Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Question about slope of new area

Sorry if this is in the wrong spot as I am new to this board. Anyhow, I have selected a site for a small pond (25'x25'x4.5 or 5.0') and am wondering what the proper slope should be for such a pond (also if the max depth is 5 feet and the area is 25 x 25 roughly how big is the bottom surface area (which is at 5 feet deep) going to be? -- I guess this has to do with slope).

Thanks for any help that you can provide as even after reading some books I am still a little confused on this subject (I am digging the pond myself).

Let's do some thinking out loud.

The middle of the pond will be 12.5' from the edge. If you ran the sides to a point in the middle 5' deep, that would be a 1:2.5 slope - fairly steep.

A 1:3 slope is frequently recommended to aid submerged weed control. Going steeper than that, you will at some point encounter problems with the sides slipping down into the hole (depending on local soil parameters).

Cecil Baird has experience with fairly small, fairly deep ponds (when drained, he uses a ladder to get down to the bottom). Hopefully he or someone else with steep pond slope experience will chime in.

To elaborate on Theo's message about slope. If the sides are 3:1 slope, one needs 15 ft linear distance on each side to get down to 5 ft deep. This means the pond has to be a total of 30 ft wide to have it 5 ft deep where the basin will essentially be a V shape with no flat bottom. If you use a 2:1 slope to 5 ft deep the linear distance required is 20 ft (2'slopex5ft depth=10ft x 2 sides = 20 ft). So if pond is 25 ft wide then flat part in bottom will be 5 ft wide.

Be aware that at 5 ft deep a pond in Montana will probably winter kill unless you keep open water present or you regularly keep snow removed. Aeration of a small pond in winter to keep open water will lower the overall temperature of the pond below 39F. Depending on how much lower than 39F the water becomes, then this will determine how well fish will survive due to their becoming too cold for general well being. Your best solution to minimize winter kill is to keep snow removed on a regular basis. Sometimes a pond that is has good wind exposure, the wind will often keep the ice polished and snow blown off the ice. This feature may help with snow removal.