Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations drains

I have a pond that is a little less than an acre. When I built it (it is 1 year old) my conservation people told me I only needed a 4 inch drain. The guy who was building it laughed and said nothing under 10 inches. The conservation guy kind of said whatever you think but that is overkill for this particular location. Needless to say beingkinda green I took the four inch pipe like an idiot. My pond now overflows over the damn evertime it sprinkles because I have a large run off. 2 questions is this just a freak of a year with all the rain or should I spend the money an put in a 10 inch culvert? 2nd It is just a drain that runs over the damn and down but guess what problem I am having? You guesses it crawdads and leaking under the pipe because of them. Does anyone know of a good way to stop them? I have tried concrete and I have dug it up 2 times trying to get it right and am about to try a third. I thought I would ask for advice this time with some people who have expierence with this. my kid and I have a ball with it feeding fish catching fish but with the problem the drain is giving me I am considereing pulling the plug. I followed the hatchery and everyones advice when stocking it it. It is really doing great except for the overflow pipe. Oh I have nothing but red clay and I am located in ohio on the west Virginia border in case anyone was wondering.

Go with a 10 or 12 inch with an antiseep collar. Four inch isn't even enough for a household sewer. I have a 12 inch and I have seen it 3/4 full.

I wish I had your problem. My pond is down at least 2 feet. We have had maybe an inch of rain all summer. Every night when I go down to feed my fish, it is lower.

Homer, I wish I still had the problem also. My one acre water hole is down about 6 ft. Now it is a little bigger than 2/3 acre. Hard to think in terms of pond management. WE have had average rainfall this year but went into the year 10 inches short of average. Everything soaks in.

bc, My conservation agent also specified a small 6" pipe for my 2 acre pond. I went with a ten inch pipe. My conservation agent explained that they typically recommend the smaller pipes so water runoff is buffered/ accumulated by your pond, and then slowly is released downstream to rivers. My two acre pond will hold 1 million gallons of water between the one foot elevation difference of the primary pipe spillway and the emergency overflow spillway. I think it is better to go with the bigger pipe to prevent erosion damage in the emergency overflow spillway.

We put a 24 inch pipe on our new pond. It seemed like overkill at the time but got it cheap. Needless to say I'm very glad we did as it has not stopped raining since and it roars after a heavy rain. It's been raining or snowing in NY since last fall. Really glad we have a big drain pipe.

when i put mine in , i called the soil and water management people for some professional help.lol they told me the same thing 4" overflow pipe, must be an ohio thing. anyways i put in 8", 4 good, 8 better. pond is acre with about 6 or 7 acres feeding her.it has been the wettest summer in years here. the pond never lost but 2 or 3 " all summer. when i dug the test holes i hit layer of rock 6 ft. down in one spot and small rocky soil in other. said they would not advise putting pond in . that wasn't stopping my life time dream lol. excavated the site , put back about ft clay,packed with 20,000 lb back hoe.asked him how many pond he has over seen , he said about 125 or so. (lot of ponds) asked how many have you been back too , he said 3 or 4 . you would think that would be the best part. needless to say i was not impressed with the soil and water people at all.