Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions crawdads

My dad and I acquired a piece of property with a 1 acre pond in need of some work. Due to the severe drought here in Tennesee this past summer, the pond dried up completely allowing us to do the work we thought it needed. We hauled in some clay into to bottom where we thought the problem existed based on a soil report we had. The pond began to fill nicely, but we are losing water (anywhere from 1-4 inches per day). Crawdads are putting holes all in the bottom of our pond, which, based on what we have observed, is why we can seem to get the pond to fill up past a certain point. We will get a surge of water from a rainstorm, but it slowly loses the water over the span of a week. We've observed water funneling into these holes and assume that is the culprit of our water loss. We are trying to stay on top of them, going on crawdad patrols daily filling in their holes with Bentonite, but as you might suspect, are losing the battle. Any ideas?
Also, does anyone know of a good pond consultant who serves middle Tennessee.?
Thanks for any help/suggestions you can offer

Welcome to Pond Boss, rockymack.

I don't have a lot of experience with your question, but my guess is that there is a "deeper" issue, no pun intended. I was never aware that crawdad holes actually connected to other areas thereby causing serious pond leaks.

This is just a guess, but I wonder if the crawdad holes just happen to be in an area that is prone to a leak for other reasons.

Are you able to see where the water is coming out, or going to? Is there a dam, or is this an excavated pond?

Let's see what others have to say.

Craws can cause some leakage but I would bet there is another cause. Are the holes in your dam and if so can you see where the water is going ?

The holes don't appear to be near the dam but opposite the dam. The water is about 4 ft deep right now at the dam so it is hard to see if there are any holes but we haven't found any on the bank on that side of the pond. That is why we suspected the crawdads because the pond was filling up until the water rose to the the area where we were finding all these holes. But we might indeed have another problem with seepage around the dam. The soils report we had indicated a potential problem with the soils in the bottom of the pond, thus we had walked in some clay and compacted the entire bottom with a sheepsfoot. The dam appeard to be constructed well, so we did not do anything with the dam. Perhaps that was where we went wrong. There is a rock shelf about 8 feet down below the bottom of the dam. We are thinking about digging down to the rock shelf at the dam and filling that with clay and bentonite. We used this same technique on the other side of the pond to isolate a marshy area from the rest of the pond and it was worked beautifully.

Pond leaks are extremely vexing. The only way that I know to find them is to pump it dry and take a good look. The crawdads could be a problem but are more likely to be a symptom of a problem. You might not have enough clay walked in on the bottom. If you are seeing water funneling into their holes, they need to be eliminated. If they are naturally occuring, that could be easier said than done.

Contact Otto (Mike Otto) and set up an appointment for a phone call. For a consultant in your area, contact the Pond Boss office. Lusk ought to know somebody in your area.

rockymac
Call my office at 1.800.882.3478 or email me at mikeotto@ottosdirtservice.com between 8 and noon and set up a phone appt. with Sheri. I would love to talk to you about this and help you get to the bottom of the problem.

Have you considered shrimp boil, new potatoes and corn? That should solve the crawdad problem. Perhaps some of our Louisiana friends have other ideas? Sorry rockymack I couldn't resist

Captain 1
Great idea. We actually did purchase a trap to have a couple crawfish boils and use them for fishing bait at local resevoirs. We have an appointment set up for a soil test to be done as a follow up to one done several years ago. We were losing quite a bit of water and are suspecting a problem with the dam. The past 2 weeks we seemed to be losing water faster, which has shifted our focus from the crawdads to a soils issue, as some of you eluded to. I do appreciate the help and suggestions you have offered. I'll keep you posted on the progress. Lord willing, we'll have things repaired in time for the spring rains.

Hey Rockymack. Im also in middle TN. Lebanon to be exact. I also have a leaking pond. Where did you get your soil tested? Thats something I should have done but thought Id be ok without it. Im loosing about 1 to 1 1/2 inch per day. Where do you get the Bentonite? I checked with co-op and they dont have it any more.

nashfireman
Sorry for taking so long to reply. We get our bentonite at the local co-op down here in Spring Hill. They sell it in 50lb bags so we aren't getting it by the truckload if that is what you need. The do sell the granulated bentonite and the powdered stuff. I don't have the guy's name who did our soil report. My dad was the one who met him at the pond the day he came out. He is out of Columbia, TN and actually builds ponds as well. He was very knowledgable and helpful. If you still are looking for someone, let me know and I'll track down his name and number. We have actually been digging out the dam this week and today rebuilt the bottom of the dam from the rock with compacted clay. Tomorrow we have some work to do with a dozer to put the site back together and we should be ready to fill it back up. Hopefully she holds water.

Rockymack:
If you still have problems you are welcome to call my office at 800.882.3478 (DIRT) or email me at: mikeotto@ottosdirtservice.com and we can discuss this on the phone.

Mike--
We were able to get the pond put back together on Wednesday. Everything went really well. We dug out the bottom of the dam all the way down to the rock shelf. The dam was VERY SOFT and I don't think had ever seen the likes of a compacter. That and the dirt was predominantly sandy loam. We discovered that the original pond builder had put a layer of decent clay over a thin plastic liner but had probably gone that route instead of doing proper dirt work. Earlier soils tests had confirmed we had good clay on our property so we dug a huge pit (nearly big enough to completly bury a single wide trailer) and carried over 30 dumptruck loads of clay into the bottom of the pond and compacted it with a sheepsfoot in 8 in. lifts. Let me tell you, that dirt compacted great. This was after spending three solid days digging a trench 10ft. down to the rock, about 8ft. wide(so the hoe ram and the compactor could travel in the bottom)and about 70ft. long. The banks of the dam were so saturated with water and so soft they kept caving in during excavation. We also had to pump out water that was sitting on the rock shelf and would seep into the trench. They don't call Tennessee "rocky top" for nothing. Once you get down to the layer of limestone, you are not going down any further none to easy. We did not see any evidence of cracks or crevices where our water was going. In fact, it was just a giant flat slab of rock. We even shot grade on it and there was only 2 inches worth of difference in the whole thing. Ironically, we were a little relieved to find the dam so poorly built and wet because it made us feel we were on the right track to repairing the pond. We then put the soft loam we had excavated from the dam back in the hole we dug the clay from. When I left to go turkey hunting in Alabama last Thursday, we had just disconnected to sump pump and were letting the pond start to fill back up. I couldn't believe it when I returned yesterday to find the local rains and the small stream had already filled the bottom of the pond about 2-3ft. deep. We are hopeful we have fixed the problems. I hope to send you some pictures of our work and of a pond full of water. I really appreciate the help you offered. As soon as I get the pictures, I will send them to you.

Our yankee fingers are crossed hoping for a good outcome!

So far so good. Actually, we are floored by the amount of water we are getting. We received a fair amount of rain last week and the pond swelled another 5 feet just last week. It rose another 6 inches just today. It is really good to see that much water in there--more than we've ever had since we purchased the property. Time will obviously tell the whole story, but we are encouraged thus far. Keep the fingers crossed--even if you are a Yankee. Actually, I grew up in Colorado and have just previously moved to the South so I'm not as die-hard Southern as most of the people are down here.