Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How many gallons is my pond?

Crazy question, I'm no math wiz, so I thought I'd give you smarties a crack at it.

Pond is 80' wide / 250' long. Average depth, I'd figure 8 feet. Anyone?

ok i'll bite. i tried this before and failed miserably.......

your surface area is 80x250 = 20,000 ft2
1 acre = 43,560 ft2
so yer pond area = 0.46 acres times avg depth of 8 ft = 3.7 acre feet

there's 7.481 gallons per cubic foot so in one acre foot there's about 325,872 gallons times 3.7 acre feet = about 1.2 million gallons....ta da....am i close???????

My boss helped me figure it out, with an average depth of 8'. Our pond has 160,000 cubic feet. (80 x 250 x 8) 1 Cubic foot equals 7.48 gallons.

160,000 x 7.48 = 1,196,800, just over 1 million gallons of aqua!!!!

How many gallons in your pond?

Dave in el dorado, Very Nice. A slightly different method than what I used, but right on.

you gotta nice boss there

my pond at full pool is about 0.9 acre w/ avg depth of about 8 foot = 7.2 acre foot, which is about 2.3 million gallon, if the math is correct :rolleyes:

Good job guys. Now convert to hectare-meters.

Try this link it is pretty slick! and it doesnt hurt the brain.

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/waterops/Redesign/calculators/volcalchtm.htm

Out, damned Metric System! I demand cubic furlongs!

Nice. Thanks!

Whiile we're talking about calculators, one of my favorites (a little off topic) is for dirt piles. Comes in handy when you're trying to estimate how much you dug for the day.

http://grapevine.abe.msstate.edu/~fto/tools/vol/cone.html

Thanks Bob, I have been wanting to measure my next pile of gravel. I never have any idea whether I'm getting what I pay for.

bobad :

Thanks I used the second link to figure that I need to move 33035 cu feet of dirt to deepen the end of one pond. I wonder how much it would cost a dozer to push that much dirt 150 feet to the ridge on either side.

How about milliliters?

ewest, that sounds like a day or more work for a 90-100hp dozer. Probably about $500 a day. I've logged about 60 hours in a dozer seat lately. I've learned that dozers dig very fast, but are slow at pushing dirt any great distance. 150' is a pretty long push, but not extreme.

bobad thanks for the info. I saved that second link. It was a big help.

Ewest

Most people measure dirt in cubic yards. Your 33,035 cubic feet is equal to 1,223.5 cubic yards.

I don't know how much dirt a small hundred horse dozer can move, but in the D6, 160 to 170 hp class machines, you can either move 3 yards with a 6 way blade like I have, or you can move 7 yards with a straight blade like Brettski used.

Obviously you'll want the straight blade for is maximum dirt moving ability. The advantage to my blade is I can grade roads and shape dirt better than a straight blade.

Figure that each load will take ten minutes round trip, or 42 yards an hour. Thats gonna put you close to 30 hours of work.

Most machines of this size hire out from $75 to $100 an hour. I'd feel safe saying it will run you close to $3,000 to move that dirt in dry conditions.

If the dozer can do it faster, or more than 6 round trips an hour, it will be cheaper. A larger dozer will do it faster, but the hourly rate will increase too.

Smaller dozers are lucky to move a yard of dirt per load. Most smaller machines don't have straight blades and like mine, are designed to spread dirt. They won't be significantly faster per round trip, but to give them the benifit of the doubt, lets pretend one will make 7 trips per hour and move 1.5 yards of dirt. That's just 10.5 yards an hour, or 116.5 hours. Figure $50 an hour for the smaller machine and it's $5,820 for the same job.

Just like fishing, most people tend to over estimate how much dirt they've moved, or under estimate how much they need to move.

Eddie

Eddie,

I'm not clear on exactly how far all the dirt has to be pushed. ewest said he had 1,200 yards of dirt to move 150'.

I assumed the 150' was maximum,to be moved from the far side of the new hole to a ridge. I was thinking that the minimum push would be right next to the ridge, making the push very short on that side. If all the dirt must be moved 150', then it's a much bigger job than I was thinking. I guess you could say I was thinking the average push distance would be 75', which is still a pretty far piece.

And you're so right about underestimating dirt. I try my best not to underestimate it, but end up doing so anyway.

This may help.
http://www.keystonehatcheries.com/pondcalc.asp

Bob,

Your right, each push is gonna be a different length. Also dirt pushes different each time. Sometimes you fight it, other times it's like sand. There is also the matter of building up a slot to keep the blade full. The variables will affect the amount of time each push takes. Also spreading it will eat of time. I used ten minutes for simple math, but also because it's areasonable amount of time to push a load of dirt, spread it, back up and get another load.

My goal in that post was just to dramatize how long it takes to push dirt and how the prices come out. $500 for 1,200 yards isn't realistic. It will cost more than that in fuel alone in my dozer.

Eddie

Thanks guys. This is about 1 acre and 1 to 1.5 feet across the area in additional depth is needed and will be pushed to each side from the center. There is some downed 3-4 in. rotten timber and some small brush/weeds. This does not have to look good or be smooth. Just push the stuff from the middle to a low ridge on each side so it is out of the pond bottom. No pond muck involved. Max push 125 feet min. push 1 foot if that helps. It will not be necessary to smooth it out in new location. I am not looking for a $ guess as that is not practical without knowing the market location or seeing the job. Thanks for the info as it may help me deal with the contractor.