Best way to refill Pond safely?

[Neo]

I woke up this morning to an almost entirely drained pond, all My fish were in the deepest area (about 6 inches probably) now I've replaced half of the water back, which would be almost 12 inches but somehow it got under the liner also so it's hard to tell how much water is actually in there..

Should I wait to put in more? I already added enough Pond Start to fill it all way but was still worried to try it. I'm also worried about the water level and the heat today, it's supposed to be around 102 degrees and I just filled with Ice cold water.

I think my fountain tipped over in the night probably from the koi knocking it. I'm still not sure though.

 

[j.w]

I'd let the water that you just put in rest awhile, say a few hours and let the fish acclimate to it and then real slowly add the rest of the water til it's full. If you have chlorine in your water don't forget to add chlorine remover. And keep checking to see if you are losing water anywhere just in case it wasn't the fountain tipping that caused it to drain. And I hope the water under the liner will drain away or you may have to somehow pump it out from under there if there is too much making the liner float up.

 

[taherrmann4]

Can you tell how much water is under the liner? Is it ballooning up? What was the problem to start with that caused the water to drain?

 

[Neo]

Still not sure exactly what else it could be other than a hole in the liner but it's a new (bought in march) smartpond liner from lowes.

There isn't a lot of water under the liner considering how much drained but it is ballooned more than a couple inches up. It has been really dry around here lately so I think the water under is soaking up pretty good.

It's going to be really tough to keep track of the water level and make sure the fountain was the problem with the water under the liner soaking in and dropping the level gradually anyways.

 

[taherrmann4]

Does your ground drain fairly well or does it hold water pretty well?

Does your pump sit in your pond and is this how you only had 6" left of water?

Once you get enough water back into the pond and start up your pump you may just want to send the water right back into the pond first to see if your leak is in your waterfall or in the liner somewhere. If you can leave your pump off and just use an aerator to keep oxygen in the pond and then fill it up gradually, let it sit over night and see if your water drops, if it drops then you know you have a hole in the liner. When the water level stops falling you will know to look for the leak around where the water level is.

 

[Neo]

Does your ground drain fairly well or does it hold water pretty well?

I've only had water backup in the pond a couple times and it was during massive storms, In April We had almost 20 inches in one day so I expected it then. All the water is already drained from under the pond it is only down about an inch or so in the pond now. So I'm hoping the drop is just from the underwater balloon draining all the way.

Does your pump sit in your pond and is this how you only had 6" left of water?

Luckily the pond has a deep end and the suspect pump that I think was draining is on the shallow end so it probably saved the fish.

The setup I have is a uv pump connected to the waterfall box and I had a smaller pump with foam filters that I just let shoot straight up from a pipe like a fountain (I think it tipped overnight and was shooting sideways right out of the pond) I just connected both to the waterfall box to be safe for now.

 

[Neo]

I'm thinking of just buying a preformed liner and supporting the shelves with cement blocks for now and leaving it above ground in case the pond drains again tonight, then the other will be setup for fish and plants tomorrow and I can still use it as an expansion when this is all settled.

 

[j.w]

That's an option and that way you can watch the pond and check it out better. Be sure to put your pond water in the new pond so it won't stress the fish anymore than they are now. Might want to put it in the shade somewhere if your temps are going to be that high. Hope you have some plants you can put in the new pond............they'll feel more secure if they have hiding places to calm down from all of this.

 

[Neo]

Hope you have some plants you can put in the new pond............they'll feel more secure if they have hiding places to calm down from all of this.

We actually have an over abundance of water hyacinths so we have enough plants for sure. We were thinking of doing a secondary pond just last Week anyways to be safe for something like this.

Btw thanks for the quick responses! I've never had anything like this happen. My Grandma lost fish once from the pump hose falling out of Her waterfall and draining, She lost all the fish before morning but I've never dealt with refilling in a hurry with fish alive still.

 

[j.w]

That's great that you have all the plants. They will do fine and yes you will have an extra pond for when things come up that you didn't plan on happening. Good thing that the fountain was not in the deep end like you said. We learn as we go and one should always keep the pump up from the bottom in case anything like this happens. Glad we have fellow ponderers here to learn from things that go wrong so we can avoid disaster ourselves. Happy Pondering

 

[Neo]

Glad we have fellow ponderers here to learn from things that go wrong so we can avoid disaster ourselves. Happy Pondering :lol:

Very True...I searched before starting this thread for a safe way to refill but I was in such a hurry I just couldn't find it before freaking a little.:lol:

I'm pretty sure I just read something on safely refilling a drained pond last week.

 

[addy1]

It is best to post when in a hurry! We don't mind answering even if posted before. but thanks for searching also.

 

[Neo]

So far the fish are alright, still eating and don't seem too stressed. The pond is almost filled also. Hopefully everything will work out, still getting ready to go get that preformed liner in a little while though.

 

[addy1]

Keep an eye on your water tests, glad your babies are ok

 

[Neo]

Keep an eye on your water tests, glad your babies are ok

Thanks, I don't even have a test kit, probably should grab one of those tonight also...