New Pond - cannot figure out where water is going when pumped out of skimmer

[Semaj1997]

Hi Everyone,
I am new to acquatic ponds. We just purchased a house that has, what I think is a nice pond, but has not been taken care of properly in years. The pond is about 15 ft wide x 10 ft long and about 3.5 feet deep in the center. I do not think the pond had been cleaned in many years. The first thing I did was to drain it and start cleaning the sludge from the bottom and side rocks. After I drained most of the water, I hooked up the pump in the skimmer to the 2" PVC pipe with a ball valve (also in the skimmer) and assumed this pumped water to an inlet in the bottom of the pond but when the pump was on, and I looked that the bottom of the pond, there were no bubbles or motion in the pond at all. Even more interesting, I must have pumped 50 - 75 gallons of water out of the skimmer using the pump (I was filling the skimmer with a garden hose), but I am not sure where the water went. After I turned the pump off, it seems as though the water slowly came back to the pump as if it was being pumped to a higher elevation. There is a wall next to the pond and it looks like at one point there was a waterfall flowing over the wall into the pond. I have this waterfall theory because the liner is pinned to the wall securely on a section of the wall (you can see it in the video - it is the part of the pond near the wall that does not have a ledge to walk on. Currently, at the top of the wall where that would be the waterfall sources, there is a landscaping bed with small bushes and mulch.

How to I find where the water is being pumped to?

Please note there is a flagstone patio around the skimmer so I cannot dig there.

Very puzzled and looking for adice but excited to get this pond up and running.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.

Here is a video and some photos of the pond

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Pump

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[j.w]

@Semaj1997
Looks more complicated for me to decipher!

 

[Semaj1997]

View attachment 170421 @Semaj1997
Looks more complicated for me to decipher!

Thank you for the welcome. I think i might start by digging a bit at the top of the wall and see what i find.

 

[Tula]

Typically water is pumped from the skimmer to a filter of some kind or even to a water fall. Are you able to follow the pipe from the skimmer, digging carefully.

Do you know if you have a filter with the pond or anything that looks like a water fall?

 

[Semaj1997]

As far as I can tell there are no filters. I think there used to be a bog at the top of the wall that served as a filter and then returned water to the pond bu running it down the wall like a waterfall.

I agree with you, I will do some digging at the top of wall and see what I can find.

 

[Lisak1]

Pump won't pump to the bottom of the pond. There has to be some other outlet. Like @Tula said - waterfall or filter, most likely opposite side from the skimmer itself.

 

[Lisak1]

Looked at your video - I think you're on the right track. That's a waterfall of some sort on the opposite side. I'd hunt there for an outlet pipe.

 

[Semaj1997]

Thank you. Will post when i find out more.