Just finished up adding 4 1/2 units of Soilfloc that I ordered two weeks ago. Thanks to the forum members for their posts and advice that I have tried to follow the last several months in making up my mind on what to do. I have a 1/2 acre pond approximately 13' deep that was constructed 15 years ago in Central Illinois. The top 8" or so of the original soil was sandy loam, but anything below that was what we call blow sand, just like a beach. When the pond was constructed, it was lined with local clay, although it did contain some rocks. Bentonite was also mixed in. The pond never filled adequately and then a 84' deep well was drilled nearby to supply water (water table 40' down). This filled up the pond within a matter of weeks. As long as I had the well running continuously (1 1/2 hp pump), the pond stayed full and would even go over the outlet pipe. However, I got tired of spending over $100 a month just on electric usage for the well. After I decided it was enough, the pond dropped considerably over a matter of weeks until it finally stabilized with just about 4 feet of water. Two months ago I pumped the water down to about 2 feet deep (since the water line seemed to stabilize at the 4' mark). I then had the original contractor come back in and re-work the pond (without bentonite. When it was originally constructed, he just used a backhoe and a D-6, then ran a box scraper over it. 15 years later ha had huge JD Tractor (probably 200K new) with an implement on the back that had 4 huge tires of probably 1 ton each used to compact the soil. After he was done I began pumping water in again and only took 17 days from 2 foot of water to 13' on a 1/2 acre pond. I shut the water off last week to see if it would stay, and dropped about 4 inches in 3 days. Not too bad, but would like better. I then cranked up the well again and filled it back up as far as possible to make sure I got as much head pressure for the Soilfloc to work. We put part A and part B each in 5 gallon buckets and drove around the edges with a golf cart and applied with a 2 cup measuring cup throwing it out as far as we could get. Then took the small boat out with enough rope to stretch across the pond. A person on each end of the rope, opposite from the pond, pulled the rope back and forth. Rather than going back and forth across the pond and wanting to make sure we had enough Soilfloc, we actually did a circular pattern around the pond and working ourselves inward. That way if I did run out of the material, it would be in the center of the pond where it was obviously the deepest and the location of where it seemed to hold water. There is no wind, but after 2 hours the SoilFloc that is still on the surface seems to go to the southern 1/3 of the pond, which is the side against the dam. Maybe this is a sign it is getting drawn to a leak, I don't know. But am keeping my fingers crossed it will work!
