Pond Leak?

[jwyoung60]

Put in my 5'X8' pond (250 gal) w/liner 4 weeks ago. 2 ft. deepest. A few water lilies, 5 goldfish. Homemade filter with small water fall from submersible pump. Everything has been fine. No problems.

This morning I went out to feed goldfish & water level had dropped 6 inches in about 10 hours. I checked for wet areas around filter/waterfall and edge of liner but found nothing. I marked where water level was at now, then filled pond back up about 3 inches, and marked that water level.

I figured the water level would drop back down at least to where I found it this morning. It's been 5 hours and water still at level I filled it up to this morning.

We are in dry hot month in Indiana (no rain & 80-90 degrees). Any ideas what might be going on? My plan is to fill back up to level I had it if nothing changes by tonight and then see what happens overnight again.

 

[buckry]

I'm in Logansport IN, where are you? As for the level is it possible the home made filter did something screwy and then fixed itself? What is this filter exactly? Could the hose in the waterfall have moved and hit a rock and splashing lots of water out? Is all of that stuff locked down really well? Maybe a raccoon walked across your waterfall and knocked something out of whack for a little while.

 

[sissy]

I have a leak in mine and it seems the liner by one corner where i had the overflow was shifted and not sure how .A pic of your pond might help figure it out .Could something have gotten stuck in the out flow pipe from you filter and worked it's way loose after awhile .I actually lost water the first year my pond was in and was loosing 2 inches or more every night .Well caught deer drinking from the pond, 4 of them were out there with there babies .

 

[buckry]

Yeah, maybe that's it, maybe a herd of deer went through and drank it all? We have TONS of deer in Indiana.

 

[j.w]

jwyoung60

 

[jwyoung60]

Live in Fishers, IN. No deer. Small condo backyard 6 ft. vinyl fence. Filter is old plastic cat litter box, lava rock on bottom, 6 large body loofahs with air conditioner filter pad folded over top. Works well. The water fall is just a small rectangle cut in top of filter box side for water to flow out of back into pond. Nothing really to disturb and pump & flow and everything is same.

 

[sissy]

I had a lava rock get in my outlet pipe and it popped through after a few minutes and the tank went down .Sucker must have escaped from the laundry bag i had them in .How about a baby fish or a tadpole .I get them sucked into my filter and sometimes they get pushed back out .

 

[adavisus]

It's quite possible some puncture can temporarily be blocked by some bit of debris or gunk and plug itself.

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[jwyoung60]

Well, filled pond back up yesterday afternoon and this morning everything is fine in fishy land. Must have been one of those flukes.

 

[Waterbug]

There is a small possibility water got under the liner, caused it to float, pushed out 6" of water, water slowly drained into soil, liner sank back to normal position. I know nothing about your pond so I have no idea if this could have happened. However an owner seeing a sudden and an unexplained water loss followed by no evidence of a leak is a common symptom of floating liner.

There would have to be some source of water for this too happen. Rain isn't a suspect of course. Landscape watering? It's possible the waterfall is leaking under the pond liner, but so slowly you normally just think it's evaporation. Over time that can reach a level where the liner starts to float. The top of the liner would also generally have to be below the surrounding grade for this to happen.

To check you can pull back the pond liner back a little and feel the soil behind the liner for dampness. You don't have to check too deep, just down to the water line or a little below. A long shot, but easy to check.

 

[jwyoung60]

New question from a pond newbie. I put 4 water lilies in my 5X8 foot pond. Needless to say they have taken over. Can I just cut the pad stems back to the pot or will that hurt the rest of the plant? Or do I need to remove one or two of the lilies? Doesn't look to bad right now but if they keep putting out new shoots/pads it could get ridiculous.

 

[sissy]

geeze wish I could say that mine are barely putting out leaves and not sure why .One or two lilies for your pond would have been better .Do you maybe know someone close who would buy them from you ,wink wink buckry .

 

[buckry]

Me too, I have 3 bulbs and only 2 pads on the surface. I have what looks like 30 baby pads on each bulb, but they are sure taking their sweet time growing upwards. Figured with the heat the warm water would make them go nuts.

 

[jwyoung60]

I bought these 4 at Menards $5.95 each. Four flowers already (2 pink, 1 yellow, 1 red), probably 40 pads, another 6-8 bulbs below the surface ready to bloom in 3-4 days. I will post on Craigslist and c if anyone wants two of them. Do u think it would hurt if I cut some pads/stems back? Buckry, if u get down towards Indy any time soon or know anyone passing back through ur way from a trip, let me know and u can have them.

 

[buckry]

I'll keep that in mind, but don't have any plans to be that direction soon. Thanks though.