Water level problem!

[studiovette]

Woke up this morning and half my water was gone! You can see by the rocks where my water line should be. The water was fine yesterday. I haven't changed anything or done anything different. Where could all that water be going so quickly?

 

[springknee]

Leak in waterfall or line running from pump to waterfall.

 

[dieselplower]

Yep most likely. With that much water loss u should be able to find the wet spot

 

[sissy]

Thats why I ran all my hoses in the waterfall if there is a leak it all goes back in the pond .I guess it could be bad in colder temps doing that .But here I just put the pond heater over my pumps .Gotta find the wet soft spot but if you are getting a lot of rain it may be hard to find . Could your filter have damage to it .That's a lot of water to loose .I had a water loss like that and could not find the leak and that was 7 years ago .I caught the leak culprits it was all the deer during the dry weather coming to the pond to get a drink at night .After that got them a trough I keep fresh water in for them .

 

[studiovette]

I usually add some water every other dwy or so. Let the hose run for 10 minutes and seems to be fine.
Checked filter and pump area and no wet spots at all. I performed a backwash also to see if anything out of the ordinary was going on. I also just refilled it. Gonna monitor it all day and see. Plumbing in watefall seems fine. My yard is completely fenced in so I get the occasional rabbit or other small animals that would not be able to drain it. At least I don't think. My pool on other sie of yard has not lost any water. It's been extremely hot but very humid.

 

[sissy]

300 lb water logged rabbit HMMM :cheerful: That's a lot of water so has to be something besides evaporation .Have yo looked closely at your waterfall .

 

[studiovette]

so I shut down filter and skimmer last night and threw in a air pump. water level remained steady. so obviously its up in my falls but I have massive boulders up there and hard to move stuff around. Gonna have to call someone for help. :'(

 

[HTH]

so I shut down filter and skimmer last night and threw in a air pump. water level remained steady. so obviously its up in my falls but I have massive boulders up there and hard to move stuff around. Gonna have to call someone for help. :'(

Studiovette I think this is an important point that others can learn from.
As much as it seems like a good idea to hide plumbing it should be done in a way that allows servicing with little effort. The sort of thing sissy did is even better. Set it up so leaks end up back in the pond.

 

[koiguy1969]

i would bet 99% of all drastic leaks are waterfall related. rock work not sealed water tight enough.(water wicking) or the plumbing failed.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Yep most likely. With that much water loss u should be able to find the wet spot

I wouldn't count on this. There have been times when I lost several hundred gallons overnight, and I never did find any wet spots. Even in the Winter, when an ice flow makes it obvious where the water was lost at, and the ground is froze solid, I still didn't see exactly where the water went. The problem is that if the water leaks under the edge of your liner, it will soak into the ground underneath your pond, and you'll never see a problem. I especially had this issue when I had a pre-formed pond liner... the water would seep over the edges, and the dirt appeared to stay dry.

 

[Tazz3]

If u can shut off the water falls and fill it up .over night if the water is still high it's the water fall if the water is down its a leak

 

[studiovette]

update

found a large wet spot up by falls under my shrubs! hoping for a quick fix plumbing leak.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

After re-working the edge of the liner around my whole pond this Spring, I am finding that the pond is now overflowing from being refilled by the sprinklers (the last 2 years I still had to top off the water every week or so). And all this time I've been attributing the water-loss to simple evaporation.

 

[sissy]

It is always something in the ponders life that sneaks up on you after it hides for awhile .Mine was plant roots that grew between the waterfall liner and the pond liner .

 

[addy1]

I top mine daily during the summer, tons of plants in the bog suck the water right out. during non growth time the water level never drops. Used to think I had a bad leak.........