Losing water

[AaronsburgAustin]

I have 2 ponds. A top "bog" pond and a bottom fish pond. The bottom has a pump to the top. The top has an overflow drain to the bottom. I am losing water ONLY when the pump is running. I have changed the hose and run it straight into the overflow drain. I suspect a leak at one of the fittings from the overflow drain. The drain is 3.5 inch pvc pipe.

The problem is that the drain runs under a concrete patio. I was hoping there is some sort of "sleeve" to put into the pipe to seal it up. Or if anybody has another idea id love to hear it.

 

[mrsclem]

Can you run a section of flex pvc pipe thru the drain?

 

[AaronsburgAustin]

Can you run a section of flex pvc pipe thru the drain?

I haven't used flex pvc pipe before. There are several 90 degree bends in the drain. Do you thing it would be flexible enough to make it through?

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome @AaronsburgAustin ! Sorry to hear your first post is about a water loss issue - those can be challenging!

I don't know that flex PVC would go easily around a 90 degree bend - although it's flexible, it's still rather stiff. What about a lighter weight hose, like you would use for a sump pump? How far do you have to fish this hose through?

You've done your due diligence and know the leak is related to the water flow somehow, so that's good - well, it's helpful, if not necessarily good!

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome! Do you have any pictures? Pictures might help us understand what you are talking about.

 

[Sparky]

How established is this system. Have you changed or added anything? More plants, an extra rock. What are your gallons? Are the 90’s sweeps or elbows? I’ll assume elbows. You would be hard pressed to get even 3/4 Carflex through elbows. Reason I ask about changes I’ll explain my current situation if something’s been altered.

 

[AaronsburgAustin]

The ponds came were in when we bought the house last year. I never measured how big the ponds are but a best guess is 250 gallons for the bottom and 150 for the top. It ran all last year without issues. The drain is fairly long, about 25 feet, with at least 3 90 degree bends.

There was a clog in the drain recently and I (stupidly) tried to run a piece of sump pump hose through it to knock the clog loose. I couldn't get it around the 2nd bend and I'm pretty sure that when I did that I jarred loose one of the fittings of the PVC.

 

[Mmathis]

Just curious, where do you live and when you say you’re losing water.....just how much do you lose in, say a 24 hr. period? You’re only losing water when the pump is turned on, but are you seeing where the water is leaking — like wet spots in the area? I know that when I initially turn my pump on, the water level can go down just a little as water is being pulled (pushed, whatever) to my filter and to my bog. Then, if I turn the pump off, the water level normalizes. Could you be seeing something like this going on?

Again, pictures would be helpful.

 

[AaronsburgAustin]

Just curious, where do you live and when you say you’re losing water.....just how much do you lose in, say a 24 hr. period? You’re only losing water when the pump is turned on, but are you seeing where the water is leaking — like wet spots in the area? I know that when I initially turn my pump on, the water level can go down just a little as water is being pulled (pushed, whatever) to my filter and to my bog. Then, if I turn the pump off, the water level normalizes. Could you be seeing something like this going on?

Again, pictures would be helpful.

I'm losing 50% of the bottom pond capacity overnight. Again only when the pump is running. With it off, it holds water with no drop in level.

 

[Sparky]

Ouch. Any idea where that second 90 is? Dig it up? If not, hows about a waterfall or lovely stream bed down to the lower pond? No miracle sleeve out there. Especially if the 90 busted loose.

 

[Ronfire]

can you feed a board in and hopefully push or torque the joint together.

 

[AaronsburgAustin]

Ouch. Any idea where that second 90 is? Dig it up? If not, hows about a waterfall or lovely stream bed down to the lower pond? No miracle sleeve out there. Especially if the 90 busted loose.

2nd 90 is outside the retaining wall, so digging it up might be an option. I'm leaning toward that at my next step to hopefully find something obvious. If the break is under the patio I'm pretty well screwed.

 

[Sparky]

If you have access to a fish tape, see if you can shove it through to daylight on the other end. If it stops, good chance it would be at the break. Mark the tape before you pull it out. If you know the general direction of the pipe, you can lay the tape on the ground and att least give you an idea where the break might be.

 

[Sparky]

If you have access to a fish tape, see if you can shove it through to daylight on the other end. If it stops, good chance it would be at the break. Mark the tape before you pull it out. If you know the general direction of the pipe, you can lay the tape on the ground and att least give you an idea where the break might be.

If you have an electrician friend (I’m a little too far) a lot of us carry a wire tracer. Sort of a radio transmitter to induce signal on a wire but it works on a metallic fish tape as well. You can put the tape back in the pipe and locate it’s path with the receiver part of the tracer.

 

[AaronsburgAustin]

Quick update. I dug up the drain pipes down to the 2nd 90. While I didn't see any pipes loose, after digging it up the water stopped leaking. I think maybe taking the weight off resteated them. Kinda at a loss right now but it's working properly. Thanks everybody for the help with this.