About a week ago I started my first pond and thought it would be fairly easy. I constructed a small pond (2 feet by 4 feet and about 6 inches deep) at the top of small stream. The stream is about 15 feet long and about 1 foot to 2 feet wide. The bottom pond is a touch bigger than the top. It is about 2.5 feet by 4.5 feet and about 8 inches deep. I have a small pump (780 GPH) running. I outlined the stream and both ponds with some creek stone of various sizes and layed 1/2 inch round on the stream and pond bottoms. The used 4 seperate pieces of 20 mil pond liner purchased at my local Lowes. The slope of the stream sees a drop of about 12 to 18 inches from the start of the stream to the point where it spills into the lower pond. The three seams created by the four pieces of pond liner are located at the point where the upper pond spills over into the start of the stream, the point where the stream spills over into the lower pond and at a point about halfway between the upper and lower pond. I did not use any sort of adhesive or tape to cover these seams. I simple overlapped the two pieces of liner by about 6-8 inches or so. Once this pond was completed I was happy with the looks of this but soon learned that my pond leaked. I have come to the conclusion after much study that my stream is leaking at the middle seam. I plan to fix this by purchasing a new piece of liner that can run from the top to the bottom with one continual run. I have a couple quick questions that I hope someone can help this newbie out with.
1) Is 20 mil liner thick enough considering that I have so little water in this pond/stream and I placed a thick soft cushion under the liner made of soil and triple ground mulch?
2) Could I use the seam tape that I sometimes see sold or do most poeple not put enough faith in this type of product?
3) Since I am not going to put fish in this water system do I have to as careful about the chemicals that are used to treat this pond water?
I would appreciate any advice that could be offered surrounding the above questions and maybe anything else that threw up red flags about my work.
Thanks in advance, Slippery
1) Is 20 mil liner thick enough considering that I have so little water in this pond/stream and I placed a thick soft cushion under the liner made of soil and triple ground mulch?
2) Could I use the seam tape that I sometimes see sold or do most poeple not put enough faith in this type of product?
3) Since I am not going to put fish in this water system do I have to as careful about the chemicals that are used to treat this pond water?
I would appreciate any advice that could be offered surrounding the above questions and maybe anything else that threw up red flags about my work.
Thanks in advance, Slippery
