A Pond of Prevention...

[ddaquaria]

Bought a different rock today. Spent most of the day driving 1/2 ton rocks around. After 2 trips, we put in the underlay and the liner in and starting filling it up. Tomorrow I'll check the liner overlaps again and finish the work on the skimmer. Then the only items left are the bog and the waterfall.

[ddaquaria]

A lot of things have happened since my last post. We got the pond completely up and running with all the rock surround. The waterfall had been successfully going for several days, and you could here the frogs near it at night. Then we ran into an issue.

Water got under the liner of a hard rain. Due to the interesting clay that we have, basically the sides of the walls started to erode until one side finally fell. I felt like crap at that moment, but I jumped into pond and pumped out the water in order to start repairing it. With the rain right now, there is no repair time till the hole dries more.

After doing a lot of reading, it looks like this was going to happen sooner or later due to the height of the walls and the steepness of the sides, and then combining that with the clay substrate - we created the perfect storm.

I'm looking to fix it with cinder blocks but I'm still doing a lot or research regarding the process. Wish me luck and I'll keep you updated.

[myjohnson]

Donald,

I'm planning a massive pond after this tank project. Keep me updated please!

[wesleydnunder]

Donald, I had a similar issue with a pond I put in for some folks in Katy. Luckily the sides didn't collapse when the water started collecting on the outside of the liner. I put a 1" pipe angled from the garden surrounding the pond to a french drain I put under the center of the pond. When the rains get water under the liner, the homeowner drops his python hose down the pipe to the french drain and sucks all the water out from under the liner. After 5 years this has worked well for him. The problem with his pond is that in his subdivision in Katy the land was built up with sand over a clay bottom, so the water actually migrates through the sand layer and not beneath the liner lip.

Mark

[ddaquaria]

Although the rain did not help, the wall was starting to pull itself before it rained. I could be wrong, but this tells me that it was coming at some point. When this first happened I reshaped the pulled wall, and re-dug the banks. Luckily I bought enou liner at the time to cover this.

[Gene D]

So what is the solution Donald? I don't think I follow how you plan to use the cinder blocks. Are you going to increase the diameter and place the liner over the blocks using them as walls?

[ddaquaria]

And the rebuild has started.

I basically moved out all the dirt that caved in, and I'm using cinder block as the walls. I decided not to really increase the diameter a lot - I was really getting tired of digging, and after looking at the clearance near the fence line, I like it a lot more. I also decided to extend the pond to make it longer, and now there is a more defined deep end and shallow end. In all, I lost 16" in width but gained about 2 to 2.5 feet in length. I am also considering increasing the size of my bog from 4x2 to 8x2 - estimated at 180 gallons by itself.

The berm is 7 blocks tall (about 56") with the bottom brick being covered about 1/2 way. I started concreting inside the bricks today as well as back filling behind the first 2 foot tall section. This allows me to go ahead and compact the dirt on the first tier and start working on the upper tier also.

Next step, need to purchase another 80 cinder blocks and at least 10 bags of 80# concrete along with 14-10 foot rebar.

[ddaquaria]

It's coming alone.

It's almost 24 inches from the top the the first tier, then about 32 inches from the first tier to the bottom.

I'm creating two bog filters - one where the grate is in the picture and the other is where the shovel is. Both will overflow into the pond. Also between them will be the waterfall/stream. I also plan to angle the bottom and lay some sheeted rock so you will a stable place to stand.

After all this, we add the underlay and liner - and possibly smooth some of the pointed edges.

[myjohnson]

56'' deep....I like!

[ssrprelude]

It's coming alone.

It's almost 24 inches from the top the the first tier, then about 32 inches from the first tier to the bottom.

I'm creating two bog filters - one where the grate is in the picture and the other is where the shovel is. Both will overflow into the pond. Also between them will be the waterfall/stream. I also plan to angle the bottom and lay some sheeted rock so you will a stable place to stand.

After all this, we add the underlay and liner - and possibly smooth some of the pointed edges.

My dad used old carpet as an underliner. Works great for smoothing out sharp corners and prevents fish from slamming into the sides.

[Mzungu]

Wow, that looks awesome! Great job, Donald! That should definitely take care of any caving-in problems, I should think.

:emt_thumbs:

I love seeing this progress, and look forward to the next update!

[supadave]

Sweet !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ddaquaria]

Bricked up the skimmer today, and finally finished one bog layout. As soon as I get some work done today, I'm going out to get the remainder of what I need for the second bog and start to work on the stream.

[ddaquaria]

3 words - IT IS HOT!!!

Got the second bog layout completed, and started grading the stream. Now I'm trying to decide on using separate liners or one large (very large) piece of liner.

Oh yeah, approximate size is 1250 gallons. The next one will definitely be larger.

[eklikewhoa]

effing awesomd DD!