Water Table Florida

[Curious1]

Thinking of installing a pond. We live in Florida and in the summer we are prone to torrential rainfall. One year we had so much rain that it floated a small preformed pond above ground level. Will this be an issue with a liner?

 

[Stephen Noble]

Welcome to the forum! It sure could and a liner will much more difficult to deal with than repositioning a preformed. But, I have not experienced a preformed pond floating when it is installed in sand along the coastline. The rain might pool for a few minutes but then quickly drains down. Do you live where the soil is mix sand and clay? Do you live where the water table is a few inches below the surface or perhaps have an underground spring upwelling? One solution is to construct an above ground pond.

 

[Curious1]

Only occurs after weeks of heavy rain from storms in the summers. It's also the low point in the yard.

 

[Stephen Noble]

Oh yeah, Florida downpours create Amazon-like rivers. Perhaps you can reroute the majority of the runoff before it gets to your pond. Could you post a picture of the area?

 

[Ronfire]

Build the pond partly above ground, possibly with a row of rocks around or bricks to raise it a foot above the surounding area

 

[MajorDan]

Having been raised in southern Florida I know what your concerns are. I had a similar problem here in Northern Alabama with huge rainfall for days that flood streets and backyards. I built my pond half in and half out of the ground since I hit water around 2 feet down. So I installed a drain and relief pipe from the bottom to the side of the wall I put around the pond. When it rains hard, the water that would have ballooned my pond escapes out the relief pipe. Relief pipe is 2” PVC with bog like slits in 4’ of pipe under deep end that has many slots in it and covered with stones that connects with the 2” pipe that rises up outside the liner and through the wall. As long as the top end of the relief pipe is below the pond water surface and above where you think flood waters will top out, the rains will not balloon your liner and the flood waters will not enter your pond.

In the photo you can see the results of my relief pipe as the wet area at bottom of wall. My relief pipe does not stick out as it is at and under the joint between the small upper pond on left and the wall supporting my marginal plants. This area of dirt also reinforces the raised pond walls.

 

[Curious1]

Thanks for the tips. Your set up looks great. And I assume that when you built the pond above ground level you pulled the liner above the wall blocks?

 

[MajorDan]

Yes. It has worked out great. I use the rocks to hold down the anti-heron net in some places too.

 

[j.w]

@Curious1