pond area. We initially hit that spring in October when they 1st started digging. It was flowing even after 5 months of no rain. July-October

The pond sat full for most of November and December. It rained about every week and so the heavy equipment sat idle, and there was no drainage.

So do you think that I have enough structure or do I need more?

Any stumps I use I like to put the cut part down. If the stump is cut short it will be almost upside down or I like to leave about a 6' trunk and lay it on the side. This lets the root ball be the structure instead of just a lonely stump sticking straight up.

Anything that is wood should be tied or weighted down. Otherwise when it floats it likely will end up somewhere other than where you put it. Tires need holes drilled in them and I like to add some rocks or bricks inside in addition just to be sure.

This may be a dumb question but as I am noted for them, what the heck! Do you knock the clay/dirt out of the root ball before you place them or will it eventually fallout?

Depends. I don't go to a lot of work one way or the other. If the dirt is intact, it will help make sure the stump stays in place till it waterlogs. In son's pond I left the dirt on and that was it, but then I was fighting time with rain starting and had little time to make changes of plan.

In my own pond it was dry enough and the Osage Orange (Hedge in local terms) did not have much dirt on the root balls. They do not have a thick root mass like an Oak and instead have several larger lateral roots that grow horizontal. I was using a lot of concrete foundation pieces from old turkey barn foundations so I laid the stumps on their sides then laid 8 ft long pieces of this 1'x2' foundation concrete across the trunk to make sure they staid put. One of the stumps root ball was so big, I actually used a chainsaw to cut off some of the roots sticking up when it was laid on its side so they would stay a couple feet under the surface for boat navigation safety. Put a couple pretty big stumps in the deep part of the pond. They did not have much dirt on them, but I made no special effort to clean the dirt off.

When you dive in your ponds, have you noticed whether the dirt washed out of the ones you left "dirt on?" Any difference in number or species of fish using the "dirt on" vs the "dirt off?"

Never paid that much attention, but the dirt is eventually going to come off in any areas other than where gravity will tend to keep it there. When I dive, everything is covered with a thin layer of either sediment or algae, depending on where the surface is. I have to be especially careful in a pond or one wrong move or kick and everything is silted out and can't see anything.

Hard enough to see anything to begin with (water has to be very clear to be worth even trying). If I am trying to view BG nests or attract fish with feed, I often will just crawl up the bank on the bottom very slowly so as to not induce a current for the silt to flow past me. Then I just set there and wait.

Will hardly ever see a fish if I am swimming around. Sit motionless and wait. The fish will come to you or if they are on a nest approach as close to where you think they will stay on the bed and they will return shortly.

A relatively clear pond or lake is a different story. In Cape Cod in a glacial pond was able to approach PS on the nest and well as LMB guarding newly hatched fry. Very slowly and cautiously in an un-threatening manner and could get within a few feet or in one case with a PS that had eggs in the nest and a tree limb next to the nest, got my faceplate within a couple feet to observe the eggs.

My pond normally has too much of an algae bloom to see anything. But last year it cleared up for a couple weeks to about 3' vis, which was doable.

Unfortunately we had to "Stump Chunk" thats what the track hoe operator calls it. B/c of all the rain we could never get back to the bottom of the pond. To darn wet and all the equipment kept sinking out of site. So he would get as close as possible to the edge of the pond and start spinning the track hoe, on about his 3rd rotation he lifts the track hoe arm and releases. Hence the name he called "stump chunking". Its very cool to watch and I do a have a very short video of it. But when we do that we have no control of how the stumps land. Some land side ways and other on its end.

As far as my man made structures, I put holes all in my tires to let the air out, and I also weighted them down. On my pallets I used a large pc of concrete to wt it. I then used decking screws to attach the other pcs of pallets and the old stumps pcs.

If it all floats I guess i'll be investing in alot of center blocks.

snrub, I have not used tanks in my diving, just snorkeling, but due to pond fertilization I can see only at arms length. Kinda sucks when considering 200+' visibility when diving in the Caribbean. I dove in the bay of Acapulco, dove on a sunken ship in or around a 100' depth with maybe 30' visibility, not great to say the least.
Bfree, sorry for stealing the thread, back to the tree and tree root balls, after sinking as many as 10 large sweet gum trees and root balls, I have had no floaters. Sweet gums have a lot of natural occurring water in their wood, maybe that is why I have had no floaters. I found Pond Boss Forum when building the pond and was happy I learned not to put in the oaks.

Tracy

Tracy -

Maybe I'll start a service wherein you can swim with the bass Given the 9 foot clarity I measured yesterday swimming in our pond affords excellent opportunities to observer water inhabitants.

A pond with a lot of rooted vegetation can get pretty clear. Some of the strip pits we have around get pretty clear at certain times of the year. My pond has no rooted vegetation and usually a good planktonic algae bloom so usually not clear. Although I would like it clear to snorkel/dive in, the algae bloom is much better for the fish food chain.