Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New Pond Issues

Need help on a couple of issues.

First: The drain for my pond is a 10" standpipe. I currently have a milk crate over it to stop trash. The problem is if leaves cover the crate, water stops flowing and the pond floods. Does anyone have recommendations of a good trash guard that allows water flow yet keeps my fish from going through?

Second issue: I stocked 1350 bluegill/bream in October, 30 carp in March, and 175 F1 bass in May. When will the bream be large enough to catch, and what kind of growth rate can I expect on the bass? The pond is not fertilized, and the fish are not fed. The pond was constructed last June, and is spring fed in a wooded area.

3.5 acres

Without rain runoff, have a flow rate of about 25 gallons per minute.

You will lose some fish in a drainpipe but very few. I would not cover my overflow at all. It is designed to keep the dam from washing out. Let it get stopped up and you could be in big trouble. I have seen one that was designed with hardware cloth. It stayed stopped up and defeated the purpose of the overflow pipe.

like Dave said , leave it open , i don't have anything on mine , during a massive down pour the water might be 1" or 2" above the stand pipe , got better things to do than keep cleaning a screen and worry about couple fish lol.

Get a piece of corrogated plastic drain pipe 4 inches bigger in diameter and place it over your 10 inch pipe. Allow the corrogated Pipe to go down into the water 6 to 8 feet or whatever depth you can go down, your water will now discharge from the bottom.Make sure you have several inches above your 10 inch pipe so that when you lake rises it cant go over the top. You gain several benifits, you are discharging water that is low in oxygen from near the bottom and when you begin to fertilize you are not loosing fertile water as you will on a top discharge. Dont worry about the pipe getting cloged because your water is comming from the bottom of the pond. To adjust how far down the corrogated pipe goes down on you drain get 2 threaded rods and place them thru the corrogated pipe and allow these to set on top of your 10 inch pipe. I have this on my pond and it works great.

Jake

Thanks for the idea. I've tried a similar approach, but still had water rise so fast it went over the top of the outer pipe. I only had about 6 inches of elevation on it though, so maybe I need to make it more. The problem came when a 4 foot log worked its way into the pipe (how I'll never know). It took me an hour to fish it out with a 15 foot long pole and a rope noose.

With regard to the cost, my lake was built in a wooded hollow with a sand/clay base. I've got seepage around the base of the levee, but am told that is expected for the first year or so (until the dam gets fully saturated and settles in.) Lake is 3.5 - 4 acres. Levee was 300 feet long, and 11-12 feet high. I had 3/4 of the lake bottom cleared of trees, leaving the remaining 1/4 acre standing. He also built a small island. Cost was 11,500, to include a 100 yard drainage ditch from the back of the levee, across a field, into a creek. I was told by the contractor the job was actually a 12,500 job, but since he had given me an estimate for 11,000 (and was a very close friend)he let me have it for 11,500. He still plans on putting in a culvert in the drainage ditch, so I can get to the other side. I'm satisfied with the results, and feel I probably got the better end of the deal. When I figure out how to do it, I'll put a photo or two on the site here.

To keep the intake end of my drain from clogging, using 1/4 inch hardware cloth, I constructed a cylinder approximately the size of a 55 gallon drum. Both ends are of 1/4 inch hardware cloth as well. Cut in one end is an offset hole the same diameter as the drainpipe, which allows the cylinder to be placed over the horizontal drainpipe. The end of the drainpipe stops at about 2/3 to 3/4 of the length of the cylinder. The offset hole allows the inside wall of the cylinder to rest on and be supported by the horizontal drainpipe. Trash that would flow into the drain stops at the cylinder, and never inhibits outflow.