Water Runnoff Help

[koisRus]

The end of last week we had a heavy rain storm and I got some runoff in my pond, this is the second time this happened with a heavy rain. I do not think it went over the 4x4's, but that it just rained so hard in the area of mulch that it turned the pond water nice and brown.

So now I am looking for the easiest, fastest, least expensive way to fix this. Can I just add more of the large river stones around the edge? Or do I need to remove what is there and place some underneath the liner?

 

[DrDave]

Raising your pond edge by several inches will most likely solve your problem. Rocks alone won't stop the rain. You might also add some French Drains around your pond. If you can, direct the hose outlet to a lower area in your yard for the water to go to.
I added 350 feet in my yard 6 years ago and it solved all my flooding problems. Oh I also hooked all my downspouts into an underground pipe to direct it to the street and away from my house.

 

[addy1]

Like drdave says you need to raise the edge of your pond, or get the water from heavy rains, directed around it.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Has anyone ever used this to their advantage? I've been considering what it might take to do some particle filtering from the down-spout off my house, and let the resulting water feed into my pond as a method of topping off. I figure the overflow would help with flushing the system, and provide a sort of automated water-change. Any thoughts?

 

[addy1]

Has anyone ever used this to their advantage? I've been considering what it might take to do some particle filtering from the down-spout off my house, and let the resulting water feed into my pond as a method of topping off. I figure the overflow would help with flushing the system, and provide a sort of automated water-change. Any thoughts?

There are a lot of different opinions on using roof run off. I am in a very rural area, not concerned with pollution etc. so I am using roof runoff into our pond. We do not have koi, have no fish at this moment, will eventually have some goldies, shubunkins. Do have frogs water bugs plants.

I like the water changes the rain gives us.

One of our roofs is metal, one is a new asphalt roof. Our gutters don't get full of leaves, the house is far enough from trees. We are on a well, so doing what we can to keep from hitting our well too hard.

 

[DrCase]

KoisRus
If you take the time to raise the edge ...take the time and go up high enough so you never have to worry about big rains

 

[koisRus]

Thanks everyone!

I just went and picked up 1/2 ton of the large river rock, I will add as much height as this lets me. Then I was thinking about using some foam (I have 3 cans of the Dow just sitting here) in between the large rocks, and hiding it with some smaller stones. Does this sound like it will do the trick?

 

[addy1]

Thanks everyone!

I just went and picked up 1/2 ton of the large river rock, I will add as much height as this lets me. Then I was thinking about using some foam (I have 3 cans of the Dow just sitting here) in between the large rocks, and hiding it with some smaller stones. Does this sound like it will do the trick?

Are you putting the river rock below the liner to raise it? It is almost impossible to seal the rocks well enough to keep water from coming through them, unless you use concrete etc, if you are putting those on top of the liner.

If you use enough of the foam it would work to divert a lot of the water, some might still come through.

 

[koisRus]

Are you putting the river rock below the liner to raise it? It is almost impossible to seal the rocks well enough to keep water from coming through them, unless you use concrete etc, if you are putting those on top of the liner.

If you use enough of the foam it would work to divert a lot of the water, some might still come through.

I thought about going under the liner, but then I did not want to take a chance on creating a new issue of having a heavy rain getting under the liner. I was going to use mortar, but then that's it, your done with making any changes later if you want.

I used one can of foam, I will go back over it every day for the next several days to see where I need more and add it.

I should mention that normal rain is not an issue, (even when we got 4.5" the first day of that storm 2 weeks ago) just late that night when the other 4.5" fell really fast.

 

[addy1]

You will most likely do fine then. If we got 10 inches of rain we might have issues too. Keep watching during storms and fix each issue as they come up.

 

[DrDave]

So you are raising the liner by applying foam under it? If so, that is a great idea!

 

[addy1]

he is foaming the rocks, from what I understand

 

[DrCase]

I thought about going under the liner, but then I did not want to take a chance on creating a new issue of having a heavy rain getting under the liner. I was going to use mortar, but then that's it, your done with making any changes later if you want.
.

Mortar 6" to 12" wide is very easy to break when you want to take it out
And it stays right were you put it

 

[carolinaguy]

roof runoff into a pond has posed a problem for some. shingles are a petroleum contaminant source, and that can kill. not saying you will have the problem but just suggesting caution. some folks accumulate water in a rain barrel or trough to let pollutants gas off. your roof not only stops the rain but also accumulates pollutant dust and debris from the neighborhood that eventually washes off and down the spouts. i have heard of metals causing problems. one lady installed an arbor or something similar made of metal, and the fish problems were attributed to that source, possibly a metal paint.

 

[lauraleellbp]

If this is a liner pond, then I'd put some bags of sand underneath the top edge of the liner to raise the edge at least 4-6". (As long as you've got enough liner overlap to cover the mounded sand, however, otherwise the sand will just wash away with the rains.)

And I agree with hewhoisatpeace that mortar would probably do a better job (and be much cheaper) than foam if you go with rocks instead.