Long story short, my newbie self has taken apart his pond while searching for location of a leak. Pond is intending to only be plants/no fish. Zone 5a. There were some seemingly aquatic plants in the river bed spillway/stairs, but I think a previous owner was tired of plants and decided to stack rocks on shelves instead? Considering removing skimmer area as very very rarely has debris, old, and still a sore subject for leaks. No other filtration/UV setup. The pond is now open to a bit of a revamp. As you can see, we inherited a pond with large rock shelves. The liner runs to the bottom of the top most rocks area which were eaten by earth. We have tons of snakes/frogs/birds/ducks/etc which come.
There is no rhyme or reason I hear for pond shelves/look, but I am an open newbie book to suggestions. Below are a ton of pictures to glance at, with actual questions at the bottom of post.
Picture of the pond early spring, minus greenage. This is/was a guess at the water line as i wasn't sure until recently how high the liner was.
The skimmer box area I'm considering removing entirely on bottom (concerns about type of skimmer(savio) and not setup for a silicone seal, worried about it leaking and want to not mess with it once done. Plan was to remove skimmer area, extend liner into the area. May need to make it deep enough to prop pump off bottom...?
Aerial shot from when we purchased the house. Water enters from the pool on the right, follows a river bed under the bridge, down into the main pond.
A thick rock shelf area before the right turn to bridge/river. Obviously pond empty prior to the spring fill up.
More current foilage shot - but still don't know what all the plants are! ha.
Pond came with this pump.
Early spring before filling it - how rocks were layered.
After a long battle of taking the pond apart to find a leak thought to be in the skimmer - found it here.
Also shows a bit of the shelves as I just took the water out.
Another angle for what it looked like drained after bloom / mid leak search.
I started clearing some of the liner area in the right side of the pic.
Rocks situated largely on/around the liner were 3/4 overcome with soil and the plants on the left/right sides. Purple Iris is on the far side. it was higher than I thought.
To the questions!
1. What's a good way to reform the shelves which may have deteriorated (if we do repair)?
There is no rhyme or reason I hear for pond shelves/look, but I am an open newbie book to suggestions. Below are a ton of pictures to glance at, with actual questions at the bottom of post.
Picture of the pond early spring, minus greenage. This is/was a guess at the water line as i wasn't sure until recently how high the liner was.
The skimmer box area I'm considering removing entirely on bottom (concerns about type of skimmer(savio) and not setup for a silicone seal, worried about it leaking and want to not mess with it once done. Plan was to remove skimmer area, extend liner into the area. May need to make it deep enough to prop pump off bottom...?
Aerial shot from when we purchased the house. Water enters from the pool on the right, follows a river bed under the bridge, down into the main pond.
A thick rock shelf area before the right turn to bridge/river. Obviously pond empty prior to the spring fill up.
More current foilage shot - but still don't know what all the plants are! ha.
Pond came with this pump.
Early spring before filling it - how rocks were layered.
After a long battle of taking the pond apart to find a leak thought to be in the skimmer - found it here.
Also shows a bit of the shelves as I just took the water out.
Another angle for what it looked like drained after bloom / mid leak search.
I started clearing some of the liner area in the right side of the pic.
Rocks situated largely on/around the liner were 3/4 overcome with soil and the plants on the left/right sides. Purple Iris is on the far side. it was higher than I thought.
To the questions!
1. What's a good way to reform the shelves which may have deteriorated (if we do repair)?
Pull up the underlament along w/ the liner? How fragile is the underlament after this time/importance of making it smooth again? We have clayish soil, seems somewhat wet around the pond area since its had a leak. Sand, dirt, or a mixture?
2. By reading - the "preferred" appearance may be just a single layer or so of rocks around the top, holding the liner in place? The liner runs the main area to where the green foliage is along the sides. How high should the water level be relative to the liner and/or shelves?
3. The liner has water under it on the very bottom of the pond. Again, a leak has been present. Will this water slowly subside or possibly stay w/ water table? (about 4ft down)
4. The outside back side of the pond (towards fence, left side) appears to have an extra step or so before the top liner/rocks. Would i likely just leave this open, stack more rocks, or fill with potted plants to fill the area?
5. Suggestions on plants to try in zone 5a? (and if it matters to drain pond over winter or not)The different levels of the pond range from 9", 1', 1.5-2' depth depending on the shelf. The front viewing area is probably 1' shelves, the shallower shelves in the back view.
6. Any suggestions to the stairs/spillway area from the river? I feel like this area may need some type of future redo, but maybe smaller revamps right now...A lower water level (similar to pictures) would create an additional river/trickle(not strong), but shelves would be weird for plants maybe. A higher water level to the rock liner wall area would give much more shelf room for plants and open pond area...but water coming from under bridge may be squished/lost. Thought about taking a leveling ruler to see approximately where water would rise to for a higher level (have not done yet)
7. People split on skimmer/no skimmer for ponds in general/my ask about it. I'd like to take the skimmer box out because it's created a negative PITAthought in my mind. Given the structure of the pond, would it see wise to make the closer area a bit deeper / wider - just thinking of ways to have the pump still in the same spot, but somewhat obscured / off bottom.
Pictures of things helpful for me, I'm a visual person to get ideas of how things work.