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the 300,000 gal. mud pond challenge
I've been waiting eight months to post this thread.
Last March, 2009, this mud pond was dug in good clay soil. We didn't have a spring as a water source in or near the new pond. Instead we planned to draw water off a spring-fed brook that came from a field above me.
We put in a bottom drain, not as expensive or sophisticated as the agra drain we used for the "lake" used for the "ki-shusui project" , see link.
https://www.koiphen.com/forums/showth...89#post1689489
the drain ran to a gate valve and from there to a ditch and field.
We calculated that this pond had a capacity of 250,000 -300,000 gallons.
The shape was dug freehand behind a small antique barn which is now the pump house. the length is approx. 130 feet long by 40 feet wide by 10-12 feet deep.
these first pictures are of the construction, with some close-ups of the drain.
And not long after this, THE CHALLENGE began.
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1st attempt at turning dry hole into a pond
The inflow from the brook worked perfectly. Fresh spring water poured through the 4" drain filling the pond in only two days.
the idea of using this pond to breed koi was exciting. we could drain the pond with the gate valve. refill in two days. and the sneaker-shaped footprint had a natural box canyon in the shallower "heel" portion of the pond, perfect pond for seining.
Here are pictures of the pond filling.
note the third picture which shows the shallower bowl of the "heel" section, where we planned to herd fish when pulling the pond.
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filling the lower pond, continued.
Last day of march. excitment builds. a couple of rocks sitting where there will be water are removed to prevent spawning injuries. i admire the pond and tell the basement koi that their lovely home will have morning and noon sun, filtered afternoon sun, a background of lovely trees.
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lower pond, july 17 - august 4, 2009
the first photo in this set is the lower pond just before it flushed like a toilet!
believe it or not, it was not evident where the water was going. best theories of the time were that it was seeping along a vein of shale. could be.
we emptied the pond and steve (pond contractor) came in and back-filled some in the shallow end. i don't think i documented every step along the way, but this was done more than once. lower the water, back-fill and tamp down with excavator shovel, refill.
and so begins the bentonite chapters -- see last two pics.
with the help of gene winstead, we located a bentonite producer in wyoming and trucked in 20,000 pounds of bentonite in 50 lb. sacks.
Steve's guys emptied the pond, dumped in the bentonite, packed it down with the shovel -- probably should have rototilled, but the slippery quality of this clay cannot be imagined.
made of volcanic ash and clay, bentonite is super-fine powder, oily when wet. it actually sent up a plume of clay that looked like smoke when the guys were putting it down. guys were coated with it. pond was coated with it. the pond was mucked about with the shovel and we refilled from the brook again.
and, the water receded again.
see last picture in this set.
that caked looking gray stuff is drying out bentonite.
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sept. 14, 2009. The leak is found!
We had opened the gate valve outflow and capped off the brook inflow. the pond drained to the dregs.
amazing!
a hole the size of a cocoanut was discovered roughly in line with the drainage pipe, but was not a leak in the pipe -- in case my plumbing friends have thought it was the plumbing all this time :) -- it was in fact, exposed shale.
pictured, a broom stuck into the hole.
the broom handle went down a couple of feet and when used as a stirrer, you could feel grit. like shale.
also pictured, poor steve, thinking oh, man, will this job never end.
he says to me, "We're in this together." :)
i still had about 800 lbs of bentonite in the little barn. the heavy equipment came back in and Steve packed more clay around any possible aperture.
but by this time in the late summer the water table was lowering and the brook was bone dry.
Had the hole in the pond been sealed?
we did not know.
and we still don't know.
currently, as of Nov. 1, 2009 -- (not pictured)
we are filling the pond from the brook. the water is freezing cold. we have a perforated pipe so that no fish can swim through and there should be no eggs or parasites for the rest of the year.
once we know if the pond will hold water, i have to figure out a new water source.
there is not enough reliable overflow from the lake to fill the lower pond and i hesitate to use the well that serves the house.
i have called a well driller and with luck, he will tell me that a dedicated well for the lower pond will be possible.
more pictures to come as the pond fills and we learn if the lower pond will hold water.
stay tuned :)
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update on the leaky pond. :gack:
The brook is rushing and since well-mannered predator fish aren't spawning this time of year, i'm letting the pond fill. The water level has raised and lowered, repeat, and is now holding at about three feet below the top, so probably seven feet at the deep end, five feet at the shallow end.
:headache:
waiting for cow poo :moo:
or other suggestions from mud-ponders.
latest pics, taken this week.