Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How to make a water depth indicator?

I need to know with a degree of accuracy what the water height is in my pond both above and below "full". Because the soil here is so full of rocks I never know how deep I can pound in a stake so just numbering a stick and pounding it in won't work. So before I spend alot of time dreaming up ways to do this maybe someone out there has some advice.

I'll take a shot.

Depending on your water level fluctuations, you only need to place a stake/level indicator in water just deep enough to be within the range of fluctuation (right?).

So if you water level does not vary more that +/- 3 feet, putting a stake in 4' of water should work.

After placing the stake (that already has tic marks without actual numbers), you could take a string with a heavy weight and plumb to get the exact current depth at the location of the stake.

Then go from there?

Maybe depth was a poor choice of words, I siphon bottom water into a rock lined sluice to oxygenate the cool bottom waters and direct them to a small pond where I'm attempting to raise trout. By knowing the change in pond level I can calculate flow and adjust it by restricting the siphon. So I have to know exactly how much the level deviates from full (normal overflow height) to calculate how much water I feed to the trout pond. I'm looking to strike a happy medium of cool bottom waters vs. draining down too much from the larger pond.

PAPond, after I posted, I realized how painfully obvious my reply was to your question. Apologies.

I'm still not sure what you are trying to do though. Are you just trying to know how much water you transferred from the first pond to the second?

PA,

Are you saying the water level change will effect the depth of your thermocline or colder water below that?

Seems to be a kind of small scale tailwater fishery?

Can you take a bucket, and encase bottom of a stick, or PVC pipe in it with concrete? You could sink sink it in a convenient spot, where it is stable. How much does your water level vary? If you have little boat, or waders, you can than pull it out, dry it off, and use something like black electrical tape to make rings at several inch intervals. You can use different color tape to indicate major divisions, like feet.