lets talk pond construction for your upper and lower pond design. The lower pond should have a overflow pipe to control the max. water level. It should run to a drain or dry well 3-4 feet away from the pond. If you are using a skimmer box it is likely in there. The water supply to the upper pond should be by way of a falls or hose above the water level so it will not syphon the pond empty when the pump is turned off. The spillway on the falls to the lower pond is the high level control for the upper pond. The liners at the falls must overlap such that the upper one shingles over the lower and is wide enough to keep the falls from leaking at the sides. If your pond meets these design considerations, simply turn off the pump for a day or two. If the water level goes down in either the upper or lower pond then look for a low edge in the pond that lost water. If the water level holds in both ponds, the problem may be ether a leak at the falls liner overlap or you are infract moving more water into the upper pond than the spillway can let out. Falls do often leek due to water going under them in addition to over like we would all like them to. If it is a flow issue, reduce the flow in with a valve or lower GPM pump or get the hammer and cold chisel out ;-( Good luck! Mike

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 smörgåsbord 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"

Hi Sandy, Once I looked into what gunnite is, I knew I didn't want to use it. At this point, I don't know exactly where the leaks are coming from, except that they are coming from the North end of the pond. It is just a trickle of water, so the size of the leak can not be very large. The ground in my area is made up of a small layer of topsoil, then clay, then shale. I'm concerned that I'll have to empty the pond again, and I'll lose all my fish ... bass, blue gil, grass carp, goldfish, minnows, etc. Luckily the leak is on the shallow end of the pond ... so maybe just lowering the water level will do it. We'll see. I'm still waiting for the company to come look at it that does pond work.

Bob Nevin, This was the first skimmer that was made for ponds. It first came on the market in 1995. It has not changed much since it was first introduced. When it was first introduced it used a mesh bag that wrapped around the inside part of the face plate and hung on two screws. The filter pad sat on four PVC pipes that fit into the molded in groves in the front and back wall of the box. The pump was to be installed below the pad with the outlet pipe coming up through the pad and out a hole near the top of the back wall. A bulkhead was mounted in the back wall as an overflow point for the pond. The aluminum bolts that secured the face plate are threaded into aluminum inserts that were put into the skimmer box. There have been two changes made to skimmer. The first was to have four slots cut into the top rim of the skimmer. These slots held two aluminum rods that supported the new net. The front rod is shaped so that there is a u that fits around the part of the face plate that is inside the skimmer. The other bar is a straight rod that supports the back of the net. The rods fit in two pockets that are in the net. The later change was replacing the PVC support pipes with a molded rack. Now getting onto your question. This skimmer is a mold box that is buried in the ground. It does not have any supports in the box to keep the walls from being deformed. So a lot of times after a period of time I will see the walls of the box deformed from the dirt around it. The second thing is the newer pad rack was put in so that if a horizontal pump was not used it had to be cut up for vertical pump. They did this when they came out with their horizontal pump. There is nothing to keep the U on the front net rod around the face plate. When the debri net gets full the weight tends to bend the rods in removing the net. The last thing is the filter pad has to have a hole cut in it for the outlet pipe to go through. Also if a vertical pump is in the skimmer the pad has to be cut around the body of the pump. The problem is that the holes are hard to get tight around the pipe and pump. So usually the debri gets through the holes rather then getting caught by the pad. And if the holes are cut tight then the debri caught in the pad can block the water from the pump. This can cause the pump to over heat. Mike