Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions 1st pond . need tips

if i can get access to extra clay this year from excess dirt at work, i may haul some more in and go a couple foot higher like i wanted to do anyway. im gonna see what the water does on its own this summer. i may not have to drain anything lol

well. leak hasnt got worse or better really. just the one spot on the back that since i dug a hole ,constantly stays full with watr and seeps down the hill slowly. and the water is crystal clear and brownish mineral color. i walked the dam 7 or 8 times and water witched and found the same spot every time,which is directly over where i hit rock when coring the dam about 4 ft deep in just this one spot. i find water lines all the time doing this and its always been right, so i kinda believe it. now just gotta figure out what i wanna do here. guess i should have spent more and hoe rammed all the rock out deeper.

How deep is your pond now? Has it gained any depth? I have never had any luck with the water witching, we just drill till we hit water.

its about the same give or take a foot. when it does rise, it slowly goes away down to about where it is now, which is probably 4-5 ft. i got the backhoe out and dug as deep as i could with the extend a hoe at that spot i marked about 20 ft long down the front top of the dam, and when i came up with nothing, i then went to where the leak is and did the same thing. still nothing. even more amazing is the dirt down past 8 ft deep or so is all dry as a bone all the way down far as i can go. seems if there was a leak the dirt would be wet if i was anywhere close. since im already in there i maight as well cut from one end till the other and see if i can find water anywhere.

Bottledgt, It might be leaking out the bottom but you never know. I think I would bust that rock as deep as you can. Good luck!

well its leaking out the back cause theres water coming out of the dam. i just have to find where. im gonna finish trenching all the way across and see if i can find water anywhere first and try to pack it back in with the bucket to stop it off. if i dont find anything, i guess ive gotta move it all and go deeper and start over.

ive went as deep as possible, but cant get any deeper to where the rock is. its all dry. but i dug down behind the dam where the leak shows up and water is coming through the seam between the old ground and the new ground. so i guess its just the fact that i cant get any deeper is why i can locate any water. gonna get my buddies trackhoe and skidder and try to get deeper to find it, then probably gonna have to recore it and rebuild it. i know the dirt is way to dry down there to have enough compaction to really work, so thats probably most of the problem. once this is fixed, it seems lke this thing should hold a lot better.

Sounds like you got to the bottom of the problem!

well. not yet! i cut the dam down some where the rock is so i could get deeper and after about 5 more ft i found it. dug out both side of it and nothing...not even a drop of water. at this point i know im at the bottom of the original core so i dont know whats up now. i havent found the slightest sign of a drop of water anywhere and im every bit of 20 ft down. theres only really one area i havent dug out yet and my my luck thats where it probably is...i thought for sure it would have been coming around that rock ledge but i guess not

Maybe tomorrow.

maybe,..,,.lol. whats really gonna suck is when i get through it all and still not find water. lol

I think I would still hammer that rock big time. We came from eastern Ky. and all they used to dig ponds was a bulldozer. They would push the dirt down from the dam and after they got the depth,they would bring the dirt back and build the dam. The only ones that would leak would be where they hit rock and didn't pack it good. No cores and they didn't compact the bottom. Soil was all clay.

well, if i have to end up REALLY digging it out i will. gotta find something first. theres obviously no water penetrating the from half of the dam anywhere ive dug so far. most of what ive dug has been open for 24 hrs now, and not a drop of water has came through anywhere. hopefully i can find SOMETHING tomorrow cause after tomorrow there wont be any part of the dam i havent crossed

all done. tired. no luck whatsoever. the dam is all packed back in mostly. not a drop of water from one end to the other. and all the while i worked today, it dropped another 1/4 inch. thought sure id find something, but no water whatsoever is being lost though any part of the dam i built. thats good ,but now i gotta wonder what this seeping water out back is from...

You have my sympathy. Do you think it could be coming from the bottom of the pond. Is the leak lower then the bottom of the pond? I hope you solve this before it affects your sex drive.

the water coming out is between the original dirt and the new dirt at the back of the dam. no idea where its spouting from though. i dug WAY deeper than where its coming out at. i just thought if it was the dam, id for sure have it taken care of before all this spring rain came. but i guess now ill just get to watch and see it drain some more. i know for sure i was at least 5-6 ft below original ground when i dug today. i was down good in the original hard pan and nada. not a sign of moisture anywhere.

This may not work at all but I might try this since you have no fish in your pond. The water should run in a straight line fromwhere it is exiting the pond. I might buy many of the blue discs that you put in a commode. Put several of them in a mesh bag that is weighted down so that it doesn't move. Start at the dam, drop it as close to the dam as possible. If it doesn't get blue water move it straight back 5 feet and repeat the process. It may or may not work but Mr.Tidy will think you for the business.

eh...i pretty much know now the dam is fine...lol

as of today. gotta finish the top of the dam again after the rain gets the rest of the dirt moist enough to pack . its a hole of water! maybe itll seal eventually. if i eventually gotta drain it and put more clay to it , so be it. this is too good a setup not to have water here. i tossed a float and fly bobber setup out in the middle and played around with leaders and found that its 6 to 6 1/2 ft roughly deep which is about what i thought.

65 degrees yesterday and snow today . in 4 hrs today, its up 4 inches and still rising. good to see. maybe it just needs to keep filling and we'll see what happens.

That is good BOTTLD,maybe you solved your leak problem. I sent you a PM. Good luck.

i dont really think i solved anything lol. heres a shot when i was digging. as you can tell, im DOWN there. and its dry. the rock is in there too if you can see it close to the far end. but it does ease my mind now, knowing nothing is coming through it.

man today got good in a hurry. an inch of rain totally engulfed my measuring stick i had in the water that was sticking out 3ft. now i can watch it and see how fast it goes down...lol. its NEVER been this full yet. but we havent had this much rain yet either

Man that pond looks great so far! Good job!

Yeah, that is nice-looking! I wish I had the time and money to go play with some heavy machines to try my hand at it. Early career was landscaping, but got tired of rising on mowers. Loved the architecture side of though, and pond building fits right in there.