Leaking water feed pipe problem

[AvlJohn]

I appologize in advance for the long description below of a pond leak I am having.

I had a pond built 4 years ago. The pond is about 6.5 feet in diameter and is fed by a narrow stone water fall with about an 8 foot drop over 5 levels of stone steps. The rocks which comprise the water fall are stacked and mortared into place. Some of the rocks are very large boulders and others small rocks. The pond contains approximately 350 gallons of water when full and is circulated by a 2500 gph magnetic pump located in a skimmer at one side of the pond. The water travels to the top of the water fall from the skimmer through a 1.5 inch schedule 40 flexible black pvc pipe. Since I had the pond built the pond looses water every day. I thought the loss of water was from deteriorating mortar in the water fall steps and I have repointed all of the stones where the mortar had turned to sand from freezing over the winters. In spite of my repairs the pond is still loosing water albeit less after my repairs. The amount of water which is currently being lost is roughly 5 gallons a day which seems excessive. At its worst it was loosing about 10 gallons a day. This spring I did some testing to try to isolate the leak. I tested the integrity of the pond liner and ruled it out as the source of any leaks. That left me with either a still leaky water fall structure or the water supply system feeding the waterfall. I tested the water supply system by pumping water, bypassing the water fall structure and it appears that the water supply system is the problem

When the piping was installed I did not see how it was put together. I am not sure if the flexible pipe was cut into lengths that were pieced together using pvc elbows in order to facilitate any turns the pipe needed to make the run to the top of the water fall or alternatively installed as one continuous piece of pipe that was bent where necessary to make it from the skimmer to the top of the water fall. Additionally, I am not sure where the water pipe runs. It could very well be located under the stones which comprise the water fall.

I am reluctant to contact the contractor who installed it as we had a falling out on some other work that was being performed and parted company on bad terms.

My questions are as follow:

1. Is the loss of 5 gallons a day excessive (a lot more than mere evaporation)?

2. Has anyone had a similar problem with a leaking water circulating system?

3. If so how did you remedy the problem?

I would prefer not to have to dig up the line (and am not sure that is even possible) or alternatively install new piping as I am not sure that I can feed it into the current hole where the water comes out of the rock at the top of the waterfall.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this problem.

 

[GBBUDD]

Your post is quite lengthy as you stated but there is no picture let's start there. It will show a great deal and not just one try straight on from the side atc.

The usual response it to shut down individual areas and run the pond without those areas and see if you still loose water. Mark any area that you can showing where the water height was before you give it time to settle out. Where the water stops dropping is where you water leak is 90 %of the time.

 

[j.w]

@AvlJohn

 

[Beercan31]

like stated above a photograph is worth a 1000 words. The only way I could think of in finding where the underground pipework might be is to start at the pump and and do exploratory diggings locate the pipe and follow it from that point, looking for joints and moist soil. In the past I have used a modified stethoscope as a listening device to locate plastic pipes as long as the pipes were not to deep in the ground.

 

[GBBUDD]

Another thing you can do is an electricle snake inside the pipe it will give you a round about length and then you can make an ejumacatted "yes I know its wrong" guess. They also have sewer cameras that can at least give you an idea which way the pipe bends

 

[Beercan31]

Another thing you can do is an electricle snake inside the pipe it will give you a round about length and then you can make an ejumacatted "yes I know its wrong" guess. They also have sewer cameras that can at least give you an idea which way the pipe bends

Like that idea.
A pipe snake and a metal detector sounds less labor intensive.