How to seal gaps in top of waterfall?

[smirk]

Hi everyone, I moved into a house that has a small pond with a waterfall. It's beautiful, but it loses about 1/2" of water every hour or so. I think I've tracked it down to the actual waterfall (a Biofalls unit). There are a couple hundred pounds of flat rocks laying across the top of the Biofalls unit, and it appears that the upper lip in back has just slightly crumpled under the weight, so that that part of the lip is about even with the water level. I'm thinking that water is splashing over and leaking out from there. I can't get to the Biofalls' exterior due to a buildup of soil and plants around it, so I was going to try sealing that seam from inside.

A local pond store sold me a can of Rockin Foam, but now that I'm home I see that it only claims to be "water resistant". What you would all recommend for making a waterproof seal between the top of the Biofalls and the flagstones that lay on top of it?

Thanks!

 

[addy1]

Get the pl roofing sealant, a tube at home depot or lowes. Black stuff. You will need to get it dry, use acetone to clean it, maybe even rough it up with some sandpaper and goop it good with this stuff. Then let it dry for about 2 hours or longer. After that you should be fine.

http://www.loctitepr...ing-Sealant.htm

The pond foam just helps redirect water flow, but it is not water tight.

 

[taherrmann4]

Can you take a pic and post there may be other ideas that you can use in conjunction with the sealant.

Welcome to the Best Garden Pond Forum out there.

 

[j.w]

smirk
Leaks are not fun and sometimes hard to find and contain but we will help you figure it out. Pictures really do help a lot!

 

[smirk]

Get the pl roofing sealant, a tube at home depot or lowes. Black stuff. You will need to get it dry, use acetone to clean it, maybe even rough it up with some sandpaper and goop it good with this stuff. Then let it dry for about 2 hours or longer. After that you should be fine.

http://www.loctitepr...ing-Sealant.htm

The pond foam just helps redirect water flow, but it is not water tight.

Thanks! I'm really glad I asked before just doing it with that foam. Just to be clear... this stuff is safe for fish and other animals once it dries, right? I didn't know how to interpret the material data safety sheet.

 

[addy1]

Thanks! I'm really glad I asked before just doing it with that foam. Just to be clear... this stuff is safe for fish and other animals once it dries, right? I didn't know how to interpret the material data safety sheet.

I have used it in my pond(s) and a lot others use it in their ponds without any issues. Fish safe

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I've also used black silicon for sealing up around my falls, but that stuff requires a minimum of 24 hours to dry. Prep the surfaces the same way as above.

 

[addy1]

I've also used black silicon for sealing up around my falls, but that stuff requires a minimum of 24 hours to dry. Prep the surfaces the same way as above.

I refilled my pond after about 4 hours the roofing sealant was nice and dry. But I did not have a real thick layer of it.

 

[smirk]

Ok, I got a tube of the roofing sealant, squirted it all along the seam, and smoothed it out and worked it in with my (gloved) finger. After two hours it wasn't dry, so I'll let it go overnight and we'll see what happens tomorrow. Also after two hours I noticed there was a glop of it on the back of my head. Nothing like applying paint thinner to your hair; my wife came home later and told me I had a big bleached spot on my head but it turns out she was kidding.

Anyway, thanks for all your ideas, everyone, and I'll post some photos tomorrow.

 

[j.w]

That's funny smirk and I am smirking at your wife right now on her neat pranking on you, lol!

 

[smirk]

Well, some disappointing news. I let the roofing goop dry for a couple days (it continually felt sticky to the touch but I finally grew impatient and turned on the pump), but the waterfall is still losing water somewhere. Let it run for an hour and it lost at least an inch.

Here are some photos! It's not at nice as some of your ponds, but here's what I have.

Above is the pond and waterfall.

Above is a close-up of where the water comes out. The crack with light shining through is well above the water line.

Ok, this is a shot from inside the Biofalls unit. The dark black horizontal part is where I spread the goop, which is where the top of the plastic waterfall tub ends and the flagstones that sit atop it begin. You can't totally see it in this shot, but part of the plastic has crumpled (and the whole back end of the waterfall unit has possibly settled, as well) to the point that the lip of it is almost exactly at the water level. That lighter colored line just below the black goop on the right side of the photo is the water line. You can see how the water is lower in front and higher in back (relative to the plastic unit).

Above is the waterfall in action.

I'm not sure how to proceed now. They have cemented rocks on top of the liner in many places! From what I can make out, it does appear that the liner is above the water line all around the waterfall, though. So I don't know if the supply pipe is cracked, the liner is punctured, or there's a section of liner lower than the water line that is covered with cement. How would you guys proceed in looking for the leak?

Thanks again for all your help and ideas!

 

[Waterbug]

I don't really believe in gooping up stuff. Lots of reasons why it never seems to work. A stream should shed water, like a pitched roof.

Since you inherited this pond I can say this...this is not a well made pond. How I would proceed if it were my pond, I would remove as many of the rock as you can with the idea that I would redo the entire stream. Without the rock you get a good look at the whole deal (and also I don't like rock pile ponds). See if you can find the actual problem and/or potential future problems.

A cracked supply would be pretty far down my list of guesses. They're generally pretty well protected. If this is a EPDM liner I wouldn't guess a hole. A thin PVC, sure.

 

[taherrmann4]

Smirk can you access where your supply line dumps into the top of the falls? If you can is it just a pipe and the water flows out or do you have some sort of filter with a weir? I am not sure if this would work or not however if it is a pipe that empties onto the top of the falls say a 2" pipe get the appropriate connectors to be able to hook onto this and extend it back into your pond, so you basically have a closed loop from your pump to the top of the falls back to the pond bypassing your falls completely. This will tell you if it is your supply pipes or not. So lets say you find out it is not the supply line, then cut that pipe off to where it will dump into the next closest falls and turn it on and see if it drops water level, do this for each one of your falls this may allow you to isolate which section of the falls is where the leak is then you can begin tearing out the rock in that section. The type of connector that I would use to connect it to your pipe is one of those black rubber flexible connectors with the clamps on either end, this will allow you to bend it a little unlike a pvc connector.

Do you see any wet spots around the falls at all?

 

[addy1]

That is strange that it still felt sticky, mine had a hard non sticky covering within 2 hours. Totally hard to touch within about 4.
I would try to do like tmann says, start to isolate the areas to find out where the leak is. Not a bad looking pond, built into that slope.

 

[VABeachPondGuy]

I have to agree with Waterbug. If you've isolated the leak to the waterfall, it's probably the liner. If you're happy with the design of the falls, start removing the cobbles from the edges until you have uncovered the liner edge. Follow this up both sides of the falls and if you're lucky you'll find your leak there and putting things back together from there is easy. If that doesn't uncover the leak then keep uncovering the liner from the top down.

Waterfalls are easy. Don't be scared of having to rebuild it.