Any Water Garden experts????

[Corkie Monster]

After working on a pond for the last 3 weeks, we installed the liner and filled. Everything was working great! Saturday morning I went out to start landscaping when I noticed the water level had dropped about 6 inches. Upon investigating I discovered all the water was under the pond liner . I suspect that our waterfall shifted in the night and diverted the water. There were no holes in the liner. After pulling the liner, pumping out the water, and letting it dry for a day and a half I was going to re-install the liner today. Woke up this morning and discovered the liner-less pond was full of rain water (8" from the top of an 18" deep pond) .

OK, now I will get to my question. We have clay soil that doesn't drain!! Do I really need a liner? It seems like I've heard of some sort of soil sealer for ponds in the past.

Any recommendations?

Thanks
frustrated CM

[saber_jack]

You can use Bentonite to seal the ground it kind nasty stuff though. Turns into stuff that is the consistency of snot. Might be alright if you covered with rocks but cleaning would be difficult at best. What are you using for a drain? What about overlap for the water fall? I have done quite a few ponds in the past and you need to make sure the pond liner itself goes far enough under the waterfall liner to make sure there isn't any leakage. As for drains I have actually tied into the gutter system for the house for an overflow. Just make sure its screened so you don't clog the gutters. If you have any other questions feel free to PM me.

Saber-Jack

[iwanttofish]

My liner goes up 2' under the falls, and the sides are extra 6-12" on the sides. I do divert water from my gutter into my pond and it helps to change out the water by overfilling it whenever it rains. Check your falls to make sure you are not dumping water over the side. For a liner for the bottom you can use a number of items. Old carpet without staples, burlap, 1/2" of newspaper. Pm me and maybe we can get together and show you what I have got going or I may be able to stop by and look at yours.

I have had this pond up and running for about 4 years. I am in aloha

Mike

[Corkie Monster]

Here is what I have going on now. For the water fall I think we got it under control. Our new issues are with the main pond itself. After draining and pulling the main liner out we discovered some possible major problems, yard drainage! I didn’t even notice the low spot in the yard next to the pond. We have clay soil, so once the lawn gets saturated the water is going to flow to this area. If you look at pic 3 you will see how much water comes from the yard, the bottom section of the pond is 18” deep, I pumped out the water yesterday morning, this is what accumulated from last nights rain. My ideas are:

Idea 1:
Create a hump on the ponds edge on the low yard side. On the opposite side of the hump from the pond dig a small trench. Run the liner over the hump and down into the trench than pull the dirt back over the trench and level the hump. I’m thinking this will create a seal/water dam.

Idea 2:
Create a dried up creek bed (red dashes on pic) between the pond and the low spot of the yard to divert the water from the ponds edge.

Idea 3:
Pull back the sod, and fill in with top soil to raise the low spot of the yard then follow through with idea 2.

I’ve include a few pics to better explain what I’m talking about.






Thanks
CM

[Snug 2]

I think just about anyone who builds a pond themselves will deal with some of these issues. We bought 6 books, talked to anyone we could, and I designed our pond to a "T", but I still have a leak under the falls. I was told that 18" of overlap would be enough. I have at least that and still it leaks there. I should have sealed the liner together. I was told I wouldn't need to, but that was a mistake. Water can be frustrating at times. I think it is smarter than I am. I am putting a float valve in and allow city water to trickle in a little at a time (decholination chemicals will be added).

[iwanttofish]

Wow great pics and diagrham.

It looks like you found the leak all right I dont know if you have enough liner for your pond, it looks a little short. the only thng I can see is make your pond a little shorter by adding dirt to the end of the pond so that you can move your liner up into the falls or buy a bigger liner. If you are going to have fish then I would make it deep on one end so that the blue heron dont get your fish because they will find it, ask me how I know.

[Corkie Monster]

Wow great pics and diagrham.

It looks like you found the leak all right I dont know if you have enough liner for your pond, it looks a little short. the only thng I can see is make your pond a little shorter by adding dirt to the end of the pond so that you can move your liner up into the falls or buy a bigger liner. If you are going to have fish then I would make it deep on one end so that the blue heron dont get your fish because they will find it, ask me how I know.

I have shortened the pond by about a foot or so on the deep end. so there should be enough liner now. The nice thing about clay is that it packs down real nice and makes it alot easier to fill in where needed.

The deepest area of the pond is about 18". We plan on putting in Gold Fish first, if they stick around for awhile we may add small Koi. I'm not sure if a GBH has enough room to land in our yard it's only about 30'x12'

Thanks
CM

[STGRule]

At our work the GBH's land on a watering trough that's 2' x 5' right up against the building. They snack on our goldfish. They will also find the fish in our circular tanks that are only 5' across and have lids on top to help themselves. What can you do?

[Corkie Monster]

Hopefully we won't have a problem. The nearest stream/wetland is about 3 miles away. We will try cheap Gold Fish first, if they get eaten, then we won't have fish I guess.

Thanks
CM

[Snug 2]

CM, good luck getting it finished and the fish into it. Nothing like sitting in a deck chair and watching them swim around.

We started off with a bunch of the 10 cent feeder goldfish. One died and the rest kind of disappeared or so we thought. As the temp warmed up, we spent about a month fighting with algea. We got it under control and the pond is crystal clear to 4.5'. Low and behold, there is one of the feeder goldfish. It is about 2.5" long now. It does not hang with the koi at all. It prefers to feed off the sides of the rock wall, while the koi are feeding on the surface.

No predatory animals yet. We did have about 100 cedar waxwings drinking at the pond on Sunday. That was nice to watch.

If any of you get into the Reed College area and want to check out my pond, drop me a line and I will give you a tour. Also, I posted some photos a couple of months back. do a search if you want to see them.

[Corkie Monster]

Wholy Cow!! That is cool!! wanna come over and help me out? :grin:

Snug 2's pond

Unfortunately, your pond would take up my whole back yard. In five years we will build on a 27 acre piece of land, then I can build a real pond!!

CM

[Snug 2]

Thanks CM... in 3 years we will be building another one on 180 acres in The Dalles... but this time we have decided to use a couple of water troughs.