MY NEW DAM.

[tiges]

Yeh I know Chimo, been so busy lately I haven't had time to scratch myself. So any work on the dam is unfortunately on the backburner. Seems like a fairly labour intensive little process, and with all the other stuff on my plate at the moment it isn't quite at the top of my list.

Glad you like it Shayne. I always noticed quite a bit of water running down the driveway when it rained. So we reshaped it a bit and fed a little channell into the yard. It worked a treat, and I reckon at least 50% of the water in the dam came in via this route. You can see in this pic the debri left on edges of the little feeder stream that was created.

[Chimo]

Hi Tiges

I guess we have all been in your position, flat out, at one time or another.

Anyhow with the little stream you diverted in, once its chocka you will probably be able to divert it past the dam with a few sand bags and keep the pressure off the spillway.

Its the long trickles that stuff the vegn around and in the spillway and eventually tend to give you the headaches. Plus in this case once you get the dam stocked you want to keep them in.

How are you going to keep the birds off . They are going to have a feast once the water clears and you have the stock in there. Do you have a source of water lillies to get some of the surface covered to give the stock some cover?

Looking good anyhooo

Cheers
Chimo GOM etc

[tiges]

Re: Birds. Got loads of lillies and other vegetation nearby that I can access, plus heaps more timber I can lay in there. Hopefully that should do the trick.

[wheezer]

oh come on mate you got one of the best bass dams virtually in your backyard! now that's what i call lazy screw everythin else when we chuckin some barra and jacks in

[tiges]

Geez your an impatient bugger wheezer, "when are we going to Monduran", "when can we chuck some barra and jacks in your dam". Patience my friend.

Good thing that I have "the other dam" close by. As i think after rearing the fish in my dam they'll be like pets, and I might not have the heart to fish for them. Might have to just throw hookless poppers in there for the thrill of the boof!

[peeler]

good stuff keep updating

[shayned]

Is it full yet?

[tiges]

Sorry I haven't really updated for a while guys, haven't been on the site much lately. Nah Shane, it's not full up yet mate. The occasional reasonable falls we've had over the past few weeks have been enough to maintain the level, but it's slowly dropping in between. A little concerned about it, but all the advice I've received has been that it will take time to settle. Thinking of getting some bentonite into it, but I'll give it a bit longer and see how it goes. Must be patient with these things, but I'd love a dollar for every time the missus has said, "look's like the dams gone down, ya should get some of that stuff to put in it".

[Chimo]

Hi tiges

You'll get 4 to 6 feet evaporation loss a year from water in a dam so its probably not going out the bottom.

Anyhow bentonite would have to have been mixed into the clay inside the dam before it filled and then rolled before you got water into the hole so forget it, bugger of a job at the best of times so give it time and expect to lose a bit between runoff events in this heat. You won't tbe sticking fish in it for a while anyway.

Cheers

Chimo

[murf]

Hi tiges

I would put in the screened pipe like Chimo said for the overflow, I use 90mm stormwater PVC in 70mx25m ponds but I have no catchment so you might like a bigger pipe. If you were around Coffs I have plenty of 150mm to get rid of.

Do you have mosquito fish (Gambsia affinis) in your area? sorry I dont know where you live. These are a real pest when putting in figerlings as they will bite the fins off your fingerlings and stress them to death. Does your catchment come from a creek or other dam overflow? if so it will be hard to keep them out. if not then the screened overflow will help keep them out from downstream. Also with the overflow pipe make it drop a minnimum of 600mm onto a splash plate so they can't swim up the overflow.

Would love to see some photos but the new site won't let me?

Have fun with it and ask questions as you go

Cheers Murf

[blaze]

fairly sure that you can get evapouration rates from the weather web sites, might make it easier to work out if leaking. beninite will certainly stop any leaks.
cheers
blaze

[tiges]

Noticed Bdowdy asked how my little puddle was going on another thread, so thought I'd do an update for those interested. Took a couple of pics y'day. We got some good rain about a mth ago, which lifted it up to about a metre from capacity. But it has slowly dropped back down to about the level it was at before, about 2/3rd full. Still not holding water terribly well, but it is only 4mths old, and has only had water in it for about 3mths. Been tossing a few lillies in there, and the logs are starting to get algae and stuff growing on them. Lots of little insects, beetles and stuff swimming in there. Just put my 1st lot of guppies and shrimp in there, so will be interesting to see how they go. Will try and do a few more regular updates.

[murf]

Gday tiges

good to see a photo of it

Question, was the walls of the dam ripped and rolled? ie was the structure of the clay broken and then packed down?(even track roll after ripping)

if it was not then it might never hold any more water than it is already as the water leaks out of the little cracks in the clays structure, the dam that I built to take roof water from my shed I didn't roll and it leaks down a meter in height in a few weeks after rain, not that it bothers me but one day I will fix it, I didn't roll it as an experiment bfore I made my ponds.

I hope it works out right for you but there is a very large proportion of dams that are not constructed properly and hence leak, the constuction mob take your money with no guarantee

again all the best with it

Cheers Murf

[tiges]

Yeh Murf, we hit some pretty good clay about half way down. It was put aside, and then compacted and rolled onto the wall. Done with a 22 tonne earthmover, with a big rolling wheel attachment. Got it done by a local guy up here, Eddie Marshall. He helped his old boy build Marshall's lagoon, so ya think he'd know what he's doing.

Cheers mate
Tiges

[murf]

Yeh Murf, we hit some pretty good clay about half way down. It was put aside, and then compacted and rolled onto the wall. Done with a 22 tonne earthmover, with a big rolling wheel attachment. Got it done by a local guy up here, Eddie Marshall. He helped his old boy build Marshall's lagoon, so ya think he'd know what he's doing.

Cheers mate
Tiges

Sounds like it was done corectly and you should have no probs with it then

He did a very neet job on it,

it does take some time for the dam to settle in and you will always still get leakage to some degree even if its only a couple of % of total water loss.

Just need a couple of wet weeks to give a good soaking

Cheers Murf