might check with your state ag extension ....ours missouri provides advisement-assistance-resources-funds-etc to develop aquacultures/stocking etc

 

How do you plan on filling the pond? Does a good amount of your property drain to the spot where your pond is being dug out?

 

We have a direct watershed of about 5 acres to fill it plus ground water. Both the county surveyor and the farmer who plans to help us dig it (he owns about 1k acres in the area and has dug several ponds) believes we should have no trouble keeping it full.

 

Waiting to follow along

That's a lot of dirt to move. . . but should be a good project when finished.

If you are going to stock the pond with fish, try to leave some structure for the fish. A barrel with both ends cut out, gnarly tree stump etc. is good for fish, not so good for swimmers so you want to mark any swimming hazards. An alternative is to not have the bottom completely smooth but have some up down variation for little fish to get away from big fish.

The aeration should help but hopefully by going that deep you can get some spring inflow. If not, you may get algae. For some reason, barley straw takes care of that. Not wheat straw or hay, only barley straw seems to work. :dunno:

Treefarmer

 

That's a lot of dirt to move. . . but should be a good project when finished.

If you are going to stock the pond with fish, try to leave some structure for the fish. A barrel with both ends cut out, gnarly tree stump etc. is good for fish, not so good for swimmers so you want to mark any swimming hazards. An alternative is to not have the bottom completely smooth but have some up down variation for little fish to get away from big fish.

The aeration should help but hopefully by going that deep you can get some spring inflow. If not, you may get algae. For some reason, barley straw takes care of that. Not wheat straw or hay, only barley straw seems to work. :dunno:

Treefarmer

Appreciate the advice. Yes, we are in the midst of researching pond structure, spawn beds, etc. Stumps, logs, Christmas trees, and pallets will likely find their way into our pond. So you sink full bales of barley straw to combat algae? I'll have to look into that further. We are banking on some springs during the dig as well.

Yes, it is going to be a LOT of dirt! The farmer I referenced in my most recent post has all the toys necessary to make this happen. I just brought in a D4H last week to start with topsoil removal. I got some good seat time in on it over the weekend. :yahoo:

 

??

 

Have you got an overflow structure in mind? I work for a civil engineering firm and when we design a lake, we always put in trench under the dam. This is to make sure there is nothing under the dam that would cause problems, such as poor soils or field tile. I know you aren't building a dam but you do want to make sure there are not field tile.

 

The overflow will be a 12 inch pipe at the water surface level on the area of the pond with the lowest banks. With no dam, we won't have need for a core trench. The only field tile on the property is about 250 feet away from the pond.

 

Ok, twist my arm! Ha

 

And here it is in action!

 

:bigthumb: great video--i don't know what yr cat started with the upper carrier roller on the high tracks-but back when i worked down close to D.C. for a company, they bought a brand new one-in 87-and it had no carrier roller like urs does.
go back and watch ur start up--it blew smoke threw the radiator--better be looking for that exhaust leak soon, as it will plug the radiator up good-at least that's what happened with ones i ran-that blew smoke threw the rad. like that. probably a loose manifold-or gasket is burnt out.

if u want to push more dirt with one pass--channel push or slot push--stay in one line--get some windrows on both sides of blade--that will help keep the dirt in front of the blade instead of it falling off the sides as u push.

and finally stay off them steering clutches as u are pushing with a full blade--u can help turn ur machine by tilting the blade u want to go or turn some. just not a good idea to yank on them if ur using down pressure on the blade. lift the blade some if u have to turn the direction of machine.

 

We are about a month behind on videos, but here is the beginning of actual pond construction! The farmer down the road brought down some of his toys to play... and there are more on the way! Enjoy!

 

It will be dug to a depth of roughly 20ft and most of the dirt will be used to create a massive berm on our property.

Big ass range?

:usa

 

In a perfect world, yes! However, this said berm actually backs right up to a public walking trail. I'm not sure I want to invite that kind of liability into my life! People are already incredibly nosy and just wander over to see what is going on. It's going to be a fun issue to navigate. :bigthumb:

 

hmm. Ya that's probably wise

 

We haven't shared everything here, but in case any of you enjoy seeing a massive tractor (John Deere 9230) hauling 30 tons of dirt at a time, I think you will find the below quite satisfying! Enjoy!

 

I think calling that a berm was a bit understating it.

 

:laugh:Is mountain a better term? haha What is crazy, is that this thing ultimately climbs another 10 or 15ft. If you go back to that video and look around 11:50, the mound ended up close to the top of the cab on the tractor. It's insane what it became! Thankfully the county said, "well that's cool!" Stay tuned for the finished product. Two more videos coming.

 

Now I think you can still use it as a shooting backstop. Unless you're using artillery, nothing is going through or over that thing!

 

Ummm have you been hacking my email? Who told you about the artillery? :laugh: Yea it's definitely a viable option now. Wait til you guys see this thing at the end. When I go up it in my truck you can't even see the ground...you are looking to the sky like a rollercoaster. I'll drop the last couple videos here as well if you would like.

 

This is the last of our 'action' videos of the pond, but I do have one more showing it completed. There was a fair amount of work completed between this video and the final video. Keep your eye on the berm/mountain. It's significantly bigger here than in the last video, but it swells even more in the final! Enjoy!

 

I like that tractor dump trailer combo.:bigthumb:

 

Thanks Joe! Sadly, it's not ours! ha It's the farmer next door who we hired to help us. Nonetheless, it's an impressive setup! It moved an insane amount of dirt for us.

 

For those of you following along, here is the finished product! It's one huge hole and one huge pile of dirt! Anyone have 5 or 6 million gallons of water we can have? :laugh:

 

I'm thinking at some point in time the 6" pipe will plug up. Do you have any clean outs?
IMO a 6" pipe is just way too small, a 2"-3" rain on a one acre pond is a lot of water.

 

That is definitely a fair assessment! Admittedly, I didn't have much input in the overflow. I was planning on a 12" line, but he just went for it and dropped in that 6". There is now a steel collar and grate on top of that concrete pipe that should keep debris out. Openings are about 1 inch wide. If our overflow ever does clog we will deal with it. We don't have any clean outs though. I'm more worried about the pond not filling full at this point.