Pond Boss
Posted By: Pondless Help me fix this disaster - 05/15/22 07:47 PM
Hello,
We recently built a home and had a pond dug at the same time to stock for fishing for my 2 boys. The men who dug it said the water levels would fluctuate but would be full consistently within 6 months. It’s now been a year and the thing doesn’t hold much water. It is 20ft deep but holds about 3-4. Pond is 300ft long x 100ft wide. When it was dug, it looked great. Clay all around, minimal rocks. Now we have a bunch of sediment. It is spring fed 24/7 and we’ve had many big rains. With the biggest rains, it has come up about halfway, and then gradually leaked back to this level. We are at a little bit of a loss here. My husband thinks there may be a shale seam on the right hand side of this photo that could be causing the leak. The clay in that area has developed a bunch of fissures, thick cracks...and it does seem rocky, though when it was dug it was smooth. In looking at this photo, seeing the sharp lines all along the waterline except on the right hand side, does it seem most likely that is our problem? We’re considering all options to get this thing full. I don’t want to spend a ton of money on a polymer or bentonite if it won’t help. We’ve been quoted about 12k for a liner. More than the cost of the pond, but if that’s our best bet we’ll save and come up with it. We do have a skid steer now and my husband was thinking of trying to drain what’s there and pack clay along the right hand side. I would so appreciate any input.

*edited to say I can’t get photos to upload! It says they are too big of files to attach? I’m just using iPhone pictures. Any insight?
Posted By: Pondless Re: Help me fix this disaster - 05/15/22 07:48 PM
Trying to get the pictures uploaded. Can you not load photos from an iPhone? Says that file type is not allowed...
Posted By: Pat Williamson Re: Help me fix this disaster - 05/15/22 08:20 PM
Don’t think so
Posted By: FireIsHot Re: Help me fix this disaster - 05/15/22 08:30 PM
Pondless, iPhone's native format is *.heic. It's just an Apple thing.

Here's a link on saving pics as *.jpegs. Easy to do, but the quality is not quite as good.

https://www.imore.com/how-take-jpeg-pictures-ios-11-instead-heif
Posted By: Pat Williamson Re: Help me fix this disaster - 05/15/22 09:19 PM
So you can post pix from an iPhone?
Posted By: RAH Re: Help me fix this disaster - 05/15/22 09:33 PM
Even without a photo, you probably need a visit from a pond builder (not just a dirt mover). The leak needs to be identified and likely needs to be sealed with compacted clay. Best time to do this is when it is as dry as possible. Sorry for your troubles!
Posted By: esshup Re: Help me fix this disaster - 05/15/22 09:57 PM
Pondless, to post pictures, you first need to store them on an on-line server. I use Imgur. Then copy/paste the link to the picture here.

I'm assuming that they dirt movers didn't use a sheepsfoot roller to pack the clay down in the pond before it started to fill with water? Did they remove the rocks from the bottom of the pond? If not, then you might have issues with them puncturing the liner.

Try going to your counties NRCS office and see if they can advise you. It's better to have eyes on the project than to look at it from afar.

There are many dirt movers out there but few guys that really know how to dig/build a pond.
Posted By: FireIsHot Re: Help me fix this disaster - 05/15/22 09:59 PM
Originally Posted by Pat Williamson
So you can post pix from an iPhone?
Pat, I'm not sure. I'm not sure how the forum plays with phones.
Posted By: teehjaeh57 Re: Help me fix this disaster - 05/16/22 04:42 PM
Welcome to the forum!

I help folks provide leak solutions for folks nationwide and am happy to hop on a call to learn more about your situation. As a volunteer here my time is free to our Pond Boss forum family and I’m happy to help. Feel free to reach out any time!

Tj@hudlandmgmt.com
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