Best pond liner

[anitapond]

Hi all! I have an Aquascape 500 gallon pond that is about 20 years old. It must have a hole/rip somewhere, because it has started leaking with the pump turned off. I'm looking to buy a new liner, but I'm not sure of the best material or thickness. I live near Cleveland, OH, zone 5a I believe. Thanks for your input!

 

[Pearlscale]

Our liner ripped and we’ve just replaced it with a butyl liner. It seems very thick and strong, but put a good underlay underneath as well. You can even use old carpet or something similar.

A good quality one should also have a good warranty. Our liner is by Superfish- I’m not sure if they’re available in the USA, but most butyl liners are pretty similar, I believe, so that shouldn’t matter.

Edit- ignore that, had a look and ours is apparently just PVC I would recommend butyl, though, it’s generally considered the strongest material.

 

[TheFishGuy]

Butyl is kind of the best you can get, but unfortunately it isn’t common at all in the USA.

The standard liner is 45 mil epdm, which is what you probably currently have given that it is an aquascape pond. It will last for 15-20 years and is fairly durable.

Addy1 and a few others around here have used some other strange liner that is used for commercial projects, and they say it is incredibly durable, so you could also look into something like that. ( @addy1 could you pop in and tell us the name? )

 

[Pearlscale]

@TheFishGuy huh, I didn’t know that, I was expecting the opposite to be honest, usually the USA tends to have a much wider range of aquatics stuff than the U.K.

@anitapond sorry about that, ignore me

 

[combatwombat]

Believe @addy1 has a RPE liner from BTL. I have similar.

 

[GBBUDD]

Butyl is kind of the best you can get, but unfortunately it isn’t common at all in the USA.

The standard liner is 45 mil epdm, which is what you probably currently have given that it is an aquascape pond. It will last for 15-20 years and is fairly durable.

Addy1 and a few others around here have used some other strange liner that is used for commercial projects, and they say it is incredibly durable, so you could also look into something like that. ( @addy1 could you pop in and tell us the name? )

HDRPE

 

[GBBUDD]

Butyl is kind of the best you can get, but unfortunately it isn’t common at all in the USA.

The standard liner is 45 mil epdm, which is what you probably currently have given that it is an aquascape pond. It will last for 15-20 years and is fairly durable.

Addy1 and a few others around here have used some other strange liner that is used for commercial projects, and they say it is incredibly durable, so you could also look into something like that. ( @addy1 could you pop in and tell us the name? )

THE BUTYL IS PROBABLY THE EXACT SAME AS EPDM JUST DIFFERENT NAMES FROM ACROSS THE POND

 

[ATP]

Believe @addy1 has a RPE liner from BTL. I have similar.

How was yours to work with? Is it a lot stiffer? Are you glad you went with it or do you wish you went with EPDM?

 

[GBBUDD]

If you have not purchased your vliner yet i suggest justliners.com i ordered epdm 30x40 tuesday and it arrived friday . the last time i ordered from them liner was damaged in shipping and i had a replacement in days.

 

[combatwombat]

How was yours to work with? Is it a lot stiffer? Are you glad you went with it or do you wish you went with EPDM?

It is for sure a lot stiffer, but I’m glad I used it. EPDM in the size I needed would have been impossible to handle without several helpers.

 

[addy1]

Believe @addy1 has a RPE liner from BTL. I have similar.

It was called ppl 36 at the time, I bought it 12 years ago.

 

[combatwombat]

It was called ppl 36 at the time, I bought it 12 years ago.

36 = 36 mil?

 

[addy1]

No it was just the name at the time. That stuff is tough, it is what they recommended due to our bit of dirt with shale. I could have installed under lay free, but I put down carpet padding. I have the paper somewhere about it.

At the time one of toughest.

 

[addy1]

It was 36 feet x 55 feet , about, came in one roll hubby and I installed , gets darn hot in the sun lol

 

[anitapond]

I was reading about HDPE being tougher and lighter than EPDM. Thoughts? I'm also not sure what MIL to get. So many choices! Should I keep my old pond liner to use as the underlayment or just throw it out? @GBBUDD I will check out justliners.com because I was also wondering the best online place to purchase.