Hi all,

I dug a very small pond, maybe 5 feet x 4 wide, 2 feet deep.

It will hopefully be a wildlife pond. Right now, when it rains it looks great. But after a few days it dries up.

Luckily, it rains a lot here.

My question is: when the pond dries up, am I 'allowed' to put some rainwater in there to keep it going? I collect rainwater in vats

Congrats on your tiny pond!

I am not aware of any expert on Irish law that is a member of the forum, so I suspect we will not be a great help in giving you a definitive answer.

However, I would say that in the U.S., if you are allowed to collect/gather the rainwater, then you are generally allowed to use that water as you see fit. Typically, you are either allowed to capture the water, or prohibited from capturing the water.

Have you considered a pond liner? It would not be very expensive on a pond that size, and you would spend a lot less time and effort re-filling the pond with water.

Good luck with your wildlife pond!

Thank you!

Yes, there are no problems here with capturing or using rainwater. The question was moreso about whether it was okay for the pond itself, the wildlife, whether it might disturb anything when poured in.

And yes, I agree, a liner would be better but this is an experimental pond at my parents place so i'm just trying things out

I think I misunderstood your main question.

Yes, you have to be a little careful with water transfers. Consider how careful people are when they perform a full water exchange on their fish aquarium.

Also, bouncing between full and dry would probably be a little stressful on the wildlife that starts using your pond.

Do you know what a float valve is? If you could arrange to have a valve let through a little rainwater from your tanks as the water level dropped, that might make your water additions small events instead of disruptive, AND you could maintain a more stable water level.

It's
It's odd that you mention this. Today I was expanding the pond and I dug, by accident, into an underground tube. I squeezed the tube and some water came out. I don't know for sure, but I assume this is connected to the water troughs which the cattle use. In this case, is there anyway for me to add some kind of valve, in conjunction with the pipe, to let water drip out? Or will that destroy the connection to the troughs

You are getting farther and farther above my pay grade on these questions. (So take any answers with a grain of salt.)

Does your family own (or are tenants) for all ends of the system? That is, do you control the water source, water pipes, and the cattle troughs?

If not, then I definitely would not be altering someone else's piping.

Next, I can't imagine what type of pipe you could squeeze and have water come out. The only thing I can think of like that in the U.S. would be a "soaker hose". That is a hose like a tough sponge and when connected to a water source it oozes out water along its entire length. I have not heard of one being buried? Only application of that I could imagine would be down the tree lines in a new orchard?

If you do own everything and it is normal, rigid piping live PVC, then you have lots of valve and control options for your pond.

Yep we own and control all ends of the system.

I probably wasn't clear re the squeezing. When I was digging I cut the tubing slightly and when I squeezed it, water leaked. But if I didn't squeeze, there was no leak. It was a plastic pipe!

Awesome.

Yes, you can definitely control your pond water level! If it is just black polypipe you can make a tee and connections using the barb fittings for that size of line. (You wouldn't think they would work if you are used to "normal" plumbing jobs, but they work just fine for unpressurized lines.)

Float valve installations are one option. Maybe search "float valve for cattle tank" for simple, inexpensive options.

If you don't like that option, then you might try a "timer" valve to introduce some water every day. (If the water level is getting too low, then just increase the run time for a few days.) I have that type of valve on some tanks that I have set up to control drip irrigation on some new tree plantings. The valves I have (discontinued) run for several months on a 9V battery. I just set them up to run X minutes every 24 hours.

If you choose that option, make sure you get the valve for low pressure applications. The ones that run off of your pressurized household lines do NOT work well with only a few feet of head like from a rain barrel.