Water tank at toe of pond dam.

[Black and Good]

Good morning Cattle people. Does anyone have any info.,tips etc. on the installation of those concrete watering tanks fed by the pond that are at the toe of the back of the dam. I've installed almost all kinds of automatic waterers but never one of these. Thanks B&G

 

[Bright Raven]

Neighbor farm had one where I grew up. Concrete trough at toe of the dam. A discharge pipe fitted into the earthen dam fed it. It basically served as the primary discharge pipe. There was an emergency spillway In case of more runoff than the gravity pipe to the concrete basin would hold. If not enough inflow to feed the pipe, it stops. This one was in a drainage and was never an issue I can remember. It was extremely simple. No valves, etc.

 

[Ebenezer]

Inlet in pond needs to be about 2 or 3 feet below the surface to avoid floating leaves, algae and trash and to not get too deep for 2nd thermocline which is not as potable. Look hard at the location of the tank. Too much gravel pad or ramp to get to it really eats into the pocketbook. And an overflow is needed in a bigger diameter than the inflow pipe if it is constant flow to avoid tank running over. Or you can use a float valve.

Soils will tell you a lot about feasibility of the tank location if they tend to get boggy.

 

[dun]

We used leach line pipe for the riser in the pond to serve the tank we installed. I capped it so that I could later if needed later pull it and run a snake down it. The bottom couple of feet of the riser is solid sewerline pipe. The hardest part is getting the pipe from the pond to below the dam. I'ts best to put the pipe in while the dam is being built. If you need to do it afterwards you can dig through dam with a real narrow backhoe bucket. Whatever you do, build at least 1 (a couple wold be better) anti-seep collar around the pipe.

 

[Silver]

Whatever you do, build at least 1 (a couple wold be better) anti-seep collar around the pipe.

What is an anti-seep collar?

 

[greybeard]

 

[Silver]

Oh I see. That's what I use bentonite for. Cheap, easy, and effective.

 

[dun]

Oh I see. That's what I use bentonite for. Cheap, easy, and effective.

A collar with bentonite packed around it works best