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| Thread ID: 95035 | 2008-11-21 22:59:00 | Question for water feature experts and those good at imaginative solutions | Tony (4941) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 721878 | 2008-11-21 22:59:00 | I have a garden pond, and I'm pretty sure it is leaking. It is lined with some sort of woven material, and over the last few weeks the water level has been dropping much more than is usual due to evaporation etc. I'm having to top it up every week or so, whereas normally it would be more than a month, and that at the height of summer. So the question is - how do I find the leak? There are goldfish in the pond, so any solution must not cause them harm. I could try to remove the goldfish, but there are plenty of places for them to hide, so that would be a tricky exercise, unless I let the pond get so low they are all massed together. Of course if the water stops going down then the leak must be at that level in the pond. Alas there is also a pond pump that needs to stay covered to avoid damage, and if I turn it off the pond oxygen levels will drop quite quickly, or so I'm told. The level has dropped in the past so that the pump is nearly exposed. The subsequent question of course is how do I fix the leak after I've found it, but I think that is reasonably easily solved. Any brilliant ideas? |
Tony (4941) | ||
| 721879 | 2008-11-22 00:50:00 | Get an old bath from the dump pump the pond water into it until it's low enough to catch the fish and transfer them then put pump into bath as well to keep aerating the water while you then look for the leak, that's about the easiest option I would think and only requires spending $10 or so on an old bath | gary67 (56) | ||
| 721880 | 2008-11-22 01:35:00 | Ours live in an old cast iron bath. We take them out. We empty out most of the water, catch them with a goldfish net (pet shops) and put them in a bucket while we clean the pond out. We have no pumps. We do have one lily plant and one oxygen plant. They have lived (and bred) happily in it for 3 years. Goldfish are tougher than you think. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 721881 | 2008-11-22 02:59:00 | Gary and PCtek - both good suggestions/information, but they don't address the main issue - how do I find a slow leak in a large-ish pond? Or is the answer so blindingly obvious that I'm just being thick? | Tony (4941) | ||
| 721882 | 2008-11-22 03:17:00 | While it's empty you can look for any puncture marks and give it a good clean at the same time, alternatively you can also re line it while it's empty | gary67 (56) | ||
| 721883 | 2008-11-22 03:38:00 | 1. Throw some Barrs Leaks in the pond and let it heal. 2. Add prunes to the Goldfish diet. 3. Avoid sharp (or blunt) objects and SWMBO as a combination for a week or two. |
R2x1 (4628) | ||
| 721884 | 2008-11-22 07:35:00 | I wouldn't. I'd just change the container. | pctek (84) | ||
| 721885 | 2008-11-22 10:45:00 | While it's empty you can look for any puncture marks and give it a good clean at the same time, alternatively you can also re line it while it's emptyRe-lining is clearly an option, but I would be reluctant as it would mean losing all the plants etc that have grown up over the years. I suspect looking for a puncture is harder than it sounds - think mud and debris, an uneven lining, etc etc. Or maybe I'm just quailing at the effort involved. :o Ideally I would like to be able to put some tracer in the water that would lead me to the leak, but I think it is probably not fast enough for that. | Tony (4941) | ||
| 721886 | 2008-11-22 10:47:00 | I wouldn't. I'd just change the container.The "container" is a hole in the ground, lined with this plastic woven material - which is not changeable without effectively destroying the pond and starting over. | Tony (4941) | ||
| 721887 | 2008-11-22 19:04:00 | Plaster the liner with clay perhaps? | R2x1 (4628) | ||
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