Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Water level not maintaining

Hello folks, my name is Josh and I hope you will be able to either lead me to some links or give me any of your knowledge on a problem I seem to be having. I have a 134.7 length by 87 w 10 foot ( acres?) deep pond that I excavated myself 2 July's ago. The water level however, only stays about 3 feet deep all the time. I would have already drained the pond but the fish are in their and i wanna try to aviod that. I know alittle about constructing a pond from a freind that did him one, he refered me here. I made the pond with a keyway of solid clay so I can rule that out so here it is. When I exacavated this pond I notcied some areas had water puddles the next morning. Since i'm not a expert I didn't think much about it much til now. I notcie when the pond fills after a good rain it's drops about 3 inches a day until it gets to the level I mentioned. I looked today at it and where the water came at from construction as mentioned, there is a hole going through the side of the pond about the of a soup can ( in circular form). It looks like it goes deep but I dont know. The water is right on the edge of this and not losing any water so I know it could be the problem. Anyone recomend anything or able to tell me what this can be. Is it something i can fix or am i screwed? We haven't had rain in a while and I the water being like 3 foot cannot be good for to long. Thanks Josh

Hi Josh being from North Alabama I have probably the same type of soil as you so am wondering if you hit the limestone shelf when you were digging? My pond loses an inch or so a day in the summer and is just a little bigger than yours 190 by 90 and is 8 ft deep. Currently with the lack of rain I am about 3' low. I currently feed water from a shallow well that is only providing about 2500 gallons a day due to the surface water table being low. When I have the funds I am going to take it down to 80' to have a better supply of water. You might want to look into getting a well dug to supply water for your pond since like me you are strictly filling it with run off and when we don't get but 2 inches of rain in a month and a half there isn't much we can do. Hope that helps.

Bob

well sounds like you found your problem , i would dig the area up and back from the pond some with a hoe and pack it with some clay. i'd try that first. hopefully you lined the bottom and sides with clay

Bob, i'm not quite sure if I hit limestone but I have went around our heavily wooded property and found numerous areas where water just runs out the ground out of nowhere. I'm thinking I hit one of those veins and when the pond fills up it seeps in and most likely runs through the entire property, I hope thats not it, but thats likely. How do you do well for a pond? My experience is limited. The pond was not needed to be lined with clay for the reason 99% of it is nothing but clay. I have 3 tree stumps and a solid core. Other than that hole, i'm dumbfounded.

I am using the well that used to supply the house before county water came through. I called a local well driller and they are currently charging 15.00 a ft to drill and that includes a 20' casing. I have a 1/2 hp submersible well pump that is on a cyclic switching system that I designed cause is so shallow I can run it dry in a couple of minutes. Hopefully by going 40 ft deeper I can get into a few more fracture zones and get a good flow.

Just a thought.

One approach to finding out whether or not your pond is feeding the underground veins, via the hole, would be to get some dye and place it in the hole. If the wet areas around your property start turning the same color as the dye, this would answer the question of where the water is going.

Russ

Russ that is an excellent idea! I'll have to try that. Another thought I ponder is how water flows? Can water flow downward and make a pond leak with a certain water level that adds pressure? and then drop and stay at a water level once it's dropped to a certain pressure? Just a thought. Cause if it's not that hole, that is the only other logical explanation. Are there any sites or pictures of any of you alls ponds while constructing them. I'd love to see if I did mine right. If it doesn't hold I'm think of diggin another pond where the land is flat and then tranporting them. Bob, my pond is a long way from the house it would prolly cost some huge dough to do that, but if i had the money I would in a minute. I got responses quicker than I thought i would. Thanks alot

you can purchase powdered dye at a local ag chemical dealer. it is water soluable and non-toxic. It is used in the foam markers so the operator knows where he has already spayed.

Outdoorsman: Sounds like you are on the right track since the water drops to the level of the hole. The dye idea might get some results, though the dye might just get filtered out in the dirt, but worth a try... I would put the dye in the hole as much as you can and try and run a garden hose to the hole and try and use it to flush the dye.... it may take an hour or a day or two to show up.

In any case , I would dig back the hole with a back hoe if you can, and back fill it with a clay and bentonite mixture, packing it in as you go. I would rerun the dye before you dig so that you might be able to track the hole as you dig down. You might have to let the water get a little lower or pump out a little or build a secondary dam aroung the hole so the existing pond water doesn't cause you to make a big mud hole. You would need to keep that area somewhat dry to work the area.

If you can not get a backhoe to the area, then I would try and dig down to the hole from above and try and get as much bentonite into the whole as possible. You might help it seep into the cracks with a little water added a little at a time. This may take more than once to help but it seems like something reasonably cheap to try.

Good luck

I just noticed another thread about leaking dam... Did you check out the heading " Building a dam"... Patrick has a similar problem