Large pond with leak somewhere

[rowhillladybay]

Hello, Newbie to the forum here,

I am after some advise please,

I have 2 ponds in my back garden, 1 average size 15ft x 9ft and approx 2ft deep and the other 19ftx15ft 4.5ft deep at its deepest point.

We have an array of fish in the pond, ranging from a few Koi/Mirror/Common/Grass/Ghost Carp, Green and Gold Tench, Rudd, Roach, Comet and Shubunkin Goldfish, Golden Orf and many more.

The larger pond was built 16ish years ago and is solid concrete with a 4inch drain at the bottom and the smaller was built sometime before I was born and is a lined pond, there is a 4inch hole between each pond, the fish used to fit through, now only the smaller fish can, we have alot of other visitors to the smaller pond, frogs, toads, newt, dragon flys etc.

There is a DIY built filter that is 8ftx3ft with 5 different compartments with shingles, tubes, brushes etc.

The problem we have is, we emptied the larger pond last year and made a few repairs to the concrete, but since winter has been we are assuming ice has formed in a smaller crack and made a larger one,
We have to run the hose in the pond alot of the time, this is not ideal we know, but giving the time of year and the size of the pond, it is difficult to empty, catch the fish and make repairs each time a crack appears,
We now have a hosepipe ban that is to be enforced on the 1st or 5th of April.

Now I have 3 days off work, I have turned off the hose so we can allow the water to drop (we will ensure fish have sufficient air)

Can any suggest what we can do?

Below are a few pictures of the pond from different years and varying times of year.

Thanks in advanced

 

[DrCase]

Welcome to the Forum !!
I guess the hose pipe ban means no water
Can you put a liner in the leaking pond

 

[j.w]

rowhillladybay
You have a very nice looking place there. Too bad about the crack. I think a liner would work but lots of folds. You could cap the top edge w/ something. Must be something you could do to fix it but where to put all those fish while you do it? How about in the swim pool? I found this on the internet but I have personally never used anything like this but maybe someone else has: http://www.pondarmor.com/pondpictures.htm

 

[fishin4cars]

Flexseal, A new product that is a spray on rubber sealer that will seal cracks and is 100% water proof. So far the few reviews I have read of pond keepers that have used it on cracks is they seem preety happy with the results. I have not tried this product myself yet but for two cans for $19.99 I bought a couple of cans and have them in hand for just in case purposes.

 

[herzausstahl]

I know it might not work before the ban, but I would let the water drain down to the level of the leak and then use the flexseal to seal the cracks and refill it before you get stuck with the hosepipe ban. Makes me think of that product that you see advertised on tv where the guy takes the screen door and replaces the bottom of a boat with it, sprays his product on the holes, and then paddles around in it.

 

[budphilip]

I would say a pond liner would be the best bet, take alook at our website. We can supply any size pond liner to anywhere in the uk
http://www.fish-fish-fish.com/

 

[rowhillladybay]

Thank you all for your replies.

A pond liner wouldnt really help as the only way we can empty such a content of water is by the drain at the bottom of the pond.

We *think* we have found the problem that the liner had dropped in the top smaller pond due to the neighbours moving a loud of dirt from the other side of the fence, but only time will tell, and a lot of water buckets later.... If worse comes to worse I will turn the tap on with no hose and divert the water across the patio to the pond