Lost 3" of water last night

[EricV]

I woke up this morning and heard a funny background sound. When I went outside to feed the fish, I heard it louder and then realized that a) the pond was about 3" down and b) the sound was from the main pump which was sucking in some air. I have a drip-overflow system that basically keeps up with evaporation and the rocks were still moist up to the water line, so I presume that sometime between noon yesterday and this morning, I lost all 3".

I immediately shut down the pump, ripped a whole bunch of water cress out of the intermediate pool between my waterfall and the main pond, and put about 150 gallons of water in (1.5"). While there were a couple of not completely dry places near the cascading pool, I'd expect that if water was really coming out of there, it would be visibly seeping out at the bottom of the mound that the whole water fall rests in. And the clay around there did not seem soaked.

I came home at lunch and saw the level had not dropped at all, meaning the leak was somewhere in the waterfall or plumbing. I put in another 150 gallons and started the main pump running again. Now 3 hours later, I don't see any evidence of water dropping off either.

So am I missing something? Could 300 gallons of water just disappear into my mound without a trace? Could my co-workers be right and a herd of camels came by last night for a drink?

 

[RobAmy]

You will not always notice the area being damp. 300 gallons is not that much in the big picture. Damp areas could be all you will see. Maybe that water cress was causing some over flow.

 

[DutchMuch]

Idk about camels but they say bison are in season.

 

[EricV]

You will not always notice the area being damp. 300 gallons is not that much in the big picture. Damp areas could be all you will see. Maybe that water cress was causing some over flow.

It was getting a little thick. Thinning it out was on my to-do list for this weekend.

The only experience I have with overflowing the liner has been my campaign this year against low spots after I raised the water level and there I could definitely tell where they were, but in that case I had water oozing out into mulch so even the top of the mulch was wet.

 

[sissy]

If your hoses are buried and it has been dry if there was a leak in the hoses the ground under could be absorbing a lot of water before you even see it

 

[Jimmy Gibson]

I had an idea of trying an experiment of putting a Taro in the waterfall stream. ... The Taro loved it but after about three weeks I noticed that my water level was dropping.... I took the rocks off the waterfall and discovered that the mass of roots was diverting the water and it found a low spot and was leaking.... I shored up the area that it was leaking and removed the Taro to a different place.... My point is that roots from plants can divert water, even though you can't see it from the surface..... Just a thought

 

[Lisak1]

Yup - overgrown watercress can DEFINITELY divert water. You've seen the root mass - it's more "mat" than anything! If you aren't losing more water, then I would say you found your culprit.

 

[EricV]

Yup - overgrown watercress can DEFINITELY divert water. You've seen the root mass - it's more "mat" than anything! If you aren't losing more water, then I would say you found your culprit.

Yeah, seems totally stable now after 8 hours. I raised a couple of places around the cascading pool an inch or so too, so probably a combination.

Whew! I had visions of pulling up my skimmer again. I did that at the end of the winter because I developed a leak in the seal around the face plate during the winter. (Probably repeated freeze/thaw opened up a bit that was not well sealed in the first place.

 

[Angel]

Yeah, seems totally stable now after 8 hours. I raised a couple of places around the cascading pool an inch or so too, so probably a combination.

Whew! I had visions of pulling up my skimmer again. I did that at the end of the winter because I developed a leak in the seal around the face plate during the winter. (Probably repeated freeze/thaw opened up a bit that was not well sealed in the first place.

That's why you leave some slack in the liner by the skimmer to help prevent that.

 

[EricV]

That's why you leave some slack in the liner by the skimmer to help prevent that.

There is slack there, but the problem I had wasn't due to ground heaving. I assume that's what you are talking about. What happened in my case, I think, is that I did not get a very thick bead of silicone in a place or two on the skimmer face plate. It survived the first summer but when winter came, I assume water got close to this narrow area, froze, and broke the silicone seal. I pulled the skimmer out to raise things about an inch (utilizing some of the slack I left) and re-siliconed everything with a much heavier bead (two, I think).

 

[Angel]

There is slack there, but the problem I had wasn't due to ground heaving. I assume that's what you are talking about. What happened in my case, I think, is that I did not get a very thick bead of silicone in a place or two on the skimmer face plate. It survived the first summer but when winter came, I assume water got close to this narrow area, froze, and broke the silicone seal. I pulled the skimmer out to raise things about an inch (utilizing some of the slack I left) and re-siliconed everything with a much heavier bead (two, I think).

the bold would do it too.