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Ponds & Aquatic Plants

leaking pond

17 years ago

Hi everyone, I hope you can help me. I moved into my house 9 mo ago where i have a pond with various goldfish and koi. It has thick rubber flexible liner,

last year a rock fell in and as it was winter we left it there, but recently with warming weather we went in and took it out.

unfortunately since then the water level is dropping q quickly so we figured it must have a hole in it. So we need to fix quickly before fishes die :-(

My question is-do you think we can use a rigid pond liner as a holding tank-use pond vac to move most water, then fish to holding tank, then without removing old liner, put down a pond underlay, then new liner, then refill pond? Do you think we could do this or would we have to take out old damaged liner? I know its hard to tell without seeing it but if have to disturb fish by moving wd prefer to just replace rather than try to repair liner.

The other option is for my OH to dig a new pond on level above where it is, then move fish pond vac water etc etc.

I prefer the non slipped disc option, but would appreciate all your expert advice please. Thank you very much, sorry its so long, Kate

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Comments (5)

destany
17 years ago
Well... Kate, do you know where the hole is? Do you know how big it is? I'm confused why you can't just patch the liner? Even a sizable hole could likely be repaired. Even if it's a HUGE hole, I mean, the size of a bowling ball, cant you just take a seperate peice of liner and use seam tape to attatch it over the hole to repair it?

You'll need to find out where the leak is before you go ripping up your pond, I'd wager. Let it drain as far as it'll go and scan the sides (or bottom) at the edge of the water pool.
Not sure why you'd need to build a whole new pond because of one hole. I'm confused...
mycatsbc
17 years ago
I had a hole on the bottom of the pond from a rock about 6 years ago, I just patched it up and filled it back up and have not had another problem.

Easy to repair and less costly and a lot less work then building a new pond.
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hotcookie101
Original Author
17 years ago
the whole new pond idea was becasue of my OH but we dont currently have anything to use as a holding tank and dont know how to keep fish alive while drain pond. Am hoping to get rigid liner off freecycle but if we dont.... And also I heard that patching the liner is kinda unreliable?

really looking for ideas how to drain pond and keep fish alive while repair/replace liner. and also if dont want to repair can I put new liner etc without taking up the old one?
sheepco
17 years ago
How big are the fish? Plastic garbage cans, kiddie pools and stock tanks make good holding tanks. And with aeration and filtration fish can be kept quite some time. You can also keep your plants in 'em. I would fill them with pond water with the vacuum or pump as you said.

Don't know about repair vs. replace liner. No experience with that here.

Good Luck
horton
17 years ago
You could use a kiddie pool to keep the fish in temporarily?
Use the water from the pond to fill the pool and add a dose of Stresscoat to help calm the fish.

It is easier to catch the fish in shallow water, so drain the pond right down. Use a bowl to carefully scoop up the fish and transfer them to the kiddie pool.

You may want to cover the kiddie pool at night to keep raccoons from eating the fish. Being shallow, kiddie pools are just like a smÃ¶rgÃ¥sbord bowl for the raccoons.

Once you have the pool drain and scrubbed clean you can check for any damage to the EPDM liner.
A wet/dry vacuum is a great item to use for the final draining and cleaning.

Patching is a good idea and can be done successfully if it is done properly, using the splicing tape /piece of liner/ self adhesive liner patch. The patch area must be spotlessly clean before applying the patch. They work extremely well.
Or if at that time you can decide to install a new liner over the old one. Doing that way, itcan end up being kind of bulky around the edges, but it can be done.

That can be decided when you see the old liners condition.
You may just opt to remove it and start all over.
EPDM liner does need an underlay of some sort to protect it from sharp stones etc, old carpet, cardboard boxes, layers and layers of newspapers, or purchase underlay from a pond dealership.
When you fill the new pond up with water, you may need to add a chlorine remover/water conditioner, if your water supply is treated with chlorine etc,Do this and the Stresscoat again, prior to re-introducing the fish into their new home.
Good luck with it.
"Horton"

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