Bought a house with a pond, is the setup viable?

[StygianLuminary]

Lets just start by saying that me and my husband super novice when it comes to ponds, but we absolutely adore them, so when we went house searching in May 2015 and the one we chose had a pond (it was half empty, and we knew it needed work) we were ecstatic! Especially since it's right near the master bedroom so you would be able to hear the waterfalls at night.

Fast forward to now, and the pond has been drained, cracks sealed successfully, refilled, and now isnt losing water but the pump always seems to run dry after a few hours. So now after looking at other people's ponds i'm wondering if the setup is even done properly, or if it could support life. The pump setup looks nothing like other peoples, and i'm wondering if we need to just rip the whole pump setup out and start from scratch or if maybe it just need a little tweaking to work properly.

Heres a photo of the "skimmer" and the pump:

The intake is at the lowest part of the pond from under the concrete. The black tube runs to a large bio filter crate with sponges in it, and has a drain back into the pond. The pump runs, and everything flows properly for a few hours, but after awhile suddenly the "skimmer" is full of air and the whole thing starts to run dry. Should we just rip up the entire pump/skimmer/bio filter setup and start fresh, or does anyone think this is salvageable?

 

[sissy]

When you start it up you are pulling water and that water that is in the hoses needs to be replaced in the pond .At least that is what it sounds like to me .The water in the pond is not high enough to fill the skimmer after you fill all the hoses and pump after they are turned on .I know after I turn on my 2 pumps and it fills both my filters my pond water is down about 2 inch's lower in the pond .So after your filter and hoses are full your pond water height will drop and that could mean skimmer water will drop also

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Are your referring to the leaf basket (to the left of the pump in the photo) as the skimmer? If it runs a few hours then stops pumping water, it could be something as small as the O-ring that fits between the lid and the leaf basket proper. It may need replacing. These can be found at any swimming pool supply store.

 

[Waterbug]

As Meyer said.

The "skimmer" unfortunately doesn't have a good standard name. But you can try "pump strainer housing" or "pump trap".

If the O-ring doesn't fix it, or tightening the lid, then you'd have to check for air leaks in the pump. But if the pond isn't losing water when the pump is off I'd doubt that. Air is getting in some place.

Starting over wouldn't be the worst idea, kind of sounds like you're heading that way. The setup looks to be tired and not a great DIY job. Sounds like no liner under the concrete and it cracked once so I'd expect that to continue being a problem. If you like it and are happy no reason to change. But probably not too long before you'll want to toss in the towel.

 

[Usman]

very nice view , your setup is ok its based on external pump thats why different and its leafcatcher not actual skimmer , what i think is there is some intake of air and having airlock between pond and pump ie around this leafcatcher some leak crack , or untight valve , other thing can be the pump itself .or can be leak in the piping which is coming from pond
try running pump directly from pond with a new flex pipe , eliminating leafcatcher and see if it runs fine

 

[StygianLuminary]

I replaced the O-ring on the leaf catcher (that sounds much more right than skimmer) last night, lubricated it, and filled the pond a bit more with water. Now it seems to be getting air much more quickly than before so we are going to work on eliminating any air leaks from between the intake and the pump. If that doesn't work we are gonna do what Usman said and test the pump directly to the water and see if the air leak is in there. If none of that works we are gonna move to just replacing the whole system.

Thank you all for the quick responses! You guys rock!

 

[addy1]

I had a air leak years ago, get it running and watch the leaf basket clear lid. If it is sucking air you can sometimes see the air bubbling in.

Welcome to our group! of fanatic ponders

 

[budgenator]

I'm assuming that the white flexible PVC pipe coming off the leaf trap is going to the pond, you might also consider taking that pipe off and pushing a garden hose through to make sure there are no partial clogs. If the pump is pulling too much vacuum trying to get water, it tend to find air leaks that might not otherwise be leaks.