Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - New Pond, minor leak

I’ve got an about 1/3 acre pond that just filled for the first time about a month ago. It’s currently losing about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch per day. Soil is red clay loam, was compacted in lifts. Is this normal early pond settling, or should I be concerned? I could either ride it out and see if it plugs, try Soilfloc for whatever leak is there, or pump it out and try to recompact (would really prefer not). I’m also planning to try alum in the next few weeks for suspended clay. Would dropping all that out possibly have a similar effect as Soilfloc in plugging leaks?

Posting an update.

I ended up using a pail of Damit I was given by a neighbor on the dam, and so far have had excellent results. I was pretty sure I knew the area that was leaking, as I found a a wet spot on the backside. I applied heavily over a 20-30 foot area along the shore. By the time I did this we were losing around an inch a day due to the smaller surface area of the pond. The leak slowed over the course of the past week, and as of today our loss overnight appears to be essentially zero.

I know people have had bad experiences with damit and it’s longevity, so I’m going to keep an eye out for more dropping, but for now I’m starting to refill our lost 14ish inches with the well.

Alum will not aid in sealing. The floc created from Alum is very light and fluffy. It (the floc)
slowly setles over a few weeks............1/4"-1/2" could simply be due to evaporation