Leak is wearing me out!!

16 years ago

I have had a pond for six years or so and I got this bright idea 3 weeks ago to make it bigger and install a bottom drain and skimmer.

Am I nuts or what? I asked myself that after draining the old one moving all fish to a temp pool and began digging deeper..

Well hard part is done, bottom drain installed, new liner, new skimmer, small waterfall. Pond is now nearly 1400g.

Loosing water, so thinking I have a leak. Adding a inch to two every two or three days. I bypassed the waterfall and it seem to slow down quite a bit so I reworked that area and I sure can't see any wet spots around it now. But still loosing a bit of water.

Last night I decided to close my skimmer down and run all from the bottom drain. Water was down already and I never filled back up I just have a spot where water is just over one of my plant pot so I know if it goes below I am loosing water. I looked at it today about 16 hours after I turned skimmer off and its holding just above the pot.

The skimmer runs on the same pump as the one pulling from BD so I have two lines the BD a 3 inch and skimmer 1.5 inch running back to a Tee. Each has ball valves there to be turned off or play with the flow. So with that shut off there the water level looking in the skimmer is about half way covering the intake. So I am thinking I will first fill up above the intake and leave it turned off and see if water backfilling into the 1.5 inch pipe may be leaking. Of course all us under ground actually piped under the liner, at least just under a plant shelf. What was I thinking.. If I repipe it could be a shorter run than the way it was done today since I reused a old pipe I had used on the old pond..

The back side of the skimmer where the pipe connects is covered with dirt, seems to be dry there.

Not sure if where I cut the liner for the skimmer is leaking or not. All was sliconed up with black rtv. I could lower water level a bit more dry front of skimmer out and unscrew all nuts and bolts remove from front of skimmer and pull back to see if ground is wet behind liner. This would be a job to do so will be last option..

Of course my nightmare has been what if BD is leaking. As of now I don't think this is the case. I think it is somehere in or around the skimmer.

I am ready to sit back and just enjoy the pond which now has only koi back in it, all my goldfish got new homes..Koi just spawned this week as well so guess they are adjusted.

Do have a case of green water at the moment though, until it all cycles..

Once I get this leak resolved I want to run a post about how to winterize this new setup. I think the old pond was much easier and ran mostly all year. Not sure this one can do that with the skimmer and BD on same pump..

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Comments (9)

catfishsam
16 years ago
gordonsweb, the main reason that I have never considered a bottom drain is because it would be really difficult to know if it were leaking.

After all, it is down there under all that water so there is really no good way to find out.

Then if you do have to fix it, that means having to drain the pond and pull up the liner.

Frankly I think BDs are overrated anyway and are more of a fashion statement than being necessary.

So I hope it is not your BD since you will have lots of trouble ahead.
sleeplessinftwayne
16 years ago
Did you take into account that when you are running the pump and the waterfall you are increasing the amount of water that is required to fill the pond? Sandy
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gordonsweb
Original Author
16 years ago
Yes, I topped the pond off once the filter and waterfall filled up.

This morning my check on the pond is it has not lost any water running just through the BD. So will now begin to see where the skimmer is loosing water..
cliff_and_joann
16 years ago
Our friend was loosing water through the hole around where he cut the 'through the wall skimmer' It seems that the weight of the water pills the lining down and that's where a leak can develop. He ended up pulling out the skimmer and patching up the skimmer hole. If you have a BD a skimmer is not so important. We live in a heavily treed area and only run our skimmer in Spring and fall when the trees are dropping debre and leaves.
Our skimmer in a DIY job, made from an old bucket, we have it installed under the small dock in back of our pond. If you determine the leak is from the skimmer and decide to patch up the skimmer, an over the pond wall skimmer can be installed and hidden as well...good luck and don't get discouraged, if this hobby was so easy, "anybody could do it.!" :) and that's what's so fun about it!

Joann
finn21
16 years ago
I guess we Colorado guys think alike. I never know why some people think bottom drains are so important. They way I learned, you never cut holes in your liner for any reason (except to trim the edge of course). Whenever you pierce the liner, you're asking for trouble with leaks at some point. I guess I'm not helping....so sorry. Good luck with the fix and don't give up!
bryan
16 years ago
I found a great technique by accident.
If you suspect an area, lower the water level a tad and place a running hose BEHIND the liner and see if water leaks IN.
This has saved my sanity on more than one occasion.
catfishsam
16 years ago
finn, it has never made any sense to me either.

It just seems like a way to create potential problems without a lot of meaningful benefits.

gordonsweb, I hope you find your leak soon.
gordonsweb
Original Author
16 years ago
Life is Good, yesterday I dug out around my skimmer and seen a damp area so I decided to drain the pond down to the bottom of the skimmer and resilcone rtv the weir. Once I did that I noticed a cornor which was low so once I moved all the rocks I found a wet muddy spot. I guess the way the liner was folded the crease was letting water out but it was running back under the liner and really not making a wet spot where I could see. I bult that spot up and filled pond back up and low and behold I am not loosing any water in 14 hours. BD and Skimmer are running happilly..

Thanks for everyones help..
catfishsam
16 years ago
gordonsweb, I am glad that you found what the problem was and got it fixed.

{{gwi:208877}}

Leak is wearing me out!!

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catfishsam

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Leak is wearing me out!!

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