HELP! Bought a house with a water feature and am struggling.

[emitchell233]

So we have a small water feature with a water fall that I decided to attempt to stock with goldfish... wow did I not realize what I was in for. I've added a filter to my waterfall but I was still having cloudiness issues. I believe the issue is mucky soil is running into the pond itself. I've started to dig up around the edges to find that the liner actually stopped at some point and the soil, muck and mulch was actually in the pond itself (which I'm sure is causing my cloudiness after every rain and sprinkler session. I've started to dig around the perimeter to expose the liner (and in essence make the pond smaller), but now I'm not sure what to do. What do I back fill with? Sand? Rocks? Clay? Gravel? I'll try and upload a picture to show you what I'm dealing with. I believe I'm going to have to make the pond even smaller to achieve some type of tapered feel to the liner. Please don't bash it... like I said, it came like this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[emitchell233]

P.S. the rocks are in place to keep the liner from spilling water.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our group!

I would back fill with dirt or sand. Use the liner to build a berm to direct the water flow around the pond rather than into the pond. It does not take much of a berm to direct flow around the pond.

I made a sort of French drain, a irrigation pipe buried at the edge of the pond, covered with some yard cloth. It allowed the run off to flow into the pipe and around the pond.

Nice pond btw.

 

[emitchell233]

Thanks, I don't think I'm understanding "direct the water flow around the pond". Sorry, I thought I was a pretty smart guy, but this stuff I'm new to.

 

[emitchell233]

I think I get it... so have the liner fold over top of the berm I'm creating as the "shore" That was my plan, but I"m thinking the size of the pond will have to shrink quite a bit. You can see how little liner is showing and the water is probably 8 inches deep there.

 

[addy1]

Where you have the slope, the dirt looks higher than the pond, you want to build a small hill, it does not need to be huge. I directed water around areas by having a 1-2 inch hill of dirt. The water flows the path of lease resistance.

The blue lines is the water flowing down the hill, the red flowing around the pond.

 

[addy1]

I think I get it... so have the liner fold over top of the berm

You can create a berm with dirt packed hard, maybe even some rocks so it won't wash out. You don't need to use the liner. You could also get some plastic, cover the berm with the plastic tuck behind the liner. Add rocks logs etc to cover the plastic covered berm. No need to shrink the pond more.

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome @emitchell233 ! No bashing here! We're a friendly group with nothing but the desire to help!

Let me make a radical suggestion - how about a bigger liner! The pond is already dug, the liner is not quite big enough... it seems like the obvious choice is to go bigger!

 

[CometKeith]

Hi and welcome. It's a very pretty pond, but was not well thought out. Dirt, chemicals from your garden, rainwater etc should never flow into a pond as they will contaminate the water with things you don't want going into it. The edges have to be raised as Addy suggested. It's not a matter of being smart. A lot of people here on GPF have spent thousands of hours understanding ponds so there is really a lot to know. Good luck!

 

[emitchell233]

I thought about the bigger liner, but it looks like the liner was properly done near the water fall, but not so much down at the bottom. Could the existing be added to? I really don't feel like ripping up the waterfall...

 

[Lisak1]

It is possible to add to the liner, but it's not an easy process and it would forever be prone to leaks. You can however leave the the liner in the waterfall and take out the rest. Just leave enough waterfall liner so it can overlap the pond liner. Lots of ponds are built that way from the get-go. I just think starting over with this would be so much easier than trying to fix all the construction boo-boos.

Just the very nosy opinion of someone who doesn't have to do the work!

 

[Gemma]

Welcome to the forum!
If it was my pond I would do it over with a new larger liner! Perhaps you could leave the waterfall untouched and overlap the liner onto the new one (if possible)
Heck why not making the whole thing bigger? You're new at pond keeping and don't know this yet, but there is a big chance as soon as you get the hang of it and everything starts to be easier, you're going to want a larger pond!... this is a perfect chance to expand

 

[GBBUDD]

I am in agreement with a larger liner The cost of a liner that size isn't that expensive. IT WILL INSURE NO OTHER steps were neglected. Such as underlayment. And the overall design can be adjusted with the run off situation. basically you want a small speed bump around the pound on any uphill areas to the pond such as where addy drew in blue and red. anywhere water runs naturally away from the pond or down hill can be left as is but again is best with a little something for those heavy rains and if your going to take it that far you may want to read up on Bog filters there not a lot of work but do require some patience and time

 

[sissy]

welcome and yep everything runs back into the pond .A berm like addy said would work and you can add lots of gravel and bigger rocks to help water to flow away but really heavy rains may make it worse .I have seen people here use those rolls of straw that holds back runoff and also those bags that last a long time and fill with sand .I have seen a few here that make the mistake of the pond being lower than the ground around it