Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New Owner of a Leaky Pond

Hi, I purchased a property last year with roughly a 1 acre pond on it. So my experience with a pond of this size is very little. The pond is about 18 feet deep in the center. It will lose water all year and get down to about 6-7 feet in depth in the summer months. From talking with the neighbors the previous owner paid a local guy to dig it and use the material as the dam. The top soil is does not have any clay in it and does not hold water. From what I can see the water goes down to the clay and stops. It will fill up a bit after a rain and leak right back out. Don’t know the actual severity of the leak, just that the pond doesn’t hold water on a consistent basis.
I’m trying to weigh a couple of options between bentonite, a liner, or using DB-110. I have found pros and cons with all 3 options listed. I’m trying to find a balance with cost effective, time/labor, and longevity of the fix. Or could it be that I need a constant water source to combat any evaporation/ leaking.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, I’m new to this game and you guys are the subject matter experts.

Thank you!

JeffMuel,
Welcome to Pond Boss. Tons of good info and helpful folks here. I'm sure a dirt pro will be along shortly to help guide you through your issue towards a resolution.

Welcome Jeff. That pond in the pictures looks similar to my pond and I found the soilfloc product helpful. Actually if you can measure the length/width, or use an online area calculator and mapping software to get an idea on the size of the pond that would help you plan for costs to repair, add a liner, or seal the bottom with soilfloc. I would not consider DB-110.

My pond is about .2 or .25 acres and the cost to seal the bottom was affordable.

However many factors go into deciding on how effective a seal project will be. How much vegetation/muck you have is a big player too. Can you 'sound' the depth at various places? Have you measured its current depth now? The 18 feet may not be accurate anymore.

Also if you have a way to pump it down, getting the detritus, leaves, muck out first can help rejuvenate the pond, plus make the sealer work better. In the process you also learn about the soil types and where the clay layer really is. Once it is 'demucked' you may at that point decide to add new layers of properly compacted clay and forego sealer, or if the clay is already pretty poor compaction quality, you may just clean as best as you can then add sealer then refill pond.

Cost of liner and sealer depend a lot on at what depth the product or liner is applied and what the true surface area of the bottom of the pond is.

Please don't try to just keep up with the leak with pumping, it gets expensive and frustrating.

CanyonCreek,

Thank you for all the helpful information that you provided. I will be going out there this weekend to further investigate the issues at hand. I will have to look into soilfloc to see how that will be used. I have thought of pumping the water out and starting with a fresh base. There are fish and other creatures living in there I'm sure which won't be a problem to transport them to a lake. I will get online and look for some mapping software to better plan different costs associated with a fix.

Jeff,

Here is a link hat will help measure the size of your pond.

http://acme.com/planimeter/

Gklop

Send teehjaeh57 a PM. Talk to him about SoilFloc.

Yes, it does get frustrating and expensive. I am ready to quit pumping this leaker back up every week or two and just let it go.

Hi Jeff - welcome to Pond Boss and sorry to hear about your leak issues - many of us share your issue.

Feel free to ping me anytime, happy to help outline your options. You'll likely find that a polymer treatment is exponentially cheaper than a liner or excavation, and Soilfloc is significantly cheaper and works more effectively across all soil conditions compared to ESS-13 or DB 100/200. Also, working through me all Pond Boss forum members qualify for a product discount, which is something to consider.

Let me know if I can help, we're operating on a 90% success rate over the 60 projects I've managed - could provide a cost effective solution for you.

Good luck!

TJ