RESEALING BOTTOM OF STOCK TANK (FARM POND)

[Unclebuck257]

A fellow and his wife bought 20 acres across the county road from me, and the stock tank on it won't hold water. I watched the men who dug out that stock tank about 2-3 years ago, and they did NOT take care of business when it came to the bottom or sides. They did not line it with clay, or even go down as far as the real clay when digging it out. Consequently, it will not hold water for very long which makes it difficult to run cattle on. It hasn't held water since it was dug initially.

Right now, with our drought, there's only about 4-5 inches of water in the bottom of it, and it's dug out to be about 6-7 feet deep in the center. This new neighbor really is good people, and has offered that 20 acres to me for additional grazing for my cattle, so he can get/maintain an ag tax exemption on it until he plants it in grapes next season. With our drought and lack of grass, I can use any additional grazing I can get, and his is relatively virgin grass this year. He's having a well dug and it could be filled that way, if it could be made to hold water in.

My question for y'all is what, besides re-doing the bottom of that tank with trucked in clay or plastic, is available and is good, that he and I might use to reseal that tank bottom? I thought I remembered a discussion in here, months back, about a product that could be used for exactly that purpose that was good quality and would last. I can't find that thread though. Any help or suggestions in general would be appreciated. Thanks!!

 

[Dargo]

I'm currently working on the same thing for a half a dozen lakes or so that are not holding water properly on a couple hundred or so acres I bought that has 11 lakes on it. I have had people from the Soil Conservation Office there, the DNR, and the Indiana Purdue ag. division answering questions.

Unfortunately for me, since some of these lakes are 5 to 10 acres, it's not going to be easy. It seems the easiest and one of the best methods is to drain the lake completely, use a spreader to spread bentonite on the bottom and sides, and then come back and till it in.

Some of my lakes are nearly a mile from any road. Getting tons of bentonite back there, spreading it, and tilling it in (with some steep sides) will be enough of a problem besides the cost of such a large amount of bentonite. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I'm still figuring...

 

[stevenf]

UncleBuck, I to am in the same leaky lake mode and bentonite is a good product but even with my small lakes they claim I need 50+thousand lbs of bentonite and a heavy dozer with a commercial tiller as it needs to be tilled in to the top 18" or so of bottom and sides otherwise the livestock will walk thru it and make it leak, bentonite will supposedly self seal if its tilled in deep enough but as Dargo said its very expensive when you need many thousands of pounds of it.
On a different note many years ago prior to combustion engines old farmers and ranchers swore you could fence off the tank with Hog wire and get numerous hogs inside living there for a couple of months and feed them all over the tank and they will seal it up by just walking around in it they are the animal of choice because of their weight and their liking for the habitat they are being kept in. Course now your a pig farmer and many neighbors will have issues with this little adventure so if you go this route I'd go talk to all the neighbors and assure them its not permanent or they'll have the county on you for stuff. We have wild hogs here in Boerne, Texas but I've not been successful in getting them to stick around long enough to do any real good.
Steve

 

[gsganzer]

Before you invest a whole lot of time and expense, you might want to make sure that the tank has an adequate watershed to keep it full. I think the guideline for TX is a minimum of 20 acres of watershed per/ acre of pond surface area.

I've heard about the bentonite, but I've never talked to anyone who's used it. I do know that you have to watch out for the stocks hoofs punching holes in a plastic liner or bentonite layer.

 

[Unclebuck257]

gsganzer,

The tank in question isn't a problem to fill from the watershed, and fills nicely when and if we get rain. As you know from living in Denton, that's been a problem so far this year for many of us. This tank's problem is holding that water, once it gets filled.

Thanks for the replies so far and they really are appreciated. I'm trying to avoid the Bentonite if possible, but that may just be what we'll have to do. I'd swear though that in another thread, someone mentioned something else that would do it, and I don't think it was Bentonite. I could be wrong too.

It's going to be a real job getting my cows over there to graze during the day and then bringing them back onto my place at night for watering, if I can't find something quickly to seal up that tank bottom.

 

[bczoom]

I have used bentonite for plugging holes in ponds but not to the degree Dargo or Steve has. (I was plugging mainly varmint holes).

You didn't mention the size of the stock tank (pond) but let me throw something out as a potential alternative.

Not sure what it would cost to bring in the bentonite and do the steps required to seal the sides/bottom but if it's going to be costly, why not just bring in a dozer (and someone that knows how to set up the pond to hold water) and just dig a new one? Use the dirt to fill in the existing one.

Brian

 

[gsganzer]

Unclebuck,
Too bad you're not closer to my place in Denton, I'd give you all the clay you'd ever need. When I had my tank dug, it was all virgin clay interspersed with coral fossils. Once the tank filled, that clay puffed up and became soft as a pillow. I don't dare step off into my tank, I'll sink in clay up to my waist.

 

[ByronBob]

I was going that way also but thought of a BH going deeper and getting clay up to seal it with. Also the easiest, quickest thing should be plastic. If holding water is the issue then pumping the water to a trough would prevent the cows from puncturing the liner. Or would skimming the outsides with concrete work?

 

[Bird]

Jim, our neighbor on the farm had several stock tanks on his place and told me he had one several years ago that wouldn't hold water, so on the advice of another neighbor, he and his son busted several bales of the sorriest old hay he had and spread it all over the bottom of that dry pond, then put good bales in the center so all the cattle tromped all over the old bad hay to feed on the good hay in the middle. He said the next Spring, the run off filled that pond and it's never gone dry since.

 

[Soundguy]

We used to do some holdiong ponds for type 1 waste facilities.. and bentonite was the way to go.. spread it and till it in a bit. For small ponds, a few pallet loads of bagged bentonite and a garden rake will do ya.. for anything over 10-15' diameter.. you really need bulk clay and machinery...

The alst one we did was a 10' diamater holding pond.. we sent in a few guys with garden rakes and hit the walls and floor with a few inches of clay and raked it in... Held water fine.

You might also look into pond liners ( black plastic sheeting.)

Lay it, and then dirt or rock over it.. especially the edges.. where you might curl it up and bentonite the top edge.

Soundguy