Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Old new pond... new user

What is the pan evaporation rate for your area over that amount of time? (It is dependent on the month and the weather - use the chart that NOAA has to calculate it.)

Agree with esshup.

Your first period of rising water does not include the summer months.

A hot, dry day in July or August can easily evaporate 1/4" per day. If it is windy and very dry, I think you could maybe reach 1/2" under perfectly bad conditions.

A 1/4" loss for 200 days costs you 50" of water level in your pond.

I know that sucks big time. Better go read the "rain dance" thread and see what worked. (Tongue in cheek.)

Well, it's a hot summer once again. I'm still losing the same amount of water per day (roughly 7,000 gallons). Aside from using polymer on the inside of the dam, repairing the 1 acre pond either by hauling in clay, bentonite or other material is out of the question.


My guy came up with a cheaper solution. We created a 1/8 acre containment pond below the toe of the main dam with the end goal of pumping the water back into the big pond. It's fed by the leak and what appears to be a spring. Despite the lack of rain it's been filling every day since we completed the job on 7/3. It should hold 90-120 thousand gallons. It could double in size if we blow out some trees and build up the dam another 4-6 feet.

Now I need to figure out an ideal pumping solution, preferably electric on a timer.

How high do you have to lift the water to get it from the catch basin back up into your main pond?

How clean can you keep the water you are pumping?

Will you have AC electricity at the site?

The centrifugal "lawn irrigation" type pumps that many of the manufacturers sell are pretty darn efficient in terms of gallons/kWh and should closely match your requirements? Almost every pump likes "cleaner" water, but some are more tolerant of trash and debris than others.

See if you can get a good sales rep or engineer on the phone or in a chat. I have sometimes gotten excellent people that know their stuff, and sometimes gotten idiots that are just reading off of the same literature I can read on the website.

If you do get a good person, ask about the best "duty cycle" for the pump you are sizing. If they say "two hours on, then two hours off for cooling", then use that info and your desired daily pump rate to size the correct pump for your application. Since you are going to be running this pump long term, you definitely need to utilize "best practices" for whatever style of pump you end up installing.

Good luck on your pond-topping project!

P.S. Glad to see you managed to make some lemonade with the lemons you were handed at your pond.

Thanks FishinRod,

Duty cycles is exactly what I am researching at the moment haha.

The run is roughly 220 feet with 47 feet of elevation to overcome. The goal is to run the pump system 2 to 4 times until I reach full pool, then hopefully less frequently. The total dynamic head is 62ft using 2" discharge line.

There are several ways do to this. I love the idea of clean water. (it's not cleared yet with all the construction). My first idea would be a large 18" standpipe with a 6" casing and pea gravel between the two for a fitler. I'm also considering the biomass balls used in a self-contained water feature pond.Then use a continuous-duty well pump or a high-head submersible pump to move the water. This would require a small dock so I would have access to set and maintain the pump.

I'm going to use the overlflow to snake 2" rolled pipe discharge line. This will also give me the option of running my gas powered 120gpm if I want to move a lot of water in a short period and it will serve as my temp solution until I figure out the permanent one.

No real progress on moving water from the reservoir to the big pond. I did a test run with my 5hp HP pump and it works fine. The biggest downside is the reservoir has been filled for 2 months, but won't clear with the exposed hillside around it.

I haven't seen this much dry dirt since 2nd repair after it rose to its highest level in January of 2022. I'm reconsidering starting over (drain, remove all structure minus the dock) and install a liner. It's a $120k eyesore in its current state.

For anyone looking to build a pond and want to know what a worst-case scenario looks like, feel free to reach out.

#1 Learn for yourself how good ponds are built before writing the first check
#2 Verify the excavation company, jobs completed, and references
#3 Have the time to watch the excavation and ask questions (no one knows everything)
#4 Set up a timelapse camera to record the job
#5 No clay, no water
#6 Synthetic additives for poor soil or construction are not a fix.