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Originally Posted by HTNFSH2
I tried searching this, but how are some of you able to upload pictures so you can see them in a thread, versus downloading a file extension?


You have to save the picture to an on-line site such as imgur. Copy/paste the share link to the post and you are done.


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We finally got some rain on 12/6/21. This is a picture of the north end facing a drain I plumed to capture additional run-off. Still a long way to go!

[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rUor3pkg_TPa7UVjC3fedvyGxKSeALzz/view?usp=sharing[/img]

Last edited by HTNFSH2; 12/09/21 12:00 PM.
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I'm curious how many pond owners are obsessed with rainfall as much as I am.

We had two major events inside of a week dropping 2" on 12/1, then 1.25" 6 days later. That netted us a 14.5-inch increase in the water level. A large portion of the water comes from my neighbor's property. We are close to 6/10 of an acre surface area now and roughly 6ft in the deep end.

He has about 2.5 acres of field that sheds off into a roadside ditch that I collect with two 12 inch culvert pipes. This really helps to fill my pond. He used to keep it cut low, but now leaves it to stand 2-3 feet of field grasses. Do you think this is absorbing/ slowing down how much water I could be getting?

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Lol when your pond is filling up it drives you nuts but after it’s full then not so much…..

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I’m down about 4 feet. It’ll take a whopper rain to help.


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.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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I’m in Springboro area and have chased water for a year since build, first fill up, then changes above me (neighbor built house and cut water flow to me).
I feel your water pain and have gone from trying well water (not enough gpm) to ditch water solution.
I, too, have a field ditch I’ve tapped for help. At first I was transfer pumping from a collection tub. Wow, what a pain. I lived with that pump like we were married and tracked every inch, charted it, and measured on a stick just like you have ! My family was pretty sick of me celebrating each inch milestone.
I did some research over the winter and this spring I built a check dam in the ditch with pipe to the pond. The pipe takes the collected pool of water behind the dam and sends to pond. I was worried about the elevation, but am getting about 7-9” of vertical drop over a 90’ length. It works perfectly. I have a screen on the dam side of the pipe and a cap for high water or ‘pond full’ conditions. I’m about 10 months in to this solution and have learned a lot. I’ve adjusted the check dam design a few times and am really happy with it now. (Had a 4” in 2 hour water event in June so I’ve seen the high water mark…or probably a 20 year flood condition anyway)
I’ve learned about the ditch too. By pooling the water and eventually capturing almost 100% of it, you get extended water capture after any rain….except…when crops are in the field area and high weeds are in the lead-in ditches. Yes, to answer your question, the surface runoff is dramatically affected by vegetation cycles (not an expert, I just feel the effect).
Sorry so long. Your problem really resonated with me.
I too had a small leak to solve before the water source problem.
I am beyond proud of the beautiful ecosystem I’ve created and joy we get from it. I know your project didn’t hit this wedding timeline, but you are well on your way to many other memories made!
Good luck !

Last edited by KingfisherBoiler; 12/23/21 11:00 PM.
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@KingfisherBoiler

You cracked me up with the celebration of milestones. Whether with friends or family, I am constantly calculating GPM input per rainfall and sharing details with anyone that will listen. Usually just close friends and family. I'd compare the sickness to someone with a brand new snowmobile in the garage without any snow to ride on for the last last two years and hanging on every last word of the latest weather forecast praying for a substantial event.

I noticed with every major rain event, SW Ohio just gets hammered.

After rereading your reply, I should have asked to mow my neighbor's place (runoff area only) short for the fall/winter. It would have really helped.

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Well mother nature continues to be fruitful with the rain. We added 8" of depth over the weekend plus 1" from my efforts of pumping. Out of the 3.4 million gallons we need, I figure we are 30% full now.

I thought I was done pumping water for the winter due to freezing temps, but had a window and took advantage. Wish I could have run more than 6 hrs, but I'll take what I can get. There was so much water flowing in my creek that I was able to run continuously only stopping briefly to refuel.

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Been a minute since my last update. At this point, I am thinking we are close to 50% full based on volume, but need another 5.5 feet or so to get to the set waterline.

I do wish I could be pumping water, but mother nature has been pretty decent in the last 6 weeks. More rain on the way.

I'm adding pictures to my gallery page so they don't have to be downloaded.

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Finally got a chance to float my pond and found the water depth just over 11ft. We need about 4' feet to achieve full pool. The fatheads, shiners and 500 bluegill stocked in early March are doing well.

We also added some subsurface broken concrete structure about 50 feet long. Looking forward to adding some gravel banks, hardscape and other fish structure.

Just another shout out to Teejay for his help in rectifying the disaster of a pond I had in 2020/2021.

More pictures are added to my gallery page.

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Well, the saga continues.

According to the local weather stations near my property, we received 2.5-3" of rain over the weekend. My water level increased by exactly 1/2". No real runoff to speak of and my pond is still leaking or leeching water. Now that the field grasses are thick and trees are leafed out, increasing the water level runoff will be minimal. Every single major storm has slid past or peters out before it lands on my property.

I live near a 1300 acre lake that blew rose 7 feet of water in 36 hours this weekend That's nearly 3 billion gallons. Makes me want to cry.

God himself must be really unhappy with my past transgressions. I can honestly say that maintaining a boat was cheaper and more fun.

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11’! Awesome!

Are you at .3” daily loss? Through the dam? You didn’t rehab/apply polymer to dam, correct?


Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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More rain please..

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You have to have a leak somewhere I am sorry to say. I live in NE OH, so same side as the state as you, and 2022 was a dry summer here. Our 1 acre pond dropped about 10", and I pumped water out of it to water my lawn. By mid November we were full again, and have stayed full since. I remember when my contractor dug my pond he hit shale which was oozing water up at a fairly fast rate. I thought that was a good thing, but he said if water can come in that way, it can also leave that way too. He covered it up with clay. I read that you hit sandstone, so maybe your contractor didn't cover it up good enough? Here in OH our problem is too much water. I think that this was only the second or third year in the 25 years of the life of my pond that the emergency spillway wasn't used. Your pond should have filled in less than a year. Ours filled in four months, and that was just from rain and snow. I have never pumped water into it, generally I pump tens of thousands of gallons out of it ever year. Maybe try some fluorescent green dye in your pond and look to see where it comes out from. If you don't see any, then it has to be going out through sandstone fissures. I wish you the best.

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Thanks for the post Willyfield20. Yeah, I know it's still leaking. I've estimated 6-10,000 gallons a day. I've got over $100k wrapped up in this project and not spending any more. Every bit of information I have found information on this forum and elsewhere that says all ponds leak or seep. It's just a matter of having enough incoming rainfall to offset the difference.

I've used dye in the past and it doesn't work. By the time the water filters through the dam or underground, it's clean on the other side.

I used to live in NE Ohio myself and the soils have a lot more clay content than they do in the hills of SE Ohio. Lack of run-off, sandy soils, terrible contractors, and my limited knowledge have all contributed to the challenge of rebuilding this pond.

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Originally Posted by HTNFSH2
Thanks for the post Willyfield20. Yeah, I know it's still leaking. I've estimated 6-10,000 gallons a day. I've got over $100k wrapped up in this project and not spending any more. Every bit of information I have found information on this forum and elsewhere that says all ponds leak or seep. It's just a matter of having enough incoming rainfall to offset the difference.

I've used dye in the past and it doesn't work. By the time the water filters through the dam or underground, it's clean on the other side.

I used to live in NE Ohio myself and the soils have a lot more clay content than they do in the hills of SE Ohio. Lack of run-off, sandy soils, terrible contractors, and my limited knowledge have all contributed to the challenge of rebuilding this pond.

I'd really recommend talking to TJ and trying some of the pond sealer that he has. I have a unit here and I'm going to try it in some really sandy soil - almost like beach sand. I just need to get a small excavator to clean out a pit that I dug with a bucket on a tractor, apply it and fill with water from the pond.


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I don't blame you for not wanting to put more of your hard earned money into it. I was blissfully unaware of pond construction when I hired my guy. I know for a fact all he used was a D6 to compact the clay, and I also never saw him dig a core trench either. The D6 was the only piece of equipment I saw him use. The first summer our pond dropped a good foot, or more, but it filled up in the fall. Since that first summer it never dropped more than 10" which it did last year. I did have our county soil guy come out before I dug my pond though. My neighbor had a backhoe and he dug some test holes for me. The county guy looked to see if we had enough clay, and run off which we had plenty of both. I was fortunate my pond guy new what he was doing. The other contractors I hired to build my house, I was not so fortunate.... at all! Best of luck, and sorry for your troubles.

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I wish I had better news, but we still haven't seen any positive changes in the water level. The pond is about 8" lower than it was last year at this time.

Draining and starting over, is not an option.

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Just a quick update...

Still fighting a leak that generates 5-7gpm somewhere under the base of the dam. Running water has not stopped below the toe of the dam since it was initially built.

Despite 2 years of reconstruction efforts and 2600 lbs of polymer sealant, the pond will not come close to full pool.

My next course of action will be building a small pond below the dam to capture the water loss and pump it back into main pond. It's not an ideal solution, but starting over is not an option. This solution will cost me almost nothing and hopefully keep the volume of water coming in higher than what leaks out.

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Originally Posted by HTNFSH2
Just a quick update...

Still fighting a leak that generates 5-7gpm somewhere under the base of the dam. Running water has not stopped below the toe of the dam since it was initially built.

Despite 2 years of reconstruction efforts and 2600 lbs of polymer sealant, the pond will not come close to full pool.

My next course of action will be building a small pond below the dam to capture the water loss and pump it back into main pond. It's not an ideal solution, but starting over is not an option. This solution will cost me almost nothing and hopefully keep the volume of water coming in higher than what leaks out.

If it's a small pond that you will be constructing, look at lining the pond to make sure that it doesn't leak.


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We shall see Esshup. I wanted to use an EPDM liner, but he doesn't want to. Considering I'm not paying for it, what can I do?

Out of curiosity are you familiar with "dirtperfect" given he is from Indiana?

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6 GPM = 8,640 G daily

Acre inch = 27,254 G

Daily loss [including evaporation] = .31" Excluding evaporation you could be .15-.2" daily loss due to seepage.

[In the pond rehab business we don't consider anything under .33" a reason to address in areas receiving at least 20" annual precipitation.]

Prior to rehab you were losing over 2" daily IIRC.

Your efforts reduced leak rate by 85-90%

Your reduction in water loss is reason for congratulations!

Per our multiple discussions your watershed and annual rainfall isn't sufficient to keep your pond full without assistance of supplemental irrigation. This serves as the impetus for your continued angst I guess. Obviously unless one of these factors is addressed [pond size reduction, increase watershed, supplemental irrigation] even a pond sealed like tupperware won't remain full due to atmospheric influence if precipitation cannot replace the loss. Pond was not designed appropriately.


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If you're going to pump water back in you better check out going solar. I have 2 wells, 1 solar, 1 electric, pumping from 150 ft. deep. The solar setup wasn't cheap (about 7K) but I only incurred the original setup cost, it pumps about 18 GPM whenever the sun is out. The 3 HP electric pump does 35 GPM but runs about $10 per day to operate. Since you're just pumping from a downhill pond, you should be able to get by with a much smaller setup, you may be able to do it for less than $1000. Just a thought. My 3 acre pond has no watershed, the solar setup has been in almost a year and works great. I haven't been forced to use the Electric well and I'm in East Texas which went thru a really bad dry spell last year.

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Originally Posted by HTNFSH2
We shall see Esshup. I wanted to use an EPDM liner, but he doesn't want to. Considering I'm not paying for it, what can I do?

Out of curiosity are you familiar with "dirtperfect" given he is from Indiana?

Nope, never heard of them.


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TJ,

There is something clearly off that is not making sense.

The pond was dry August 10th 2021 after reconstruction and soil floc application.

Rainfall
August 12th of 2021 to April 20th of 2022 totaled 40.71" and captured approximately a net positive of 4.5 acre-feet of water (1.4 million gallons .65 acres of surface and depth of 9-10ft.) That is a gain of .5" per day over 8 months.

May 1st, 2022 to April 4th, 2023 totaled 47.7" and the current level of the pond is 4" below where it was in April of 2022. That is a net-loss of 52".

How is it possible to have a net-loss over 11 months with nearly 48" of accumulated rainfall, when the first 8 months filled in with no trouble?

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