Dear Pond Boss community, In my online searches over the last two years for direction on my 3/4 acre pond construction project, the top results are often from Pond Boss. After not being able to retain water in my pond for two years now I wanted to post my dilemma directly. My passive searches are not yielding a clear best course of action so my confusion continues.

Worse yet my wife is losing patience in my grand project and is urging me to just have the dry monster sized hole in our backyard filled in, but my argument is that the money to do so can just as easily be put toward a fix to the problem. I'll explain what has been done up to this point with the hope that your collective experiences and expertise will yield a solution.

The back of our 5 acre property gradually slopes downward as well as our neighbors 5 acre lot which angles their runoff to our pond site also.

I had contractor #1, a local reputable expert in excavation dig the key for the dam. He dug a 6'-8' wide trench about 12'-15' deep down to bedrock for a length of 300'. It was like walking on a concrete floor. After removing about 6 boulders at a few tons each, the key was completely clear and he said conditions could not look better.

After stripping off and stock piling all the top soil from the pond area, contractor #2 began transferring loads of the clay soil down into the key and packing down layer after layer to construct the dam and placed my new fossil encrusted decorative boulders around the high side bank area.

I had him construct all banks with a 3to1 slope but due to the limited ability of his equipment and the draught conditions at the time, he was only able to dig out the pond to a 4'-8' depth before his equipment could no longer dig through the soil which he said was like concrete at that point. Soil packed between the teeth on the dozer tracks formed clay like bricks that you could hardly break apart.

I obviously wanted the pond deeper so enters contractor #3 with bigger equipment and more than 30 years experience in excavating and now digging ponds in his retirement. He took the depth down to an average depth of 7'-8' with a deep area down to about 10'. He also reworked the dam and spillway area refining what the less experienced contractor #2 had done. At this point I had what looked to be a beautifully constructed pond.

My son and I then walked the pond bed collecting golf ball to baseball sized rocks to build up a stone cap for the narrow 6' wide spillway to help prevent erosion. These slick multi-colored rocks were all the same and with a little research we confirmed it is all flint chert. After having essentially a rock free pond and dam I spent a couple weeks driving my tractor over every square inch of the area compacting it further and further.

At this point we were just waiting for rain and the following winter and spring seasons brought plenty, and at one point the pond was about 3/4 full. After time though all that water seeped out to the point that the bottom of the pond was bare again except for the 10' round hole that was dug an extra 3'-4' deep which I thought some future fish would enjoy. I was told this wasn't unusual for a new pond and that I need to be patient.

Just to be proactive though I spread out 2 pails of the granular stuff that pond doctor sells but the problem didn't get any better. In fact, from last summer to this summer the pond has been used as a play area for our kids ATV's and I actually have to get in there with my AWD tractor about once a month to mow the weeds that have taken root in the pond bed and inside slope of the dam.

I'm lost at this point. All potential fixes seem so expensive and I can't afford to get it wrong. Bentonite? Liner? Soil concrete? The vegetable oil stuff? Imported clay? Hogs? What in the world do I need to do to get this freakin big hole that looks water tight to actually hold water? I'm just willing to bet that if I didn't want it to hold water, it would be full to the brim.

After 3 contractors and a purchase from Pond Doctor I'm well invested financially and in time at this point and really starting to stress over this whole deal. Is there a real pond expert out there that can come look at my site and just tell me what needs to be done? Money spent toward it now is a real point of contention with my wife which now refers to it as the money pit and I can't really argue against her point. I need a darn near bullet proof plan that doesn't cost a fortune. Thanks in advance to the Pond Boss community for any help you can offer to someone who really wants to be a proud pond owner. Sorry for such a long post. Sincerely, Kevin