Clay pond

[cpetty1985]

I’m in the process of building about a 7,000 sqft pond. Lucky/unlucky for me I live in the south east and it has been raining every 3 days. The first big rain filled the pond up half way, but was almost dry by the next day. Since this happened I started packing even more red clay. The forum I read before I started the dig said to pack red clay and leave loose clay on the top. Second rain pond filled up even more but water was gone by the next day. I’m out here again packing it with red dirt. I attached pictures, hoping someone could tell me if they think this type of clay really obsorbs that much water or if I have bigger issues.

 

[sissy]

I have red clay here but found when there is no rain it cracks and the water that is there just drains away .It can hold water when it rains a lot but then July and August get here and the ground gets hard as a rock and starts to fracture and no aount of water helps it until we get more steady rain .Even my veggie garden does not do well

 

[j.w]

@cpetty1985

 

[Lisak1]

You CAN build a clay lined pond (@MitchM has one in the works) but you need to use the right kind of clay. We have red clay here and I can tell you that no way would it hold water for more than a day or two. When we were digging our pond, it was nothing BUT red clay and had been there untouched for decades. Our house is built on the site of an old tree farm, so the ground here had seen lots and lots of heavy equipment over the years, not to mention the compaction from having a new home built on the site. Can't get more packed than that. Like you, our freshly dug pond hole filled up with rain before we got the liner in and was gone within a day or two.

I'm not sure what you're reading, but I would check a few more sources if I were you.

Welcome by the way!

 

[MitchM]

Yes, you need bentonite clay to form a seal.
There is a method for testing your soil to determine how much bentonite you need per sq. ft.
I can post it if the OP is interested. I see he/she hasn't been back since the original post.