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rickb
10-17-2009, 11:25 AM
Hi, I've had a 1/2 acre pond for 15 years no problem until last year it started to leak about 50 yards away, the pond is elevated. I wonder if anyone has used bentonite clay to try and stop the leak while the pond is still full. I've read where you can sprinkle the bentonite on the surface anyone tried it? please let me know your results.

cindy
10-17-2009, 11:37 AM
Hi Rick and welcome. Some of my farmers in KY have tried the sprinkle with some luck but it takes alot.

Tristan
10-17-2009, 08:38 PM
It can be done and I have done it before, but it helps if you have a good idea of where the leak is at so you can put the bentonite in the general area.

Don't know if there are any well drillers in your aeea but if there is talk to them and see what and where they empty their slurry mix tank out. They usually empty it every week, and its nothing but water/bentonite slurry. I had a well driller come and empty out his tank slurry truck and the came one day laid out a bunch of hoses and started to pump the bentonite slurry all over the ponds bottom. It must have been 4 to 6 inches thick until they finished, but eventually it all settled down and seeping wsa stopped within a day or so. They were only too glad to find a place to dump their slurry. Evidently its easier to start from scratch with new bentonite slurry than try to alter the mix to make it the right ratio to seal up around a well caseing, besides the customer is paying for it anyhow. I think that most everyone with a mud pond in these parts got their ponds resealed for free from this company, who wsa here in the area to drill a bunch of new water wells for a subdivison and the Hyundai and other plants in the region.

rickb
10-20-2009, 09:19 AM
Hi, thankyou soo much for your quick and encouraging replies. i"ll try to find a well driller . Also, how much is a lot of bentonite? i,m getting 50 lb bags. Will a whole lot harm the fish ? I thought i'd use one bag and see what happens i'm hoping the leak is near the front edge of the pond. What do you think ?

Koigrl
10-21-2009, 06:38 PM
hi, rick, i wish you lived closer. i've got 850 lbs in 50 lb bags, what's left from trying to seal my leaky pond. i'd be happy to give you a couple of bags. i bought 20,000 lbs, had to truck it in from wyoming. it's not the cost of the clay, its the shipping. i'm no expert on this. my pond was empty, we applied it to the pond, packed it in good with an excavator shovel. should really be rototilled, but my pond guy didn't do it that way. the leak turned out to be a biggish hole with shale under it. we have repacked the bentonite around the hole, but there is no water in the brook now and that was the water source. so i've got a dry hole with aspirations to be a pond and i don't know if we fixed the leak or not.
best of luck.

rickb
10-23-2009, 08:06 AM
Hi thanks for the info. i wish we lived closer too we could comiserate our dilema. I got a few bags of wyoming bentonite . I spread it in the pond where I thought it might be leaking, but who knows. Anyway it seemed like little gravel and sank to the bootom, i'm not confident it will do anything like that. I really cant drain my pond too many fish and no where to put them. Good luck on yours.