Thought I would share my latest project since I have gotten so much help from this forum and hopefully this might help someone else. Little history. I have a 3/4 acre pond that has leaked for about 7 years. I have drained and reworked and that helped but still leaks.I think I know where it is leaking so I bought one unit of soil floc from TJ but haven't had time to get it down. If that doesn't work I think I will do the same thing I did on this project.
Current project history: I bought a used skid-steer about about 5 years ago and decided I should test it out and decided to dig a small hole in the bottoms about 40 ft from a creek but the creek is about 10 ft lower. Not the best place to dig a pond but with a new toy who cares right? Well about 7 ft I hit a foot of sand and then water table. It has never held since it was built. Couple years ago I thought since it was leaking in the bottom I would just line the bottom thinking the upper soil was better. It worked great where I put the 40'x60' black/grey tarp from Menard's but would drain down to top of tarp. I let it go for awhile and let the frogs take over but this year I decided to try to line it all the way up with billboard tarps. I used HH-66 glue that I bought from this site to glue the seams.
After all of the work I have done on it, it ended up being about 90'x90'. The tarps I bought off Craigslist. I originally thought it would take 12 but ended up only using 9. At $30 bucks a piece that's $270 plus about $100 in glue and 3 inch paint rollers. Total of $370. The tarps are about 15'x 50'. They seem pretty tough and held up well with the skid-steer running them over during the burying process. Straight back and forth no spinning the machine. I did raise the water level more than I thought I was going to because it looked better so some areas the water is above the tarp. With that being said it might seep out in those areas but so far it seems to be doing really well but its only been full a few days.I am posting a link to the pictures I took so you can see the results and steps that were taken to install them.
Thanks quarter. The kids helped a lot and it really didn't take too long. 1.5 hrs to lay the tarp and about 5 hrs to cover but it would have been much quicker if the banks weren't so steep. We had to cover most of those by hand because the bobcat would probably be too much on the liner at that grade and the bobcat wouldn't have enough traction on the liner at that grade either. It was really wicking up the banks a few days ago and it was going down a little each day, now it is slowing down and you can see the banks drying out some. I think it will need a few up and downs to pack some of the loose cover material.
Thanks skullet. So far it is doing great. It stays about 6 inches from full pool a week or so after a rain. I believe this is due to the concrete inlet/outlets I put in. I think it seeps underneath them. I raised the original level anyways so it stays where I want it. I nailed about a two foot square piece of the material to a tree so I could see how long it takes for the material to start to deteriorate. I figure if it last two years in the sun and weather I can multiply that by 10 since it is under 8 inches of dirt and will get no uv rays (it is uv protected though) and temperature should stay consistent. I will definitely keep this post updated if I see any negative issues going on but so far so good. The wife wants me to do the larger pond now. Think I will hold off for awhile and see what happens. If I did it again there might be a few modifications I would do.
1. Go higher above the final water level more than what I did. Might have a few places where liner is just below full pool. That could be contributing to the 6 inch below full pool issue I mentioned. 2. Should have made it bigger by lessening the slope of the banks. This would have made it easier to cover the liner with the machine.
Sorry everyone. Been awhile since I've logged in. It is holding up just like the day I installed it. The piece I nailed to a tree to keep an eye on has not degraded at all either. That is in in partial sun. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Where did you get the tarp? an idea on what they cost. Contact number for the tarps? Sizes? How is that for questions? I have a spot above my pond where I would like to have a forage pond but it's all sand down to 15'. Any idea on how to add two tarps together for a little larger pond? OOPS, I found out the answers by going back and looking over the older posts? Thanks for the information.
Last edited by TGW1; 10/10/1906:13 AM.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Sorry for not answering these questions above but its been a long time since I have been on here. I looked thorough my pics the other day and it appears it has been 9 years since we did this. It holds like a tank to this day. I nailed a small piece of the liner to a tree when I did it and you can now tear it if you really try but it's been out in the elements this whole time. The liner is under at least 10 inches of mud. I just arranged to pick up 18 more tarps to line my larger pond in the next month or so. I wont be on here until then but after its complete, I will try to post some pics of it. As far as where to get the tarps? I used craigslist back then but I am sure Facebook marketplace has some. There are many sites that sell them but can be on the high side. The price i just got for the 14' x 48' was $65 a piece since I am buying so many. He usually gets $70 he said. I would never recommend anything to someone only because everyone's situation is different, but for me, they worked out just right. Price was good and i know it will last now since i have a 9 year test. The pond I lined had a completely sand bottom and is about 25 feet from a sand bottom creek. Don't ask why I dug there. :-) Oh, and the guy i get my tarps from is in St. Louis if anyone wants his number message me.
Alright, so I am going to try and post a crude pic of what I have planned. I'll get some pics of it almost drained later. Yellow line is dam. Red line is what I think is a sand vein that takes water down to the west. The soil in the whole "bowl" area is a little different than the rest of the pond. It has more of a red sand mixed with the clay. They call it red dog here. Will pack as hard as concrete but doesn't do real good at holding water. Blue line is projected water line if this works and pond fills. Pond in this pic is a little over half full maybe close to 3/4.
The black lines are the layout for the 14'x48' tarps. This will be a great test to see if it is possible to line just a bad area of a pond. I talked to an old timer once and he sad they had one that had a bad area and they laid some cheap clear plastic down, buried it in a small area of the pond they knew was bad. Said it held for as long as he can remember. We'll see i guess. I plan on leaving a little of the liner exposed in the bottom so if we have to drain and line the rest i can seam it together.
So we have the pond drained down low enough to start working, so I wanted to get some pics on here. We decided to do one row at a time. We have two rows of 9 tarps going in. Not the best photos but I'm not the best drone operator either. :-) Have just a little more grading and smoothing once the rain stops again, and we should be ready to lay the first row down and get it glued and covered up.
Rain finally stopped long enough for us to start again. Got the first row down and getting ready to bury. After that, will start digging out for the second and last row.
Got the first row covered and then got some more rain, so had to put it on hold. I have the ends folded over to try and keep them clean for gluing to the other row later.
Thanks Esshup! Just got finished laying seed and straw down. For the most part, I think things went pretty good. Definitely would wait until fall if I did it gain. The heat made it much harder. Pics show my aerator discs and hose laying out. Need to get the deeper one back out to where it needs to be. I also have some plastic structure I need to get in. The plan now is to watch it and let it tell me where full pool is. Right now the original outlet (that it has never seen) is a little higher than I like, so I think eventually I will cut a pipe in on the dam side and send it down the ditch. Not a lot of runoff on this pond. I think around 3.5 acres last time I figured. Have a small well that produces 3 gpm on a small brushless pump (85 w) most of the summer unless it gets really dry, then it needs a timer to let it keep up. So hopefully some of my next posts will be of it filling, and not dropping quite as quick as it once did. I am pretty confident from when I reworked the pond years ago that this area is my issue. Will keep this updated when I have some more data.
These are from last night. You can see on the second row we decided to do it in sections. I think this made for less dirt moving and it was easier since we were working the banks at that point.
A few more pics from yesterday. Going up slowly but surely. We have about 10 gpm going in now because I rigged up a small pump in a spring we have behind the house that's getting about 7gpm on top of our 3 gpm well. I've been trying to keep the clay moist by watering with a trash pump a few times a day. Again, not the best time of year for this. Would have been easier to get seed going in the fall. You almost can't tell it even has a liner since the water level has covered up the portion of liner I did not cover. I wasn't worried about that because that is good soil where the portion of tarp is. I just didn't want to cut the tarp. Figured it would cover from silt later. I did have to cut a few small slits in that part of the liner because I didn't kill all vegetation before laying the liner down due to time restraints. Good weather hit and we just went at it. Well, the vegetation rotting caused some air to be trapped under the liner and I didn't like that. Probably wouldn't have hurt to leave it but like I said, that portion of liner was not important to me. So be sure to kill all vegetation or at least cover entire liner if you decide to try this. Will post more pics and info later.
Some progress on the pond. I got some more pvc structure set out. Been watering with a trash pump from the pond. Still pumping right at 6 gpm in to the pond now but decided to upgrade and bought this below. It's a cheap brand but you aren't going to get 37 gpm with a 200 ft head cheaper I don't think. I am going to set it in a 6 inch pvc pipe with slots cut in it and set it down in the creek about 70 ft below the house. I am going to put the 2 inch trash pump style discharge hose and figure I can use it anywhere I have a 110v outlet. I will post some pics of that after I get it put together. As far as the pond holding, it's too early to tell but going up around 1/2 inch or so a day depending evaporation and I think that's about right with me estimating pond size with planimeter and water going in per day.
Are you OK with a few fish from the creek being transported to your pond?
You wouldn't think fish (or eggs) could survive the journey through a pump, but apparently it is possible.
When I discussed pumping from my creek, the expert consensus was to put a mesh bag on either the inlet or discharge to exclude down to a pretty small size.
Hey thanks FishinRod, I really didn't think of that. My small bottom pond floods sometimes from the nearby creek. My brother caught a creek chub a few years back. Don't need those in my big pond. Right now I only have Shellcrackers and YP. I am trying to get some HSB shipped to me right now. Seems Illinois is cracking down on pond fish shipped in. First place couldn't ship here. I haven't had any predators stocked since stocking the others. Your warning has made me rethink my pvc design. Here is what I have now attached. Later I will cut those slots much bigger. Then slip a drain tile sock over entire thing. I ordered a 10 gauge 100ft extension cord with the pump. Last night I tested it through the 100 ft 10 gauge plus 50 ft of 12 gauge and it started up just fine. Seems to be well built for the price. I will keep all data posted (including pump performance) I get back on this project so maybe someone else wont have to struggle so hard. :-) Thanks!
Finally got the pump going. I wanted to get my changes done after FishinRod's post.
Had some issues with the length of cord getting down to creek but got it figured out. Setup below.
Wiring: Porch outlet (appx 60 ft from breaker box on 12awg 20 amp) - 50 ft 10awg - 50 ft 8awg- 100 ft 10awg - 33ft of whatever cord that is attached to pump.
Pump has been running for 12 hours with no issues now. Was shutting off after a few minutes from overheating from voltage loss on smaller wire. I would not recommend running this pump on anything less than a 10awg extension cord if you need more than the 33ft attached to it. I also would not recommend running any longer of cord than I am now. I think I am pushing it to its limits but you might get a few more feet if needed.
Pipe setup: Pump laying in 12 inches of spring fed water, sand bottom creek. 70 ft head appx. Running through 300 ft of 2" pvc discharge hose and 100 ft of black poly.
Takes 9 seconds flat to fill a 5 gallon bucket to top. Comes out to about 33 gpm after the 70 ft hill. That's a hell of a lot of water for a 1HP pump! Most I ever pumped in to this thing was 18gpm using a 3/4hp well pump. Time will tell whether it holds up or not but I only need this thing for a few weeks at the rate its pumping. Will post updates if things go bad, otherwise, I think this pump might do the trick. Went up around 2" in 12 hours so far, but the pond will get bigger and slow down as it goes up. Pics below of new design.
Further, some equipment is very sensitive to operating at a voltage significantly below its design voltage. Other equipment can tolerate being out of spec.
(I do not know the tolerance of your pump type. I don't believe we have a true water well expert on the forum?)
This one acted really strange when under powered. Ran fine for awhile but I think as the wire got warmer, the resistance became higher, then just repeating that cycle until about after 3 minutes of running just fine it would cut in and out and then pump really slow until nothing. I also had one of my extension cords with a bad DIY end on it. When first testing i noticed it was pretty warm, just the male plug portion. After swapping that bad one, that stopped. Basically what I learned on all of the wiring part is, if its warm, you are losing voltage. The warmth is the energy you are losing. Pretty interesting. I would avoid any replacement ends on these cords when you are worried about voltage loss. I just think the factory ends are probably better than a screw holding the wire. So right now this thing has been humming along. I don't have a stick to measure the increase because I am more worried about what happens to the level when the pumps are turned off, so I am waiting on that. I would say its about 4 inches a day so far. The fish are much happier. We had a few die just before turning the pump on. Its been drained down to about 2 or 3 feet all summer. So I turned the aerator on and with all of the water going in, seems to have really helped pretty quick. I was able to start on the inlet from road. It has always ran on top of the ground but we are wanting to make the areas around the pond flat and easier to walk around and mow, so I am putting a culvert in and them leveling flat. Need to figure out why the bobcat fuel pickup tube is clogged. Hoping its not algae. After that I should be able to cover it up. The rest of the dirt work will have to wait until we find out where this thing is going to settle at and i get a outlet installed through dam so that even if it isn't fixed completely, we should be able to keep a more constant level year round because we would like to do some landscaping eventually. Will update in a few days or so with some more pics. Appreciate the interest and advice! So far the sock over the pump is working really well to keep the garbage I don't want out.
Think I will hold off for awhile and see what happens. If I did it again there might be a few modifications I would do.
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