I gradually lose water from my woman made pond (600 gal) and 45 ft stream, and waterfall. I have looked at every possible place it could be a low spot. It's a fairly show leak and I can't imagine it's from the pond but most likely at the water fall or stream. I don't think it's evaporation even though it happened during early winter and over this winter. I have moved every rock to look for moisture with no results. Deer can't get to it to drink, only birds and 3 shih tzu's. Any suggestions?
losing water and can't locate where
I have a 35 foot stream and it does lose a lot of water through evaporation through the summer. I have an automatic refill kit on my pond to keep it topped off. I do not have water running in my stream in winter. How long have you had the pond and stream at this location? If you have had it there a few years and now it is losing more water then I would say yes you have a leak. Did you google leaks and pond to figure out anything?
Maybe all three water thirsty dogs are drinking you out of water . . . just kidding just the though of that makes me laugh. I love the look of Shih Tzu's
thanks for the reply.
I shut off the pump so all water went to the basin and I've measured the small decline in water over the day. I've narrowed it down to the leak being in the pond. I'm waiting for tomorrow to show how much lower it goes - marked the level with pens and kept an eye on it. The liner is very thick, from a pond company, and it's in the 3rd Spring - I think. I'm not going to see what tomorrow brings with the depth decline.
Thanks for a reply - and yes, the 3 Shih Tzu's are sweethearts.
I hope you figure it out. I am so new at this and hope I don't have to face anything like this anytime soon. Your pond is still considered "new". I would be concerned if it is leaky from a non-seam area.
I don't know it you saw my little mutt. He resembles your breed of dog . . .
What a cute pup. I bet he's sweet. What's his name?
I think the leak is from the company seam - I'm going to contact BestNest and ask about it.
The little devil is Pup-Pup or Pup-Peto or Pup-a-lious or Carlito or . . . we are into nicknames in a big way in this family. The dog knows all the names and looks when he is called and ignores us after that . . . unless we have food.
Sounds like our pets. We call treats 'cocktails' and the word makes them come running.
cocktails is funny-I'll have to come up with something as original as that!
Your losing water and I am gaining water by the bucket fulls!!! Huge rainfalls here!
It's going to rain here tomorrow. It was 70 on Sat & Sun, down to 56 today at noon but windy. Getting colder each day this week.
What an adorable puppy! I want to play with him!
I call treats "goodies" all three of mine come running.. then follows the cat.. all 4 sit waiting on the goodies. One gets thyroid medicine daily so I call "goodies" .. she gets her medicine and everyone gets a goodie! Mine are Lhasa Apsos.. all black.. except the cat.
This is my oldest ... Misty.. she is 9 ....the other 2 are 7 years old and are cousins
Lhasa: Mine has the little (okay mine dog's under bite is big) under bite. He needs orthodontist care. . . Misty is a cutie. She looks like a puppy.
Misty is a cutie and so is Pup Pup.
We always called the treats 'cookies'.
Sometimes I really miss having a dog.
my little 120 gallon stock tank pond splashes out about 10 gallons a day and I have to fill with a hose.. a pain in the tail! Good luck finding your leak.
Misty has a good under bite but it is really not visible unless you open her mouth and look.. both my other two have just barelyand underbite.. one is really just barely.. they were show dogs. Lhasas are supposed to have a very slight underbite.
I can't believe it splashes out that much. Oh gosh. I know this has a leak. It stopped leaking at a certain point. So I drained it down another few inches and waited - no reduction in water in 5 days. But finding that leak, even though I know within 5-7 inches where it must be, is going to be hard. I think I'll get a sealer and paint it on the back of the liner all around that zone and that should do it.
Shihtzumom -
are you still running your pumps? If you are, turn them off and then put a bit of milk in the water at the edge by the liner in the vicinity where you think it may be leaking and then watch. The milk will go the where the leak is and you will be able to see it. The milk will not hurt your fish or your plants.
Let us know.
Pump is off. How does the milk work? That's interesting.
Shihtzumom -
'Lay' a few drops of milk by the edge near your liner (not right at/on the liner - maybe a 1/4" or so in from the very edge, next to the liner ) where you think the general vacinity of the leak is. If there is a leak in that area, the millk will flow with the water towards the leak. You should be able to see.
This is a trick my pond guy told me a long time ago.
It will be easier to repair an area where there is a small leak than to have treat an entire area and find out there is still a problem. I am hoping your issue is more with evaporation. Finding a leak can be very frustrating.
Let us know.
Shihtzumom, We were losing water last year, so we waited for a very dry couple of dry days, then filled it the endless stream up to the top, being careful to not splash any water along the edges. Later we carefully looked along the edges and found a couple of places that were damp. We found we had water slowly flowing under some folds in the liner along the edges and then finding a low spot and where the water was trickling under the rocks on top of the liner. I couldn't perceive that this was possible, as no where that we found the damp spots seemed to be lower then the steam. But we found that the water would start to trickle along under the rocks and then find a tiny fold to escape further down the stream. So once we lifted the rocks back to the point of the first trickle we could fix it. We actually found several spots. Patti
The milk idea sounds good - I see what you mean, I will know the flow direction from the milk. We have gone over the stream so many times. Waiting until it was completely dry for days then turn on the water and fill to the top, looking for a few days for any tiny leaks. We did find a few spots like you Patti, that seeped under or around places you couldn't imagine. They also were higher than the stream and the stream never got any higher than it started with - so it made no sense.
By allowing water to fill the pond and nothing in the stream we did learn that is where the leak is located. After the water level dropped about 2 inches it stopped leaking. The water level stayed the same - so the leak is in a 2 -3 inch span. I removed rocks around the liner edges so I could pull it inward and I sprayed water with the hose very close to the liner and hoped a small leak would show through on the bottom side where it was dusty but had no luck with that approach. now's it in rain mode for another 4 days so I'll have to wait and try again. What a pain in the butt.
Shistzumom -
the hard part is finding it. It is very frustrating!
Good luck.
Kathy, Very frustrating. That milk trick sounds good to try.
When we had found the original spots along the stream we then did what you did and removed much of the rock on the liner around the lower end. Then we lifted up the liner and put more dirt under it to make it stand up. We left it that way for a few days so that the liner was sticking up well above the water level to see if the liner had a leak. Luckily ours didn't. I talked to the pond guy in Hyannis who I bought everything from (Country Gardens) and he said to make sure that I folded the excess liner not under but the other way, which seemed strange, but I now see why. We hadn't done it that way to begin with. The leaking seemed to stop. I hope it remains that way this winter. Good luck with yours. Patti
A leak is automatically in the worst place to fix. Look there first.
Hi everyone...I have been lurking here for months...Okay 2 years plus... LOL
I have recently (Nov) aquired a home that formerly belonged to my baby sister, and she now lives next door...Our homes are on 13 acres, set way back from the main road....
I will set a new Thread for what is going on here...Firstly, I inherited her pond, and secondly, I have a leak, etc...so I think I need my own thread....LOL
Ask away - any info we both, or all, gather is helpful.
The only way i found my leak when i first installed was to let the warter drop.. when it stopped dropping, I had the height.. put some styrofoam packing pieces in and they made their way to wherever the wind blew them.. tried floating food and it sank.. eventially i just looked around the edge where the water stopped falling and manually found it ,.. a small tear and a large pinhole .. hmm.. took awhile about hour and a half - two hours.
I ended up pulling the liner from the stream. I had stopped the pump and watched the water level remain the same for 5 days. I knew the leak was not above a certain point. I started the pump and in 2 days the water dropped several inches. I knew there must be a leak in the stream. Took all rocks out, removed and cleaned the liner and found multiple "pinch" holes where I had walked on the tiny pebbles and apparently put holes over the 2 years. Many tiny spots. I then purchased another new liner 5x50 $167. Put it down and have not put rocks back, running the water for several days and all has been good. Yesterday I noticed the flow from the outlet was reduced which had happened before and I turned off the pump for a minutes/restarted and it was full force. This morning after not messing with the half flow I found a very low pond. Hubby is going to check the pipe now - I think if something is getting stuck in the PVC under the liner it could cause a seam leak in the pipe. The water line only went down after the water flow decreased from the outlet. GRRRRRRR
Keep working on it shihtzumom- you'll get the leaks located and under control. I spent most of summer 2007 chasing leaks in a 480 gal goldfish pond ( waterfall, upper pool, stream and lower pool). Water was working it's way out in several places. I found them one by one and now things are fine. But I was about nuts!
Have you checked the pump impeller? There wouldn't be a leak there but a tiny piece of stick or a sliver of an acorn, anything really, wedged in front of the impeller can really impede the flow. If you turn off the pump, then turn it back on, it acts as a temporary back flush. The debris gets temporarilly dislodged then works it way back to the same spot. So the water flow improves for a while then slows down again. This has happened to me. More than once. Once a toad got tangled in it and I had to saw out a dead toad. We had to add a second pre strainer to keep the debris out of the pump.
The pump probably does have something in it but it's in the pond. So I can't imagine where the loss of water would be. I also realized I recently turn back on the light that cleans the water - loss for the name. It is above ground so hubby is checking it.
The ultraviolet or UV, I'm guessing. Wrap a paper towels around it overnight.
It's the ultraviolet light - but water goes through it even if unplugged (what hubby keeps telling me). But something is going.
If it's an inline UV, then yes, water runs through it, whether or not the UV bulb itself is lit. So, there must be a leaky connection on the input or output side of the UV. My UV's are situated differently in my pond. They are located inside the skimmer so there is connection that can leak. But my 75 gal tropical aquarium has an inline UV. Once, the output connection came completely undone while I was cleaning the aquarium. The unit is located under the aquarium inside a cabinet with no back to the cabinet. The water was pumping straight out of the aquarium at 300 gal per hr. and shooting straight at an electrical two plug wall outlet! If was a GFI outlet. But somehow no water actually got into the wall sockets and the fuse never tripped. I grabbed the UV, put my thumb in the opening and screamed for my husband. I did reach the pump to turn it off and but I couldn't get the UV high enough above the top of the tank to stop the water from siphoning. Besides fixng the connection so that it hopefully can never slip off or work loose again I throw a towel over it whever I work under there just in case. Electricity and water don't mix! When ever you've got water you've got a potential for a leak. You WILL find them. But you'll probably have a few frustrating moments along the way. Hang in there.
It's driving me nuts. I can't walk past the pond without shaking my head and thinking - I'm going to cover it up, over and over I think that. So much work and money has gone into this project. When I see the birds enjoying a bath all the worry goes away. What I hate is the UV bulb only lasts around a year. That's expensive too. I got the pond kit that has the bacteria and the white powder to kill algae - mainly string algae but you have to use the UV too.
At least I know it's not a leak in the pond or stream. There isn't much left.
You can't see me, but I'm smiling because I've been there. ;) In 2007 my husband threatened to tear out and fill in our small 480 gal gold fish pond. I couldn't find the leak(s) and he said I spent more time with the pond than I did with him! If you use the UV six months out of the year you really only need to replace it every other year. It's "time in use" thank heaven, not time on the calendar. Yes, they are expensive. Two of mine are $65 each and one is $117. My aquarium UV has to be replaced annually but I keep the pond UV's for two years. The pond UV's get about 14 months of actual use and they work fine.
If I didn't love my birds so much I would cover it up. They love to play in the water. I've worked on it today and I THINK major improves have been made. We'll see that the morning brings.
Got my fingers crossed.