Pond Breather Leaking

[Kaniff]

Has anyone else had an issue with their pond breather leaking water onto the ice? In the pic its hard to see but water is slowly but continuously leaking from the breather onto the ice. The ice around the breather is about an inch higher than the rest of the pond as the slow leak eventually freezes.

 

[MitchM]

Check that the hose pumping water up to the top of the breather is not pointed so that the water is coming out the top.
You can twist off the top of the breather and readjust the inside hose if needed.
The inside hose should be low enough that all the water falls back inside the clear pipe and back to the water under the ice.
It's not a problem for the red breather body to be covered in snow or ice.
The water hose should fit inside the cap inner sleeve.

This is what the breather should look like with the top off:

 

[Tula]

My first Pond Breather's acrylic tube cracked and leaked water. Fosters and Smith replaced it and I've had no problems since. Hopefully you just need to readjust the hose, as Mitch suggested.

 

[Kaniff]

*(side note, the ice has completely frozen over the air hole where my bubbler is but I kept it running anyways)
Checked the top to see if the water was pouring out from the top but there was none. When I went and checked on things this morning I noticed that the inner tub was filling with water/bubbles and it was still appearing to slowly leak as if the water is getting pushed up from the base ( red part). I decided to open a hole in the ice just above where my bubbler was running (about 2 feet away from the breather) and as soon as I did that the issue with the bubbler seemed to be fixed, the water in the tube went away instantly and the leak seems to be gone.
........So what im thinking is maybe there was a lot of pressure getting built up under the ice since my bubbler was still on, and it was pushing water up through the base of the breather. Does that make sense to anyone?...Im waiting for the hole to freeze over again to see if the problem comes back, if it does than im pretty sure the issue has to do with the air being on without a proper hole to escape.

 

[sissy]

I stayed with a pond heater .I don't want something else to worry about.Lets hope that was all it was

 

[sissy]

Check that the hose pumping water up to the top of the breather is not pointed so that the water is coming out the top.
You can twist off the top of the breather and readjust the inside hose if needed.
The inside hose should be low enough that all the water falls back inside the clear pipe and back to the water under the ice.
It's not a problem for the red breather body to be covered in snow or ice.
The water hose should fit inside the cap inner sleeve.

This is what the breather should look like with the top off:


View attachment 96794

I noticed between the 2 pics yours and mitch's that it looks like you have ice all the way up to your breather and mitch's has a space around it

 

[Kaniff]

I noticed between the 2 pics yours and mitch's that it looks like you have ice all the way up to your breather and mitch's has a space around it

Yes that is one of my concerns. The water is (was) slowly leaking out from the base and then freezing

 

[MitchM]

It sounds like the bubbler was redirecting water over and into the breather tube. That water froze and overwhelmed the breather.
I would turn off the bubbler.

 

[Kaniff]

It sounds like the bubbler was redirecting water over and into the breather tube. That water froze and overwhelmed the breather.
I would turn off the bubbler.

Ya thats what im thinking.

 

[cas]

So what im thinking is maybe there was a lot of pressure getting built up under the ice since my bubbler was still on, and it was pushing water up through the base of the breathe

Interesting.

 

[Tula]

Very interesting. I run an aerator, breather and de-icer, but all three are secured to over head PVC pipes, some distance from each other.

I crawled under my cover today and everything is working and there is no ice at all, on the pond.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I've had the same problem but it's never been an issue and has always fixed itself so I've never figured out why it happens. I assume it was leaking out of the hole where the wire goes back in.

 

[shanezam203]

I've had the same problem but it's never been an issue and has always fixed itself so I've never figured out why it happens. I assume it was leaking out of the hole where the wire goes back in.
View attachment 96821

My pond looks the same as yours. Still seems to be circulating the water fine and I can see the fish through the ice moving around slowly just fine without me.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Check the actual water level in your pond as some water has seeped out and onto the upper ice, which means less water in pond. I would melt a hole in ice with hot water to see down below right away!

 

[EricV]

I did that a week ago during our last warm-up. It took 3 kettles and stock pot to finally get through. That ice looked an inch thick, not three!