Found the problem. Now what?

[ashirley]

Well, turns out that the pond level was down again today more so than I thought it should be.

So I take the flashlight and start to investigate and find a really wet spot on the ground near the pond. I dug down in the ground and its where the outlet pipe for the pump runs up the hill to the waterfall box. Its at a place where the pipe is joined and water is coming out of the joint. I have turned the pump off and dug the pipe up with a shovel. That is the extent of my ability in this area and of course the hubs is working. How long will the fish be ok without the pump running? The large pond is about 4000 gallons and I am in SC so the temps are in the 30s at night. I can run the pump I guess but I hate to waste the water and hubby should be able to fix it pretty quickly (by Thursday).

A pain but I would much rather it be that than a liner leak.

 

[Ruben Miranda]

Hello
Well it really depends on your fish load and water quality.
If you have a spare pump that you can put it just to give water circulation and air in the water with those water temps and no feeding you should be ok.
Or a aireator would be good to.
If you feel or see the water getting bad or fish being stressed I would recommend water changes with declor until you get the leak fixed.

Ruben

 

[sissy]

Thi time of year for a little while but it is supposed to get really hot here so guessing you will be even hotter .The filter may not make it ,but if you have oxygen pump it may help .I would just go buy a cheap pump and sump pump hose .Do you have a harbor freight near you they sell cheap pumps in there store or you could get a cheap one from tractor supply ,even small sump pump would work and always good to have back up .hose is around 10 dollars

 

[ashirley]

I have a submersible pump that I used for my first pond that I can drop over in it if I need to circulate the water. I really need a handyman or a husband that doesn't work ALL of the time. If worse comes to worst, I will just plug the pump back in and keep the pond level up until Thursday when hubby is off and can get the pipe fixed.

 

[sissy]

Any pump will do to circulate the water until he gets home .better he works than does not and no money coming in especially these days :razz:

 

[DrCase]

What kind of connection are you looking at that is leaking any pix ?

 

[gardengimp]

Yeah, I would give my eye teeth to have my husband working all the time right now.

 

[fishin4cars]

Take a pic and post it, may be that someone can talk you through what is needed to be done. Filling the pond once every day os so if it's a slow leak should be find if it's not to big of a leak and all should be fine.

 

[adavisus]

Try lashing plastic shopping bags around the leak. You might figure a way to cut them into a long strip and knot them tight over the leak with a bit of stress. Should reduce the leak a fair bit. Binding string tight over the plastic might improve the seal.

When fish struggle for oxygen they will gasp at the surface. At this time of year, when the pond is cool, they may not struggle at all and not need any water circulating or squishing about anyways

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[Waterbug]

I'd bet cash your fish would be fine without any pump at all until maybe May or June, maybe longer. Just a guess of course because I don't know your fish load. But generally people with high fish loads run multiple pumps. They'd lose fish if they only had one and it failed. So my guess it you're not in that boat.

Cool water holds more O2. Fish need less O2 in cold water. Ammonia isn't toxic in cold water. Running a pump in cold whether with a normal fish load imo isn't really any help that I can think of and can make water colder than it would be without the pump running.

I know lots of people think ammonia-nitrite converting bacteria die in minutes or hours without water movement but that's not true. These dudes ruled the planet long before humans and will long after we're gone. They can live for months without water movement. Water movement only brings them an increase in food so they can reproduce. They need little to just survive and in cold water even less, virtually nothing. Even with moving water, O2, carbon and ammonia they still aren't going to do anything if the water is cold. They shut down.

 

[ashirley]

Thanks for all of the advice. Yes we are blessed that we both work but sometimes its hard to see that blessing when you are knee deep in a problem. The problem is a pvc connection that did not seal. When we pulled it, it immediately came apart. Our pond has been in for almost three years but I don't know what caused the leak to happen now.

So I am off today to the Home Depot for parts and glue to fix it then home to get the prep work done so that when Lewis gets home, we can just glue it back together. If the fish look stressed when I get home, I will drop one of the sub pumps off in the pond until the repair is made. I don't think the weather is supposed to heat up here until the weekend and hopefully, this problem will be long fixed by then.

 

[DrCase]

Don't forget use primer before the glue

 

[fishin4cars]

Also don't forget to wait until the glue fully cures and not a bad idea to flush the lines before starting to return water back to the pond once the repairs have been made.

 

[sissy]

Gosh here it is already up to 57 degrees and it is only 11 and you would have to be warmer there

 

[Waterbug]

Our pond has been in for almost three years but I don't know what caused the leak to happen now.

Someone forgot to glue a joint. Happens. I've had missed joints in sprinkler systems hold for years and then give way. Kind of vibration thing I think. Dry PVC can be very difficult to pull apart, but a little shaking and they let go.

I like to use a PVC glue with color, like Red Hot vs clear because it's easier to spot missed joints. I wouldn't be overly concerned with flushing the system, a little soil in the pipe shouldn't hurt anything since these isn't for portable water. I wouldn't bother waiting more than maybe 10 minutes since this is a low pressure system. But of course it wouldn't hurt anything to do both.