Hello all,

I am located in Central Florida adjacent to some wildlife management swampy area. I just finished clearing and digging a 60'x45' backyard pond that is going to be 4' deep wit a few shelves of ' depth. I have a few rookie questions that I need to ask before I set a liner in and begin to fill.

1. Is this considered a "small" pond on this forum? I read different places and from what I see most of you have acre+ size ponds.
2. In Florida heat, should I dig deeper to 6 foot or more? I worry about water temps.
3. How deep should I set the shelf? I am considering BG or tilapia as my main fish. However if I add BG, I will later add some type of bass.
4. Sand or gravel, or some combo of both for the base layer?

That's about 1/20 acre. Small but not the smallest that I've seen.

The difficulties with a pond that size will be a predator if you go with BG. I would only put 1 LMB in there if you go the Bluegill/LMB route. What you could do is stock one or two LMB at 2"-4" and when they get to 12" harvest them out and start over. You don't want them spawning in the pond at all. If the water will be at a constant depth in the pond, I'd set the shelf at 2' for spawning. Sand/gravel or just straight pea gravel will be great for spawning.

If you are worried about high water temps, stock Tilapia - they love warm water. At a 3:1 slope, (which is about the steepest that you can get sand to stay without sloughing off) the pond would be 6 feet deep for a small area. If the sand can stay in place at a steeper slope and you can get the liner in and in place, then you might be able to go steeper and have a bigger area that is 6' deep.

If you had a good water source, and a place to get rid of excess water, you could dig it just to 4' deep and pump cooler well water into it to drop temps. What is your ground water temp? in the mid to upper 60's? You will have roughly 40,000 gallons of water in that with a 4' max depth.

If you opt for LMB then wait until you can id the sex and only use 2 female LMB.

Will you have circulation of the water (DO dissolved oxygen issues) are more important than temps for LMB and BG sourced from your area.

Thanks for the replies. I plan to use a float switch to keep it topped off at 4 ft minimum excluding shelves.

I am hitting ground water at 4' but hope to dig a little deeper in one corner, maybe to six feet. My fear there is, how much water can I put my pond liner on top of before it just floats in place. Perhaps I could weigh it down with some cinder blocks and other structures.

I believe the ground water is 70 degrees. The 2' shelf answer is really helpful. In this part of Florida, there is mostly sugar sand and it drains quickly. Any overflow, I hope to direct to a drip irrigation for my fruit trees.

Do I need to cover the entire floor with gravel base? $$$ or is it okay to just use it in patches and on shelves?

Thanks again for taking time to help me think thru this BEFORE I do something that will be hard to undo.

You could use some of that sand to cover the liner. Use a tracked bobcat to put it over the top of the liner, covering the liner with a foot or so of it. Work from the shore out, that way you aren't running the bobcat on the liner itself. Sand covering the liner will prevent it from floating. They also have one way vents they put in the liners for the bigger installations to prevent them from bubbling up.

Thanks Essup! I will hopefully take delivery of the liner in the next few days. Then I am sure I will have to ask more questions.