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I feel like I've taken a big step in my Padawan Pondmeister journey... thanks to the Pond Jedi's and Gurus so willing to share their experience and knowledge with new guys like me. Phase One of my mini-pond project has reached a milestone! A pond now exists where there was not one before. smile

After attending Pond Boss VII, I really focused on clarifying my goal before I got started. After careful consideration, I knew that my real focus was to improve the visual aesthetics of my property and provide additional value to the wildlife habitat where I live. I love the idea of having a healthy, balanced ecosystem in the mini-pond that will support a variety of fish, but also encourage other birds and critters to visit and enjoy the land we share. (except perhaps feral pigs... I'm ok with them visiting someone else) Besides, Mike Otto says that "people are healthier, happier, and live longer with a pond on their property." Who am I to argue?!

The area we live in is surrounded by ~11k acres of dense forest, but our place is only ~6 acres. One of the first things I did was look for natural ponds near me as a general indicator of what the geology might be like. I found two that were within a half mile of my place (circled)...
East Texas Piney Woods

I originally wanted a pond when we built our home a couple years ago, but didn't want to prematurely remove some really large hardwoods in the yard area. As the seasons rolled on after moving in, it turned out that several of those trees (particularly a couple of very large oaks and large black gum) succumbed to the stress of the construction process. I'm told that moving a lot of dirt around with heavy equipment over the root structures will often take it's toll on older trees. That seemed to be the case here and I ended up having them removed as they were dying. This opened up a small area that sparked the re-ignition of my pond dream. This photo shows several spots off the back of the house where I had giant hardwood stumps ground down after their unfortunate "early retirement".


The next crossroads in the planning flow-chart was the field test. I arranged to have a backhoe come out and poke an 8-or-so foot test hole in the area the pond would roughly be to see what sort of soil existed. I used the tried and true Mike Otto method from "Just Add Water" (great book that I highly recommend everyone buy, read, and give out as stocking stuffers). After 18 to 20 inches of sandy loam top-soil, we hit the good stuff.


Man, was I excited when the big toys showed up! (maybe not big by some standards, but a darn-sight bigger than my Cub Cadet :))
Big Toys have arrived!

Deciding at the last minute to go ahead and take out three small hardwoods allowed me to squeeze a little more surface area out of the mini-pond and achieve a depth of 7 feet comfortably. There were some large underground root systems from my big oaks that needed to be yanked out and we wreaked some major havoc on the irrigation system and septic gray water distribution. Dozers don't much care about anything in the dirt they move... they just know how to move dirt and a lot of it!
Laying out the mini-pond area.

First step was scraping off the top soil to reuse after the levee was in place. It is amazing how easy even a small dozer pushes the earth around!


After the topsoil was out of the way, the key channels were cut along the levee sides of the pond. I never considered this would be required for such a small endeavor, but it was explained to me that designing the pond for all the goes-ins to not goes-outs requires careful levee/dam creation and that jives with everything I'm learning here, so watching the stuff I read in Mike's book come to life was a cool process.


After the levee was finished, the basic shape was crafted and compaction was focused on:


It took a couple of days to get the pond bowled out and everything compacted well. I had a small shelf cut into the inbound side while the equipment was onsite.
Finished slopes on banks and finished shelf area

When we built our home, we used Texas Rattlesnake chop limestone that was quarried in central Texas. We ended up with a bit left over, so I moved about a ton of it into the pond and made stacks along the edges for small fish shelter.


It is full stone rather than cut, so I was able to use some larger chunks for a little outline on the shelf... nothing special there, just hoping the water would be clear enough to see it once done.


I used the 2 to 3 ton per acre number to extrapolate 400 pounds of pulverized aglime for application before I started filling. I live in Grimes county and the eastern piney woods soil is typically acidic. I figure the alkalinity offset would help kick start the plankton growth. I'll get a proper water sample after things have time to settle in...


The Vertex PondLyfe 2 system with the paddles at the 7 foot mark. I wanted to place these before I started filling.


Here is my pea gravel shelf. I may put some potted aquatic plants on it, but it's mainly there for fish. I don't know if it's a good idea or not, but hey... pea gravel is cheap. wink


The pond took 3 full days to fill with my well. This is about 2 days in and the water I'm pulling from 400 feet down is pretty darn clear. It would be a dream come true to keep anywhere remotely close to this sort of clarity, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Based on best case/worst case flow rate, this little mini-pond is somewhere between 100k and 120k gallons I suspect.


Here is an over-lay of the pond area applied to the original area shot during planning... and another drone shot from farther off to give a basic sense of scale to the yard/pond ratio.


I'm sure this will come together a lot more once I get some plant life and grasses growing around the perimeter.


Here is the pond full as viewed from a rocking chair on my porch.


...and another view from the levee toward the house.


Here is a little video of a test run on the diffusers (to see if I needed to balance the manafold valves) and an underwater peek at the gravel for the fish to tinker with...


Last but not least... if anyone is interested... I had a trail cam snapping a photo every now and again to mash together into a little time-lapse of the dig and fill. I feel like I haven't even scratched the scratch yet when it comes to learning about this stuff, but now I have a classroom in the backyard to do homework in along the way. I am still trying to get my head around steps between now and stocking with some fish... what to do/not do... how long to wait... etc. I think a longer term vision for me to add to the aesthetic would be to stack some stone along the back levee and install some sort of sump pump that would draw from the bottom and push water over different flat ledges to provide not only additional movement/oxygen, but a place for birds and bees to wash their knees. Since I don't know what all that will entail of if it's even feasible yet, I'm having a 220v circuit dropped out behind the levee with a small breaker panel for future expansion while it otherwise serves up a 110v GFCI to the Vertex system in the meantime.


Thanks for sharing this process and journey with me. I think it has really been made possible and come together largely in part from Pond Boss magazine, the conference, wisdom from Bob, Mike, and all the speakers there, the Pond Boss forum and all the awesome folks that drop nuggets there... I'm grateful. I appreciate y'all... my new friends and the ones I've yet to meet... for helping me get this 'ole can down the road.

Any advice, thoughts, comments, etc on any of what I've already done, could'a/should'a done different/better, or what I can improve are WELCOMED! ...and I'd certainly like to use this thread to keep y'all updated on how things continue... especially after I get into the fish stocking stage of this journey.

Thanks again! I look forward to hearing from y'all!
Cheers!
Clayton




96.85840735 percent clayton... the rest is just pi.

We become what we think about.
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Does it hold water well, since it was built using only dozer and backhoe, and not compacted with a roller?

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KapHn8d Offline OP
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It holds water very well from what I can see thusfar...

It's worth mentioning that the dozer operator spent a long time compacting the clay. There may have not been a sheepsfoot roller in this relatively small space, but the dozer is heavy and the tracks work well as a substitute. This is especially true if the clay is of high enough quality for holding water.

The soil chapter of Mike Otto's book talks about using multiple passes with a dozer for soil compaction.

/c

Originally Posted By: John Fitzgerald
Does it hold water well, since it was built using only dozer and backhoe, and not compacted with a roller?


96.85840735 percent clayton... the rest is just pi.

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Many on this thread would differ (from their experience) with your claim that a dozer is heavy and that tracks "work well as a substitute."

The fact that you can see the tracks in your time lapse footage did not even make a mark in your grass is proof that if he drove his tracks over your boot you would not suffer an injury.

The pond is brand new so you don't have an idea yet on how it holds water. The banks have to saturate with water so there is some wicking usually. But you do seem to have some clay there based on your pictures that should help despite the absence of the compaction step in your construction.

I'm curious about the diffusers. For that size pond do they not usually have a diffuser setup where the 2 diffusers are mounted on a single base? Did you modify that set up for 2 separate diffusers on 2 separate lines? What was the rationale for the extra length of weighted hose? Is there a 3rd weighted hose in the fore ground of that picture? What is that hose for?

I love your pictures and your water clarity and view of the diffusers in action is incredible!

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KapHn8d Offline OP
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You make really great points - especially the one about the newness of my pond (and it's true, I lack of knowledge/experience). The dozer compaction statement was just regurgitation out of Mr. Otto's book... and from the dirt guy that did my pond (and his decades of experience I don't have). There is lots of wicking going on because the clay hasn't reached any sort of stability yet... but I'm fairly certain that once that occurs, it will hold. The type of clay that starts a foot and half down is consistent to as deep as we tested (~11') and doesn't seem to be permeable.

( It is indeed a small dozer (15k lbs), but probably would still hurt my foot. laugh )

The Vertex PondLyfe system is the smallest they make... comes in 4 models that are identical in cfm throughput and pond service capacity, but have different paddle configurations. The PondLyfe 1 is 2 diffusers on a single base. The PondLyfe 2, seen here, is 1 diffuser per base spread over 2 bases. They both push the same amount of air (compressor/base station is identical). The truth is, the local pond and lake management company I purchased the system from (authorized vendor) happened to have a "2" in stock and there was a 10 day lead time to order a "1". It made little difference to me and I actually like the idea of spreading the two paddles a few feet apart. No other reason for the configuration.

The extra length of hose is not really "extra". The compressor will permanently sit on the back side of the levee, so another 6 feet or so of hose was needed to reach that spot. The electrician is putting in a circuit and subpanel for future expansion there and I just was moving everything well out of the way so no nicks and scratches occur. Once I move the unit into place, there won't be much slack in the hose. (other than that, the manufacturer's installation guidance in the owners manual calls for 4' of extra tubing to be left on shore)

The misl hose you see to the front/right of the pond is the hose I'm filling the pond with from an extra tap off the well pump manifold. I ran it into the bottom of the pond rather than fill from the edge... no particular reason. It's temporary. The pond "fill" to top off during high evaporation months will be a 1" line on the back of the levee with a temp hose I can run over the surface when needed. I didn't put any penetrations into the pond for permanent fill lines.

My guess is the water clarity won't last. I wish it would, but it's just really, really clean (and very hard) ground water from the well.

Thanks for the comment... I appreciate the food for thought because I'm learning as I go.

Cheers!
/clayton



Originally Posted By: canyoncreek
Many on this thread would differ (from their experience) with your claim that a dozer is heavy and that tracks "work well as a substitute."

The fact that you can see the tracks in your time lapse footage did not even make a mark in your grass is proof that if he drove his tracks over your boot you would not suffer an injury.

The pond is brand new so you don't have an idea yet on how it holds water. The banks have to saturate with water so there is some wicking usually. But you do seem to have some clay there based on your pictures that should help despite the absence of the compaction step in your construction.

I'm curious about the diffusers. For that size pond do they not usually have a diffuser setup where the 2 diffusers are mounted on a single base? Did you modify that set up for 2 separate diffusers on 2 separate lines? What was the rationale for the extra length of weighted hose? Is there a 3rd weighted hose in the fore ground of that picture? What is that hose for?

I love your pictures and your water clarity and view of the diffusers in action is incredible!


96.85840735 percent clayton... the rest is just pi.

We become what we think about.
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Lots of heavy equipment operators can speak more to this than I. I found a quick summary of PSI from tracked vehicles online. This is from a Hitachi Ex200, 20 ton excavator. The weight is probably twice your dozer but tracks are also larger. You can plug the numbers in from your dozer. In this example despite 20 ton weight the force on your boot is only 7 psi. It would be interesting to substitute the track area vs weight of your dozer. But either way, the PSI from a dozer tread has come up in other threads and the force generally per square foot is not much different than rolling it with a lawn tractor pulling a drum filled with concrete.

Here is the example I found:

Ground Pressure

Ground pressure is the pressure exerted on the ground by the tires or tracks of a motorized vehicle, and is one measure of its potential mobility,[1] especially over soft ground. Ground pressure is measured in pascals (Pa) which corresponds to the EES unit of pounds per square inch (psi). Average ground pressure can be calculated using the standard formula for average pressure: P = F/A.[2] In an idealized case, i.e. a static, uniform net force normal to level ground at Earth sea level, this is simply the object’s weight divided by contact area. The ground pressure of motorized vehicles is often compared to the ground pressure of a human foot, which can be 60 – 80 kPa while walking or as much as 13 MPa for a person in spike heels.[3]

Increasing the size of the contact area on the ground (the footprint) in relation to the weight decreases the ground pressure. Ground pressure of 14 Pa (2 psi) or less is recommended for fragile ecosystems like marshes.[4] Decreasing the ground pressure increases the flotation, allowing easier passage of the body over soft terrain. This is often observed in activities like snowshoeing.

Example: Average ground contact for a Hitachi EX 200 (20 ton)

Calculate average ground contact area (footprint):
A = length x width
A = 132.1″ x 23.6″ =3115.2 x 2 for two tracks = 6230.4

Calculate average ground contact pressure:
P = load / area
P = 43651.5 lbs divided over the area 6230.4″ = 7 lbs per square inch
P = 7 psi

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For comparison, a 100# woman in high heels applies about 1500 psi!

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Clayton, assure that you have oxygenation prior to stocking and kind of fish. Well water, unless run over some baffles to break it up, is not oxygenated.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

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Originally Posted By: Bocomo
For comparison, a 100# woman in high heels applies about 1500 psi!


Is that when she rocks back on only one heel, or both? What about when she stands flat footed? C'mon man, this is PondBoss after all, we obsess over the details!! grin


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If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
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Clayton,
The pond seems to have come out well; thanks for the pictures.

As for compaction, my pond in Ms. was compacted with a bulldozer and it holds water well. My clay was pretty good as yours seems to be. I had done alot of research about pond building but one thing I hadn't seen was that best compaction was by sheeps foot roller. Even if I had, I may have "yielded" to the 30 yrs of pond building experience the builder had??

I didn't see a primary overflow; is it going to be a spillway?

dan


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pretty cool, what you going to put in it fish wise?


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Looks mighty good man. Glad you came away with lots of ideas. Your place looks great.


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Thanks, David. I plan on giving it a few weeks of aeration and sunlight before testing the water and making a call about stocking. I am in no rush on that... thank you for the reminder!

/clayton

Originally Posted By: Dave Davidson1
Clayton, assure that you have oxygenation prior to stocking and kind of fish. Well water, unless run over some baffles to break it up, is not oxygenated.


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Stilettos?

wink

/c

Originally Posted By: sprkplug
Originally Posted By: Bocomo
For comparison, a 100# woman in high heels applies about 1500 psi!


Is that when she rocks back on only one heel, or both? What about when she stands flat footed? C'mon man, this is PondBoss after all, we obsess over the details!! grin


96.85840735 percent clayton... the rest is just pi.

We become what we think about.
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I am fairly certain that if my soil was any different (inferior), a roller would have been used.

Yes, there is a designed spillway area on the natural downflow side of the yard elevation. We plan on dovetailing that spillway area into a "dry creek bed" visual (buy functional) aesthetic that will help channel any overflow into the actual creekbed running perpendicular to that flow through our yard where the bridge is in the overhead photo to the left/north of the pond.

Thanks, Dan.

/c

Originally Posted By: djstauder
Clayton,
The pond seems to have come out well; thanks for the pictures.

As for compaction, my pond in Ms. was compacted with a bulldozer and it holds water well. My clay was pretty good as yours seems to be. I had done alot of research about pond building but one thing I hadn't seen was that best compaction was by sheeps foot roller. Even if I had, I may have "yielded" to the 30 yrs of pond building experience the builder had??

I didn't see a primary overflow; is it going to be a spillway?

dan


96.85840735 percent clayton... the rest is just pi.

We become what we think about.
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When the water will support some stocking, I'm planning on starting out with some sunfish and minnows... probably what is available through my local pond management resource (CNBG/BG, RES, FHM). I am more interested in getting a stable ecosystem working that quantity of fish, so I don't want to overdo it. I am still scratching my head on aquatic plants. Of course, I can't do much about what the birds bring in...

I'm open to thoughts and suggestions on all that...

/clayton

Originally Posted By: RER
pretty cool, what you going to put in it fish wise?


96.85840735 percent clayton... the rest is just pi.

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Thanks, man... it's a work in progress. I'm literally learning as I go with the pond. I am trying to stay ahead of questions and challenges that are popping up, but sometimes you just have to get started and do it as part of the process.

Appreciate the kind words.
|
Cheers,
Clayton

Originally Posted By: Snakebite
Looks mighty good man. Glad you came away with lots of ideas. Your place looks great.


96.85840735 percent clayton... the rest is just pi.

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This post is not meant to diminish your work in any way, but the same thing happened to me.
My first pond was a renovation, and only compacted with a dozer. It still leaks after two years. The second pond was compacted with a dozer, then a heavy backhoe with loaded front bucket. It leaks some, but less than half as much as the first pond. Both ponds are in all clay. After a couple of months of soaking the all clay banks, wet spots started appearing below the ponds after they had been at full pool for a few days.

As to fish, in a pond that small, I would avoid sunfish, and stock fathead minnows and maybe 15 channel catfish. I have a third pond that is about 2000 square feet, four feet deep, and holds only fathead minnows. Yours appears to be about 2000 square feet and maybe six feet deep.



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perhaps minnows and or shiners and a few fish that reproduce slowly or not at all. over population could be an issue in a small pond.


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This is great. Love the idea of a little mini pond.


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Originally Posted By: sprkplug
Originally Posted By: Bocomo
For comparison, a 100# woman in high heels applies about 1500 psi!


Is that when she rocks back on only one heel, or both? What about when she stands flat footed? C'mon man, this is PondBoss after all, we obsess over the details!! grin


Example: 125 pound person wearing 1/4 inch square spike heels. Rocking back on both heels = 1,000 PSI per heel. Standing on one heel = 2,000 PSI. Hundreds of people walking back and forth in spike heels = one sheepsfoot roller. LOL

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That's a bummer you had to deal with that... All I can do is hope that isn't the case here. I've heard not all clay is created equal. We'll see how things shake out over the next week or two. I have a friend with a pond only slightly larger than mine that lives a mile from me and it's held water without issue for 9 years now (also only compacted with dozer). They do have evaporation to deal with in July/August, but it gets up around 100 degrees here consistently in the summer.

Is you recommendation to avoid sunfish based on their reproduction rate? I was kinda looking forward to letting my little nieces fish those... just curious.

Thanks, John!
/clayton



Originally Posted By: John Fitzgerald
This post is not meant to diminish your work in any way, but the same thing happened to me.
My first pond was a renovation, and only compacted with a dozer. It still leaks after two years. The second pond was compacted with a dozer, then a heavy backhoe with loaded front bucket. It leaks some, but less than half as much as the first pond. Both ponds are in all clay. After a couple of months of soaking the all clay banks, wet spots started appearing below the ponds after they had been at full pool for a few days.

As to fish, in a pond that small, I would avoid sunfish, and stock fathead minnows and maybe 15 channel catfish. I have a third pond that is about 2000 square feet, four feet deep, and holds only fathead minnows. Yours appears to be about 2000 square feet and maybe six feet deep.




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Thanks... I have a lot to learn about how to do this "right"...
I appreciate the guidance.

/c

Originally Posted By: RER
perhaps minnows and or shiners and a few fish that reproduce slowly or not at all. over population could be an issue in a small pond.



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Thanks... I really have wanted a pond for so long. I'm just trying to make the best out of the small space I have to work with...
appreciate it!

cheers,
Clayton


Originally Posted By: NEDOC
This is great. Love the idea of a little mini pond.


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Originally Posted By: KapHn8d

Is you recommendation to avoid sunfish based on their reproduction rate? I was kinda looking forward to letting my little nieces fish those... just curious.

Thanks, John!
/clayton




Yes, sunfish will overpopulate in a small pond in the absence of predators. Best to have only a few channel cats and fathead minnows. You might be able to obtain a few albino channel cats for effect. I was able to get a few in 2015-16. The biggest one is about seven pounds now.

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by Mike Troyer, October 6
Sharing the Food
Sharing the Food
by FishinRod, September 9
Nice BGxRES
Nice BGxRES
by Theo Gallus, July 28
Snake Identification
Snake Identification
by Rangersedge, July 12

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