pond emptied overnight - help!

[lauragal]

Woke up this morning to an almost empty pond. It is a 20' by 10' pond, and all has been perfect up until this morning. The only thing that changed yesterday was that my husband put a "sock" over the pump while I was out due to clogging. Any suggestions as to what might have happened? The fish are all still there, but only about 6 to 8 inches deep of water.

I do have a waterfall, but we didn't touch it yesterday and that has been running fine since spring. I have a feeling this is going to be a nightmare trying to figure out.

Thanks

Laura

 

[DrCase]

Start filling it back up and add your chlorine neutralizer
And watch as the pump runs you should see were the water is going
dont change any thing until you see it pumping the water out

 

[addy1]

That much water flowing should have left a path. Look for a sign of it. It sounds like the pump line got loose somewhere

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

Low water pump shutoff might be helpful, unless your husband inadvertently punctured the liner while adding the sock.

 

[lauragal]

Thank you all for your help - after putting the pump back on, we found the problem immediately - somehow the water was overflowing through the back of the waterfall. It seemed that the filter in the watefall was clogged and not placed correctly in the weir. I had just cleaned it out last week, so maybe I didn't install it back in the right way. Another hour or two and my fish would have been dead! I'm refilling it now and have added my chlorine neutralizer. Hopefully the fish will make it and not go into shock.

 

[addy1]

Thank you all for your help - after putting the pump back on, we found the problem immediately - somehow the water was overflowing through the back of the waterfall. It seemed that the filter in the watefall was clogged and not placed correctly in the weir. I had just cleaned it out last week, so maybe I didn't install it back in the right way. Another hour or two and my fish would have been dead! I'm refilling it now and have added my chlorine neutralizer. Hopefully the fish will make it and not go into shock.

You might want to put your pump on a block, so if you have a leak like this again some water would be left in the bottom of the pond.
Or like hewhoisatpeace says, get a low water shut off for the pump

 

[lauragal]

Thank you, addy - that is a great idea - what does a low water shut off for the pump look like, and is it easy to install?

That's what my husband did yesterday - he put the pump in a "sock" and then put it on a block - and that's probably why I didn't lose the whole pond!

 

[addy1]

http://www.pondbiz.com/home/pb1/page_933
http://www.newenglandkoi.com/Low-Water-Shut-Off-Switch-Submersible-Pond-Pumps-sc-536.html

here are two links, it does not look hard.

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

No, not hard at all. It has an electrical plug, you plug it in, then plug the pump into it. Then, there is a longer cord to a float switch. If it ever gets lower than where you set the float switch, it kills power to the pump, so you can't empty the pond or burn up your pump.

 

[lauragal]

Okay - thanks so much! I'll look into getting one of these.

 

[bsr8129]

I have done the same thing, tubing came off the UV filter and pumped out all the water but about 10 inchs, the pump is on a over turned basket for this reason. Just got to be carfully when attaching lines.

 

[DrCase]

If you have a pond its going to happen

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

Not necessarily, man. Just use one of those shutoff float switches, and you can't lose more than wherever you set it. Mine shuts off my pump if I lose more than 6", it has saved me once during construction (no fish yet), but if I get clogged up or something, my guys'll still have about 5 1/2 feet of water.