Newbie--Help me find out what is happening and donation will be made if problem solved

[salpatel]

Hi all,

The previous owner of my house built a waterfall pond. The biofilter waterfall appears to be similar to an aquascape biofalls . The waterfall falls into a small retention pond of about 50 gallons and then goes down two streams to the main pond. At the far end of the pond is a skimmer equipped with a Tsurumi vancs 50pn2.75s pump.

I turned the pond on in early May and there was no problem even when the pump was running 24/7, but in June a lot of algae was growing and I had added about 14 goldfish. Considering the higher fishload I decided to put more filtration in the biofilter. I added the Matala filter pads (low, medium and high density), several hundred bioballs and put a netted bag of 25lbs of lava rock in the top mini waterfall pond and some pea gravel to make the minipond into a bog like feature.

So, now the problem. After the additional filtration was added, the skimmer would not completely fill up to the appropriate level. I have an float switch that turns off the water supply once the skimmer water reaches a certain level. The water never gets high enough, instead once the pond starts filling up, water starts pooling behind the skimmer. When the pond pump is off and the skimmer is full, there is no pooling behind the skimmer. I tried to dig out as much rock as possible behind the skimmer to look for the leak, but the liner is above the skimmer level and the water is not flowing over the liner. I hope it is not the plumbing, but how would that suddenly start to leak after addition of more filter material?

 

[GBBUDD]

Pictures are needed

 

[Lisak1]

You don't have to pay us for our friendship... haha! But I'm sure Ian will appreciate the donation. This forum is loaded with amazing information that can answer so many pond questions.

Anyway - as to your question. You lost me midway through there. Like @GBBUDD said - pictures please. Worth a thousand words!

 

[RMaynard]

Sounds like the water cannot enter the skimmer fast enough to keep up with the pump. Did you put an obstruction in front of the skimmer that could block the flow, like filter batting or something?

 

[salpatel]

Thanks guys. I am posting pictures of the original problem.
I have discovered more since my last post. I don't have a significant obstruction preventing water from entering the skimmer. The first picture below shows how the water was pooling up behind the skimmer.

Today, I dug up the ground that is flooded behind the skimmer . I was able to dig a hole about 2 feet deep and turned on the pond pump. After a few minutes, I saw two trickles of water, each coming from the each side of the skimmer near the bottom of the hole that I dug. I am going to try to dig some more tomorrow and provide a picture or short movie of the leak.

Do you think it could be a hole the liner, or are leaks that make their way around the skimmer usually from a different cause (e.g. a loose fitting between the liner and the weir entrance)?

 

[salpatel]

Another weird thing is that the water only pools behind the skimmer when the pump is on, even though the two streams seem to be making their way around the edge of the skimmer. Maybe when the pump isn't on there isn't enough water current to cause pooling??

 

[jgrandmont]

If it only happens when the pump is on, it sounds to me like a leak in the plumbing exiting the skimmer box.

 

[GBBUDD]

Is your skimmer sitting in the pond within the liner. Where exactly does the liner stop?

I did not put my helix skimmer inside the pond. But I did cut the liner to go around the skimmer so I have water all around it for marginal plants.
Sadly the helix is now abandoned just a 800 dollar area to control roots as it's now a planter.

I should make note that the helix was not abandoned due to performance, but to a design change when I added dead pool to the pond. One hint is to be carefully how strong a pump you use as the small space between the floating helix and the unit can have too much draw and have fish get stuck.

 

[Lisak1]

It does sound like a bad plumbing connection.

 

[salpatel]

I have dug up as much of the pipe as I can and don't see leaking from the plumbing. GBBUDD could also be on to something. My skimmer is sitting in the pond with the liner in front of it. There is a plate around the weir. The liner stops at the top of the skimmer. The below picture shows one side of the skimmerand the liner is the black thing on the side folded over. The timer automatically turned on the pump today and the entire area behind the skimmer is flooded. Unfortunately, I wasn't there when the pump turned on to record how the hole is filling up. Once it drains, I'll turn on again and post video.

 

[cas]

I had a leak in my pond last year that turned out to be the water wicking up the liner next to the skimmer.
Have you tried to raise this area of liner?

 

[GBBUDD]

Skimmer face plates are often a cause of leaking , to many times no caulking is applied between the liner and the skimmer. Or the screws are tightened too much or too little

 

[Lisak1]

The timer automatically turned on the pump today

I know this is unrelated to your question, but at some point when you get your leak resolved let's talk about why your pump is on a timer...

 

[salpatel]

thank you all for the suggestions. On the pump timer, that was the previous owner's. I understand from here that it needs to go 24/7.

Okay if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video will provide more context. My guess is the skimmer is leaking?? The video shows that the leak is not coming over a pond liner. It is near the bottom of the skimmer. The plumbing looks dry, so that doesn't seem to be an issue. I can also post another video that shows when the water supply to the skimmer is turned off but the pump is running, the skimmer leak isn't there. Here is the first video. I couldn't upload a video on here but I put it on YouTube at the following link.

 

[salpatel]

Here is another video once the water source to the skimmer is shut off.