Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? 2.5 Acre Pond Gone! work/restroation thread

As expected the pH test for the pond came back fairly hot 5.1 pH. After doing some research I should have taken soil samples Prior to it filling and amended it with AgLime at that point. - Makes perfect sense and I had thought about it but didn't get the knowledge until now of how and the studied findings on different lime formulations.

Anyway - 4 actual tons, at the neutralizing rate of 2T per surface acre after the "loss"

Only about 3"-4" to go...

⬇ Click this pic to have the gif run - not sure why it doesn't automatically?

Should hit the overflow with the next appreciable rain. Then I'm in the restore and restock phase not 'did it work?' phase.

Checking the pH and alkalinity in a few weeks to see about forage stocking.

Watching the turbidity since I limed it via pics and it appears the mico critters are blooming nicely.

Got to the overflow and had Mose into get some light work now that the pond level was known...



This is what it looked like prior to him coming in and getting into a bit of a pickle...



he kept trying to get that behemoth out and only got it deeper and deeper...



I finally got him to call it a recovery and he got another track in with a winch on it and got it out.



At the end of the day he left some deep gouges after a 3-4 hour delay from getting the dozer about swamped.



He came back in and backed out all the ruts and finished up real nice.



The pH had come up to 6.3 or so but that was prior to the new work so I'll have to add about 1000#or so to the new areas but once that's done I'm 97.5% sure that the excavator work on the pond is complete and all I have to do is dial in the chemistry and stock.

Right now it's a a little lime to hit the 7.0 pH and gypsum to raise the alkalinity to the right level.

That would have been a very expensive piece of structure in your pond. Glad he was able to get it out of there.

I'll bet he was sweating and not because of the temp and humidity! Whew!!!!!

Pucker time!

Here's the tale in 2 mins....

The link is not showing but it is in the post ?

ewest - it takes a bit to load up the gif... DO you see in the post above yours?

There a been a good couple 'validation' points along Crescent Pond renovation and this one is specific to the evaporation / seepage.

Aug '21 - late May '22 - the pond filled up to the overflow, 11' deep, 65' wide, 1100' long = 5,875,155.00 us gallons.

Since the material I used to make the "dam" aka causeway at the property line is porous I have to figure the other surface area into as well, which comes to 2.5 SA.

We've had a drought in this part of Ohio for about 3 weeks now and I have a rain gauge at the farm so I have the data to correlate.



In June, .24"+.56"+.64"+.08"+.04" = 1.56" total rainfall for the month. The watershed I calculated is 1" of rain in the ponds watershed would produce in 531,000 sqft x .62 = 329,220 gallons or in June we should have added 513,583 gallons.

NCRS and others have "average" evaporation rates by month - so for June - that's 4.5" of loss per PAN for the month of June.



So, if I do Simple (KISS) 1.56" of rainfall (-) 4.5" of avg PAN evaporation loss 'should' indicate a drop in the overall pond average level by -2.94" (roughly)

Last day of June capture.


this last pic is zoom on pond level indicator. There is a mark right at the current water level which is ~ 3" low, or below the overflow. The validation is that the pond's renovations and patch (Aug '21) are all holding really well based on the correlation of the Avg PAN loss and the current pond level.



Lots of SMILES over here!!!

That is great news! for the amount of work and money you have committed to the project.
You cant get much better news then that, other then finding out your fish grew much faster then you expected!

Good news and Bad news on the Crescent Pond project.

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-June'22, Tested pH and it came to 7.0 pH
-July'22, Tested pH it came in at 7.0 pH
-July '22, Stocked 15# of Fathead minnows(FHM) and 40 Redear Sunfish(RES)
-Aug'22, Tested Alkalinity - Hellaoff at 23ppm... < 20ppm fish can't live.

With the pH dialed in I needed to get Alkalinity ppm up above 50, really above 100 ppm if possible. I looked around and found powered gypsum was the just the ticket I needed. Did the math on surface arce foot etc ordered enough to bring, in a lab environment, the Alkalinity up to 150ppm, the lower limit the pros here told was 80. IF I get it to 100 ppm I'll be real happy.

-Aug'22, amended with 2200# of powered gypsum to meet the 150ppm of Alkalinity. Did this off the venerable old rowboat with a modified sluice and 4.0GPM pump.

pH and Alkalinity 'should be good' for bit but now the seep.

With the drought this fall I was really hopeful the water drop was the result of that and not a seep. That's not the case as Oct-Jan rolled in with ample moisture and almost no evaporation (PAN) the level is holding solid about 2' below the overflow.

That's the good and bad news, if I don't do another thing the pond will thrive. .... but I'm me and as I push the glasses up the bridge of my nose and adjust my britches I know I 'might' be able to plug the seep, it raised up the overflow once so somewhere there's a seep (maybe more) but since it reached the overflow it's put a couple hundred thousand gallons thru the seep - it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Current plan is to test pH and Alkalinity in March'23 - if those are holding steady I'll stock FHM, RES, Golden GSH, SMB and YP - to be in the right ratio and plentiful. Also plan to add 300-400 crayfish.

Also in March'23 I'll do a real solid visual inspection of the entire pond perimeter to locate the active seep(s). My bentonite supplier has both the granular and chips and the current advice from the pros is 70/30 Chips/Granular, 6" thick and 8' in diameter from the seep.

-Apr'23 20 bags of chips and 6 bags of granular per located seep
-Apr'23 replace 12-15 cypress tress that didn't catch from last Apr

As always looking for advice/feedback --

If the bentonite doesn't work, talk to TJ here on the forum for his polymer product. I'm looking forward to seeing how the bentonite does and how long it lasts if it does work.

Is the experience with Bentonite that it degrades? or just doesn't work? I do NOT like redoing things - first things first thou... I need to find the seep which I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do.

I put TJ in the PMail thing but no user showed up - could you sen him this thread link - like to chat with him - much appreciated.

Sorry, TJ is a moderator here. teehjaeh57

Dave Davidson has had first hand experience with Bentonite not working long term. Dave Davidson1

It’s possible that I didn’t mix it well enough. Either time. Not real impressed with it but don’t know what else might work.

People I know have never had luck with bentonite completely sealing a leak.

Thx for opinions and observations guys. I'm working through the COA's, getting Boot on Ground in March to observe the leak/seep will tell the tale I think. She's holding steady at 2.3' below the overflow and 8.7' deep.

Happy to help if I haven’t already. Ping me anytime.

Tj@hudlandmgmt.com

BLUF: The pond was 18" below overflow with a seep, it has gone a few inches lower over the summer so I decided to chase One Gremlin One time. I'm asking for any advice you all have had on plugging a known seep.

The pond project has gone very well from what I actually expected. There is one seep that has been located and is exactly where Mose got the dozer struck and messed up the formation underground in Aug '22. To compound the issue/problem it appears they buried a couple trees under the road when I wasn't on site for that one part of the work once they winched his dozer out.





A couple weeks ago on 23 Aug we got +2" of rain and I was on site and checked for the seep(s) along the entire edge of the pond. Only one was found as noted - right where the dozer went in.







This is where I'd like folks advise/constructive additions to the process [Actions on the Objective] as I have only plugged one seep and that was documented above in this thread.

1. Start buy digging a 12' long trench, parallel to the pond, at the base of the hill that wasn't disturbed by the original excavation in '21 or the work done in '22 to remove a hill that was collapsing into the pond road. The trench is a far from the pond edge as possible.

2. Dig down in that 12' long trench until we cross the seep and dig at least 2' down past the last wet/water/seep. It may be infiltrated with water add 3-500#'s of bentonite bottom and see if we can get any bentonite slurry to flow into the seep/hole this is pure conjecture but we'll be ready with a slurry pan and 4gpm pump.

3. Once the bentonite is in and one the edges of the trench fill and pack the trench with regular clay, add bentonite to it and on top. Fill trench and top with material.

4. Dig out the seep and tree trunk.root from trench to pond, add 500-900#'s of bentonite into the trench and close to the opening, fillwith reglulr clay and top and sides with remaining bentonite.

5. Remaining Clay packed along the pond edge on/around the edge of the disturbed ground.






We're getting after this next Thursday the 14th so timely ideas/advise is encouraged. 💦

How are you locating the seeps with high banks all around your pond?

Do you think the tree trunks are acting like a "pipe through the dam", and water channeled through your constructed bank following the long-axis of the tree trunks?

Your plan sounds solid to this non-expert.


P.S. Did you go from "Stressless" to "Stressed Out" when someone tried to add a Komatsu dozer to your pond structure?


Good luck on your upcoming repair job!

We executed the plan last Sep, put the clay(s) in both bentonite and regular gray clay. As always there's something that goes sideways but this time they were all kinda small and we made on site corrections, lotsa flow in the 10' deep hole- that got the most bentonite and covered with clay then packed.









I also regraded the new two track from pond to ridge, got it slope into the new drain rather than flow over the steep bank. Installed a halfpipe sluice to a underground drain to cut down erosion from that slope. Spread lime and seeded w crimson clover and rye.





Seep is much improved, 5"-6" below the overflow and pH and alkalinity are doing great with a sample tested mid Apr. Crescent pond is full and holding, stocking plan is on-going.









I'll happily take the fertilizer they provide for the crimson clover. Ponds doing well. 4 of 5 wood duck nests are being used as well. A wildlife nursery with benefits lol.

Stocked Crescent pond in late April, perch, shellcrackers, Fathead minnows and golden shiner. Trying to find a couple hundred papershell crayfish to finish off the forage stocking.

I've been checking the chemistry and the pH, alkalinity and nitrates are all holding up well. Been a couple years now, fingers crossed 🤞 it'll hold/it's stabilized. I'll def keep checking but so far its doing well. This sample was taken about 1400 in the afternoon, at the peak pH height.





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About 2/3's of the Bald Cypress are growing very well that got planted 2 years ago. With the pond pretty much stabilized and water/soil pH dialed in they should be doing great and making shade/cover in a few years.

You will want to prune the tree so there is only one "leader" that is reaching for the sky or you will have a bald cypress that has a twin trunk when it's mature, and if that happens it will be susceptible to splitting down the middle.

They will grow faster if you put them in a tree tube. The tubes will also protect them from getting browsed by deer, and they will allow the tree to grow faster. I've been using these tubes and the difference between a tree in the tube and not in the tube is amazing. I'm seeing over 12" of growth on the trees inside the tubes just this year already.

https://www.treepro.com/

A customer has 600+ trees (saplings) that have been decimated by deer every year. We put tree tubes around all of them this Spring and none have been bothered by the deer yet. Saplings that were broken off last Fall and only <3' tall are now pushing out of the top of the 60" tree tubes.