The source of last week's diaster

I had to take a day and a half off from work last week to repair the damage from the most recent pond tragedy. While out of town the waterfall basin (a 125 gallon preform liner raised about 3 feet or so off the ground ) burst ... draining the entire pond proper and leaving me with quite a few casualties in both flora and fauna. The entire rubber liner was pushed a good foot above water level and all of the plants, fish, frogs, and god only knows what was pushed out of the pond in the process. (sorry, no pics of that mess ... looking for my camera was the last thing on my mind when we got home the airport that night)

Upon draining the bottom of the basin and removing all the plants, bio-media, etc., I found the following:

(what you see pushing through that 4+ inch crack is the corner of a 4x4 that I SERIOUSLY mis-positioned when cementing in the supports for this beast)

I AM happy to report that everything is now "fixed." I tried using epoxy putty and fibreglass to fix said crack. I, unfortunately, was NOT aware that you cannot do that, though. The wet fiberglass resin and hardener breaks down the dried epoxy putty .... :o

I did that patch work on Tuesday, by Wednesday evening it was obvious that a leak (albeit an infinitely slower one) was at work at the "scene of the crime." Saturday morning I went to Home Depot, bought another one of these 125g preform liners and replaced the old one. They only charged me $64 for the liner, so I bought a second one to use as the liner for next year's lotus "pond."

Oh ... and I took the reciprocating saw to the offending 4x4 and carefully carved it to the shape of the liner and then placed a 10" piece of beveled 2x10 between it and the liner. That should provide positive reinforcement without any sharp corners to cause this sort of tragedy again.

Man ....... all these "learning experiences" and "character building opportunities" can be a bit on the taxxing side! lol

ohhh. that is nasty...blame it on that heavy old water.. :)

And a hasty, over-stretched Obsessive/Compulsive who did NOT do anywhere near enough pre-planning on this project. The pond is about 5' narrower than I would like, etc. etc. etc. (a result of the largest pond liner available within a reasonable driving distance: had I ORDERED one months earlier, or paid for one and had it held, this would not have been the case. I went out to buy a liner AFTER the backhoe arrived, to give you an example of my lack of planning)

we all do things like that...thats why we call them mistakes. we wish we had built our pond bigger too but good liner is expensive and hard to find in some areas.

Well, the "good news" is that my stepson forgot to unplug the lights and timer, so there were some folds in the liner where some fiery halogen bulbs got toasty without the protection of any water for about 4 or 5 hours. My fear is that the liner has been dried in those areas and perhaps may have already been breached. I'll find out this weekend. If so, I'm just going to patch it and then replace it this spring ... and digging out the walkway side of the pond another 5 feet or so! :o)

I'll probably make that whole new section on the shallow side so I can get more creative with the "aquascaping" AND I could design that longer shelf so there's a bit of a "trap" there to lure my koi into with food to more easily net them for check-ups and trips away from the pond.

If nothing else, this has put my on-going, and CONTINUOUS [no less than 3 or 4 times a week] frustrations with the surface skimmer into better perspective. I've found myself not losing my temper as much as before this last "big'n!"

Eeeek! I'm all for going ahead and expanding the pond, but promise us you will spend the winter PLANNING the project out in every detail! LOL, and good luck!

We learn from our mistakes, but look at it this way, next year you will know more about your likes and dislikes from you first pond, you will improve it and what the heck, the bigger the better.

Bogweed, I had total faith that you would find a way to make that pond bigger! You go! and we will need photos, of course!
I'm sure there are folks who don't have the on-going frustrations with their ponds, but I can relate to yours. I fixed a leak in the waterfall today and I hope that will slow down the continuous drain of water from my pond. I have no idea how much is evaporation, but I know not all of it is. It's really building a lot of Character in me! Drat the luck! or rather, Drat the lack of planning!

I think part of the being irritated with myself is the fact that this is far from being my first time around with ponds, nor is it the first time I've suffered the consequences of being hasty. I *know* better that to do the things I did ...

But alas, a man's gotta be true to his own nature.

Yeah, Pixy, trying to guage the rate of evaporation is frustrating, isn't it? I made some adjustments at the waterfall the night before last that drastically reduced the amount of water loss each day. Given the volume of water that gets pushed around in my pond, I assumed it was evaporation, but alas .... it weren't.

Here's the waterfall:

As you can see, all the green (algae & moss) is all gone after having no water flow across it for days (and it's in full sun from mid/early morning until an hour or so before sunset) All the same, it's running again and now only in need of some ascetic improvements.

At about 6,000 gph, the water is probably getting rather oxygenated. Or so I would hope, at least.

i was just reading on a website that them preformed ponds are made of
HDPE ( i think is the letters ) plastic which is 2nd on the list next to
teflon for non stick , hence the reason fiberglass / expoxy / pvc glue .. ect wont
work on it for a good repair.

Makes sense, dude ... oh well, I now have a new liner and a backup, just in case (hey, at $64, how could I pass on that one?)