Anyone build their own pond?

[MRshotglass]

I decided to a few weeks ago. Dug a two-level 10x12 hole in the ground, put in a liner and stuck some rocks all around it. The thing looked awesome! That was until today, when we got over 2" of rain. Somehow water made it under the liner and floated it up, collapsing the walls we dug and knocking all the rocks/gravel/blocks into the pond itself. The thing is now utterly destroyed. I am a bit pissed, since two weeks worth of work just went down the shitter like that.

Anywho, how the hell am I supposed to anchor this liner down so this doesnt happen again? I thought I did enough with the big rocks and gravel all around it.
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-Wes
71 Super Beetle - "Squirt"

[TimGud]

Cows ruined our pond twice before we gave up on the plastic liner. I dug it a little deeper, formed chicken wire to the shape of the hole and poured approx. 4" of concrete all around it. Filled it up with water a few days later and changed the water a couple of times before putting fish in it. End of problem.

[WindAndSea]

You need to take the soil you removed from the hole and make birms around the pond. These will keep runoff from rain out and then hide liner and the brim with large rocks. You can even make a waterfall down one side.

[runslikeapenguin]

i just recently installed a pond at my work,

what i did was made sure that the pond liner went over the hole a good 2 feet on all sides, then i dug 1 gallon pot sized holes all around the perimeter and the after putting the liner in i stuffed large rocks into all of them, then after making a berm around the whole lake i dug a trench about 6 inches deep around the pond then put the liner back into it and poured quickcrete in the trench and covered it with dirt. the holes with the rocks now have plants in them and plants around the whole thing.

also under the pond sticking straight up, theres a piece of 4 inch PVC that runs down the hill to a pressure gauge and ball valve. the very base of where the PVC is is concrete and theres a wire screen on it. which allows me to tap off of the pond to store rain in the underground tanks we have for our greenhouse during rain. also we can back feed from the tank back through the pipe to re fill the pond if need be. there is also an overflow run off that we placed the liner over and sealed with a concrete backing and 2 sheets of lexan with a lot of silicone. we also made a concrete inlet that allows over flow and collected rain water from the upper ponds and what ever comes down the hill to come in and then through the pond to the storage cells.

[Letterman7]

Just because you've got a liner in a hole doesn't make it a pond. Rainwater migrates through soil...hence the water getting under the liner. You have to base the liner first with a nice layer of sand - 3 to 4 inches so any migrating water can disperse without upsetting the level of the liner. The other suggestions of supporting the edges are good ones; I'll have to incorporate some of those! For the record, when we bought our house, it came with two concrete ponds - one 12 x 6 x 3 and another shallower fountain pond next to it. They were probably there when the house was built 80 years ago. Long story short, we're in a flood plain. The last big hurricane that dumped a lot of rain managed to crack the 3" thick concrete on the larger pond. Good thing I had put a liner in it just to be on the safe side. Hydraulics are a funny thing. Water will do some unexpected damage!

R

[bljones]

[chickengeorge]

[Russ Wolfe]

I have a leak in my pond. One of these days, I need to hire a Catapillar.
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[wsniderokc]

God turned the front yard into a pond last night. prolly gone by friday, but lotsa water in oklahoma this morning!
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that's not an oil leak... it's sweat from the extra horse power!