Newbie with a frog Pond needing help

[VITALIY LATS]

Hello everyone I am very happy I stumbled upon this forum. I recently purchased a home on a few acres that was in desperate measures. I stumbled upon a pond on my property that I want to bring back to life it was covered with overgrown bushes and trees. It seems to be a frog pond with a waterfall feature. So I began to clean it up and remove trees and shrubs to bring in s

ome light. I found where the pump goes which is in the middle under grates. Seems like there is grates that line the bottom of the pond and pebbles and bolders to cover them. I tried to fill up the pond and over a few hours the water level receded rapidly. I started to investigate and found tears under the waterfall that look to be made intentionally. I am confused with the original intentions of the pond and how it looked before. Please help

 

[Meyer Jordan]

The liner may have been intentionally cut to prevent the pond basin from holding water and becoming just a breeding site for mosquitoes.
How deep is the pond basin...to the grates?

 

[VITALIY LATS]

The liner may have been intentionally cut to prevent the pond basin from holding water and becoming just a breeding site for mosquitoes.
How deep is the pond basin...to the grates?

I am very new to this so my apologies. When you refer to pond basin?

 

[VITALIY LATS]

Do you find what was expected to be a pond bottom? Like a hole dug? Hard to tell from the pics.

Yes the bottom is rubber lined and I believe there is also a fabric under the rubber lining

 

[KC Crook]

its a beauty even broken from the pics but I hate to say you will likely have to seek out someone who understands ponds to help you hands on. Or yank it all out and forego it.

 

[VITALIY LATS]

I am very new to this so my apologies. When you refer to pond basin?

There is 4 grates under the top grate that is shown in the picture. When the water finally settled after I filled the pond the top grate which was originally all covered with stones and pebbles is visible fully.

 

[VITALIY LATS]

The water level is holding right below where the cuts are made into the liner

 

[KC Crook]

Its lovely, but it wouldnt hurt to bring in a professional to do an evaluation if its important to you to preserve.

 

[VITALIY LATS]

Its lovely, but it wouldnt hurt to bring in a professional to do an evaluation if its important to you to preserve.

I wish I had a professional available locally unfortunately after many phone calls no one is capable of coming out. I was very hopefully of one company but they went out of business last fall. That's why I have come to the forums

 

[KC Crook]

Oooh...i know how that feels. Living (I assume) very rural makes resources hard for specific problems. I hope someone else with some real pond experience might be able to help you with some advice, unfortunately I cant. But I suspect noone will take on the challenge of helping with your pond with pictures alone. You may have to do alot of diy with research on the internet and repair it from the ground up with a trial and error attitude.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

You will need to replace the liner. Patching/mending large tears/cuts in pond liner can be 'Iffy'.
From your description whoever constructed this pond employed a version of undergravel filtration. If you could post some more detailed photos, it would certainly help in the Forum members formulating the correct advice for you.

 

[VITALIY LATS]

You will need to replace the liner. Patching/mending large tears/cuts in pond liner can be 'Iffy'.
From your description whoever constructed this pond employed a version of undergravel filtration. If you could post some more detailed photos, it would certainly help in the Forum members formulating the correct advice for you.

Thank you. I will post pictures of the tears. The tears do not look natural they do look like someone used a utility knife to make them. I'm thinking it might be dry pond feature with the waterfall only? The water level is holding right under the tears. I will include more pictures.

 

[KC Crook]

ahh Tadpole! Awesome!

 

[VITALIY LATS]

ahh Tadpole! Awesome!

?????

 

[KC Crook]

You will need to replace the liner. Patching/mending large tears/cuts in pond liner can be 'Iffy'.
From your description whoever constructed this pond employed a version of undergravel filtration. If you could post some more detailed photos, it would certainly help in the Forum members formulating the correct advice for you.

Tadpole responded. I was hoping those with experience with ponds would pick up.