Pond still losing water...any ideas?

[JustJack]

Sorry, we've been taking all of your advice and going through it systematically. Still can't find any evidence of water coming from the pipe and the areas where the overspray was collecting are no longer collecting water. So we turned the pump off Saturday to keep the pond from draining overnight and then cleaned the filter again in the morning. After having the whole night to settle, we were amazed at how much sludge and acorns were in there, so that tells me he didn't use a pre-filter.

DrDave, I can't get a decent picture showing the whole area, but the submersible pump is in the koi pond (3rd pic above) and then the pipe runs underneath the deck about 25 ft. to the waterfall at the back corner of the yard. There do not seem to be any bottom drains. Our neighbor confirmed that the guy thought his way was better and didn't think he needed a pre-filter or drains. I'm going to haul all that nasty gunk out of the filter drum and go back to the DIY section and start over.

 

[DrDave]

I believe that less is better. My ponds are crystal clear without bottom drains, skimmers, UV or chemicals of any kind. A balance of plants/water/fish/circulation/filtration and areation will do it.
Most folks overdue it hoping to get it right the first time instead of learning how to maintain their ponds naturally.
How much water in inches per day and and how many square feet is the surface area? A waterfall is the usuall suspect with water loss.

 

[JustJack]

We're only losing water from the koi pond, and if we run the pump overnight, there will barely be enough water left to cover the fish, so about 3.5 feet overnight. No water is lost from the bog or the catfish pond (no fish in that pond anymore). The ponds are a very odd shape, but my husband estimates the koi pond to be about 14 feet in length (that curves around the deck) and about 4 ft. wide. We thought from the beginning that the problem was around the waterfall but I have no idea where the water is going because it's not wet over there. Somewhere between the pump and the waterfall should be some evidence of that amount of water being lost and we can't find it.

 

[JustJack]

Here are a few more pictures.

 

[DrDave]

Get a submersible pump and flex hose and bypass your system plumbing for now. It the problem goes away, you are done, if not then you have more work to do. The additional pump and flexline are good to have as backup. Losing fish is much more costly.

 

[stroppy]

where the water runs into the last pond ...have you checked the liner there ...if there is no water showing anywhere around the pond, then as far as i can see there must be a leak in your liner sorry i may not be much help ..from what i can see in the photos there is a rock ledge where the water run could there be a tear in the liner there ?

 

[DrCase]

Cap off the line from your filter to the water fall . and connect a hose to it and see if the water pressure will make the leak show up . Do the same from pump to filter
I have in past ponds lost water due to frogs holding the water back were the 2 ponds met, it only happened at night

 

[j.w]

Frogs coming together to unite to make the world a better place and destroy all projects of mankind eh
What do they do......hold their little hands in a little lineup on top and hold on for dear life against the floods.

 

[stroppy]

LOL jw

 

[JustJack]

LOL, I can picture that, j.w.! Must be lizards here, though--all the frogs are hiding in my garden and jump out at me every time I go to pull weeds!

Stroppy, you may have something there. That is exactly the spot that my problem elephant ear is and there very well may be a tear in the liner up there. I'm going to take a closer look at that before I do anything else. That would explain why it only happens when the pump is on. I had ruled out liner leaks because there was no leakage all winter but it never occurred to me to look under those rocks. That would also explain why we can't find the water and how that baby elephant ear turned into such a monster so fast!

 

[stroppy]

lets hope im right ...only problem then is how you fix it :0)

 

[DrCase]

Frogs coming together to unite to make the world a better place and destroy all projects of mankind eh
What do they do......hold their little hands in a little lineup on top and hold on for dear life against the floods.

:lol: jw you cant make a frog story like that up you get a group of them together and their trouble....
The 2 ft long 8" wide spill way was a easy target for that gang

 

[DrDave]

JW,
You crack me up. Maybe they were doing more than holding hands...

 

[JustJack]

I never had frogs over there at all when I had the catfish--he ate them all!

Monday was too rainy to get out there, but yesterday I followed up on Stroppy's suggestion and tried to move those rocks between the ponds to look for leaks. No dice--they seem to be very well glued and wouldn't budge, but it seems like the problem has to be either there or the waterfall, so tonight we'll focus on the filter and waterfall again.

 

[CometKeith]

Justjack, Do you have pond liner under your waterfall?