Newbie--please help --will donate for help

[salpatel]

Hi all,

The previous owner of my house had built a waterfall pond. The biofilter waterfall appears to be similar to an older version of 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 fish load I decided to put more filtration in the biofilter. I added some 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 does not completely fill up to the appropriate level. I have a float switch that turns off the water supply once the water in the skimmer reaches a certain level. The water never gets high enough after the additional filters. Instead once the pump is started and 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 see if there is a leak, but the liner is above the skimmer level and the water is not flowing over the liner.

With the additional rock and filters, the overall volume of water in the pond likely decreased a little but how would that cause this? I am hoping one of you pond sleuths can help!

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Pictures of your set up would be very helpful. Also, important stats, such as total volume, size, any current water testing results, etc... Do you run your pump 24/7? Or are you turning it off & on?

 

[GBBUDD]

It's not a surprise the water level in a skimmer is lower than expected a smaller pump will hardly make a dent in the level of the water. A larger pump will actually suck the water level down. And if it is to strong it will lower the water to the point the weir of the skimmer can't supply enough water.
So putting the water replacement float valve here can be dangerous if a pump is replaced and the valve is not adjusted.