Looking for resources for natural bottom ponds. On a small scale not like
what a fish farmer might have.

I figured I might experiment with differnent types of clay, and start with
whatever kinda clay current fills my yard.

Its relatively easy to check your clay or at least check it to a
point. Dig a couple of holes with a post hole digger here and there in
the area you want to put the pond and put about a gal of water in the
hole. Measure how deep the water fills the hole and write it
down..come back a bit later and check again. In an hour check and if
it has dropped more than 1/2" odds are the soil is too permeable to
hold water long term for a pond.......YOu can also get a bit of soil
from various sections and send it off to the local soils testing lab
or carry it to the county ag agent to have it tested....One fair test
is to take a handfull of soil and squeeze it into a clump..support
clump between index and ring finger, and apply pressure with yur
thumb..if it crumbles either yu did not squeeze it hard enough or its
not got anywhere neat enough of clay in it. If it sort of "snaps" into
two pieces you stand a fair chance of it having sufficieint clay
content, but its still no guarantee its not too permeable.


However its possible to create a naatural pond in sand and have it
hold water so all is not loist if yur soil is too permeable. You can
add bentonite (sodium / western bentonite clay) into the soil and
tamp/compact it......and it will then hold water. Bentonite is dirt
cheap and pretty wellavailable everywhere if you know where to
look....IIRC last bags (100#) I bought for a project were under $8
bucks a bag.......I lucked out about 2 years ago and had my two ponds
"lined" with well drillers mud(actually sodium bentonite and another
collodial type clay) for free, as they were drilling a heap of wells,
and on the weekends needed to find a place to dump their mixer out
(30,000 gal cap) Up to this point they were merely dumping it in
farmers fields as it helps retain moisture etc, but they were runing
out of fields. I allowed them to line my pond.....The pumped it into
the pond and entirely covered the entire ponds bottoms with approx 6"
layer of this mixed bentonite........I had a slight seep and wold
loose a bit of water over a month or two in the one pond, and now
neither of them seep a drop from what I can tell..so bentonite does
indeed work. Its much easier to incorporate bentonite into a newly
made pond before filing with water though, but either way it can still
be done if you find yu do have a leak / seep.

One thing you have to watch for is rock outcrops as they can present
problems with getting a water tight pond......Best bet is contact
country ag agent or your local university and ask for some phamplets
on natural pond construction. Often times certain areas have specific
applications applicable to that area thast wold not pertain to others
and often times they will do soils tests and give advice and even come
out on site for free and give you an assessment.
On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 23:11:36 CST, "eric"
wrote:

Looking for resources for natural bottom ponds. On a small scale not like
what a fish farmer might have.

I figured I might experiment with differnent types of clay, and start with
whatever kinda clay current fills my yard.



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I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!