Tropical Depression Beryl

[riparks]

This little storm made a mess of my pond!!! We got almost 2 inches of rain Tuesday and almost 4 inches yesterday. I had to go out twice and drain the water out with a sump pump. Water got under the liner on the 2 long sides of the pond, the 2 55 gallon barrels overflowed, the pump got wet and stopped working and I am sure all of the beneficial bacteria is dead. This sucks!!!! Thankfully all of the fish are alive.

 

[addy1]

It stayed south of us, hope you get all things back in order soon and glad your fish are all alive and swimming!

 

[riparks]

Thanks Addy!! It is really upsetting, the pond was crystal clear to the bottom, the plants were all beautiful and healthy. Ugh. We have a 2" drain that is adequate for normal rainfall, we just got so much so fast.

 

[don't ask]

sorry to hear that riparks, hopefully you'll have everything back in order in no time.. i can relate as last year we had about 17 inches of rain in 2 days from a tropical storm and about 1/3- 1/2 of my liner floated.. didn't realize it at first but then i was like oh crap.. mainly because i have a bottom drain and i thought it might weaken the seal around the drain...

 

[j.w]

What a mess is right! We get rain here all the time but not a lot in inches at once. That would make me sick too if that happened! Sorry for you having to deal w/ it all.

 

[addy1]

riparks, my two inch overflow drain is not big enough either. The last storm, I ran down with an umbrella and tipped the edge of the pond down. Got to make it two two inch pipes. had a nice water fall coming out of the pond. Put on insulated rubber boots, wooden umbrella, it was thundering like all get out...........

 

[taherrmann4]

Instead of a pipe why not just make a low area on one side of your pond that will act as your overflow point. Mine has worked out pretty well in the last 8 years. Has only been a problem once and that was my own fault for placing a rock in the wrong place and it created a damning effect.

 

[j.w]

Won't the fish just flow right over the edge then Tmann?

 

[addy1]

Instead of a pipe why not just make a low area on one side of your pond that will act as your overflow point. Mine has worked out pretty well in the last 8 years. Has only been a problem once and that was my own fault for placing a rock in the wrong place and it created a damning effect.

lol that is what I had, honey wanted me to install a pipe.............so I did, it failed

Won't the fish just flow right over the edge then Tmann?

I keep a dam of rocks between the pond and the overflow jw, the overflow is about 12 inches in width dropping from 4 inches of water to nothing so it can flow out.

 

[taherrmann4]

No never lost a fish that I am aware of. For the fish to go out it they would have to jump or shimmy their way out of it. My pond never gets higher than about 1/2" above the overflow point and it has to rain really hard and fast for it to get much higher.

 

[riparks]

Thanks again everyone. Most of the water is gone from behind the liner, I will have to get in the pond at some point and try to flatten the liner down again. Got the pump running again. I guess I can look forward to another algae bloom.

Dont ask, I also have a bottom drain, didn't even think about the seal weakening. Ugh!! I was more concerned that there was so much water under the liner that the liner would meet in the middle and push the fish out of the pond.

Addy, my daughter took my rain boots, rain coat and umbrella to school. I had to cut holes in large trash bags, what a sight. I was a little concerned about getting shocked when I plugged the sump pump in. The outlets are GFI and have a cover that closes but it was difficult to keep the plugs dry.

I might try that Tmann. I have been seriously considering changing the waterfall area to a bog, I might be able to add a low spot. Do you have pictures? I am really more concerned at this point about the water under the liner, not sure what to do about that. If we have another tropical depression, storm or hurricane, I am just going to drain a lot of water from the pond.

 

[taherrmann4]

I might try that Tmann. I have been seriously considering changing the waterfall area to a bog, I might be able to add a low spot. Do you have pictures? I am really more concerned at this point about the water under the liner, not sure what to do about that. If we have another tropical depression, storm or hurricane, I am just going to drain a lot of water from the pond.

I am not sure what your pond looks like but if you can push part of your liner toward your pond where you could stick a small sump pump or some type of similar pump between the liner and the side of the pond it should be able to suck the majority of the water out, you should only have to get it about 6" below the water level as the weight of the water should push the water up to the sides. this has always worked for me when I used to get water under my liner. I know the pain you are dealing with as this happened to me about a 1/2 dozen times but have not it happen for a couple of years.

I do have some pics here you go.

This is where the water exits the pond.


This is what the dry creek looks like that goes from the pond to my drain.


This is looking at from the ponds POV, it is hidden by the rush but is right next to my skimmer only about a foot to the left.


This is where it enters my drain and then goes to the edge of my property.