leaky pond ..moving fish advice needed.

[al shookup]

Hi..I came back from a weeks holiday recently and found the water level of my 500 gall pond had dropped by about 5 inches. In an effort to find the leak I left it and it has dropped almost another 5 inches since then. The fish (Rudd, Tench and a couple of Goldfish) are still in the reduced volume of water. I have bought a kids paddling pool which is 5 foot in diameter and plan to move them when the water level gets critically low for them........... 2 questions, Has anyone got an easier way to find the leak other than searching every inch of butyl and how long do I need to leave the tap water in the paddling pool before I can put the fish in?

thanks

 

[mrsclem]

Can you pump some of the water from the pond into the pool? What most people do is let the water level drop until it stops and then check at the water level. Have you checked your plumbing to see if there is a leak in a pipe?

 

[dieselplower]

I agree with transferring water over for various reasons but that could lower the water level well below the leak, which could make finding it more diffecult. I too wonder if the leak is coming from a hose or filter or waterfall etc. Can a picture be posted? I don't know how long the tap water would have to sit out before the fish could be put in. Do you have a water conditioner you can add to the tap water? This would allow you to transfer the fish over right away.

 

[al shookup]

Both the waterfall and spout have been turned off a while ago and the level still falls. I take your point deiselplower about finding the leak if I bail out the current water to transfer to the makeshift one. Can't think of another way round it as I will have to transfer the fish any time now as the level is getting quite low.

 

[HTH]

For about $20 you can buy a snapset pond (kitty pool) at wallmart. Move the water you have left to it along with the filter if you can. Then play with the existing pond to find out where the water is going.

There is a reasonable chance you might find the leak when moving the filter and having a snapset on hand for QT or problems just like this is not a bad idea.