URGENT pond loosing water quick

[TheFishGuy]

As you may know I have a 600 gallon pond with a waterfall, I went camping for the last couple of days, and Income back to bright green water, all of the waterfalls off, and all my biological filters dried out, soooo I plug me back in, because a storm tripped the circuit breaker, and low and behold this morning I come out to my pond, it is clear again ( magic of the UV clarifier ) but the water is six inches down, and my parents say my goldfish was gasping at the surface early this morning, I stopp the waterfalls, and am now just running the pump asa fountain in the pond for aeration, and have topped off the pond, my koi are fine, but the goldfish is nowhere to be found, since all of that around and hour ago the pond has again lost almost an inch of water, so my onlyguess is the liner is torn, and I can’t move out all of the rock, I just dint even know what to do.

 

[AlyssaFish]

I'm so sorry Fish Guy! It does sound like there's a leak in the liner itself, since you're not using the waterfall but there's still a leak.

The first thing is to take deep breaths and keep calm! You need to first prioritize the health of the fish (is the water quality good?), then worry about the leak. If you can prepare a holding tank for your fish, that would be best. Then you can simply allow the pond to drain through the leak and wait to see how far it empties out. That will tell you about where the leak is located. Also look for signs of damp earth anywhere around the pond.

Depending on where the leak is, you may be able to keep your fish in the pond and have everything running as normal while you patch up the leak. Or you may have to take everything apart.

 

[mrsclem]

If your filters dried out, that could cause a problem with water quality.

 

[snoozer]

Did the water level drop after restarting the pump and waterfall or had it dropped before that? If it was after, the leak would most likely be in the waterfall.

 

[TheFishGuy]

I'm so sorry Fish Guy! It does sound like there's a leak in the liner itself, since you're not using the waterfall but there's still a leak.

The first thing is to take deep breaths and keep calm! You need to first prioritize the health of the fish (is the water quality good?), then worry about the leak. If you can prepare a holding tank for your fish, that would be best. Then you can simply allow the pond to drain through the leak and wait to see how far it empties out. That will tell you about where the leak is located. Also look for signs of damp earth anywhere around the pond.

Depending on where the leak is, you may be able to keep your fish in the pond and have everything running as normal while you patch up the leak. Or you may have to take everything apart.

Thank you so much for your advice, The fish are Doing fine now, well the goldfish is still missing but it is the one that hides a lot, turns out the parents saw the orange and black koi, and that koi is now doing fine, the leak has stopped at around 3 inches this time, and I found a leak in the waterfall, so there is a leak in 2 places now, but the one in the pond is not super low down, so I will be able to keep the alternate fountain running, but not the main waterfall, I have a 160 gallon stock tank that has been running for a year with fish on and off, so when I do tear everything down to patch it up and stuff they will have a place to go,

On the good news, I wa splashing on redoing the pond soon any way, so it looks like my timeline just got moved forward

 

[TheFishGuy]

Did the water level drop after restarting the pump and waterfall or had it dropped before that? If it was after, the leak would most likely be in the waterfall.

Turns out there is a leak in the waterfall, but also it seems as if a raccoon came to the pond last night and possibly tore a small hole in the liner too, so the water has only dropped 3 inches withought the waterfalls

 

[TheFishGuy]

If your filters dried out, that could cause a problem with water quality.

The water quality seems to be okay, based on tests from the API master test kit, although the green water has taken over due to the lack of bacteria fighting it.

 

[GBBUDD]

Pic pic and pic again
1. Look for a loose or leaking fitting .
2. Look for soft spots around the pound the water falls in particular.
3. did something change the water flow and back up the water causing it to run the banks.
4. Over lap between pond and water fall.
5. IS THE WATERFALL THROWING/ SPLASHING WATER IN A NEW DIRECTION AND GETTING OUT SOMEWHERE?
6. did someone step on the edging of the pond and lower it somewhere that is now leaking.
7. shut the system down and mark the water level. let is sit 24 hours and see if the