Leaking Pond

[ClaireS]

Hello,

This morning I found my pond had sprung a leak, and now has levelled off at about a foot deep. Its a pond with a liner sunk into the patio, I'm guessing the liner has punctured / broken down as its a fairly old construction (apparently the patio was put in about 15 years ago, and the pond at the same time). I've got in there koi, goldfish, orfe and some tench. They were doing ok this morning but I think I need to get them out ASAP!

Redoing the liner is going to be a long job, I will need to remove paving all the way round and there is also a rock waterfall (cememted together) at one end that will need dismantling. In the short term I have a large roof box from my car (the hinges have broken so no longer in use) which is a similar size to the pond but not as deep.

There isn't much water in the pond to transfer into the temporary pond, but the roof box has collected a fair amount of rainwater. Will I be ok using this rain water and topping it up with pond water? Being winter there is a fair amount of sediment in the bottom of the pond which I don't want to disturb and also the reason I want to get the fish out as soon as I can. I'll hopefully be able to move the pump from the pond into the roof box if the cable will stretch.

How does this set up sound? I can get measurements for the roof box this evening if that would help. How long do you think the fish will be ok for in the temporary set up?

Thanks for any help

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Measurements of the roof box will help a lot, how many koi, goldfish, tench and orfe do you have in the pond currently plus their sizes roughly?
The problem is that all the fish will pee and poop ammonia which is of course toxic- in a very large body of water will filtration/lots of airation this is not a problem as there is bacteria in the water supplied with oxygen from the moving water which will break down the ammonia. But an underfilted or airated small body of water containing a lot of large and high waste producing fish, the ammonia will quickly build up and poisen the fish. So a lot depends on the size of the roof box and whether you can filter the box or not and how long the fish will be staying in there as well as how large the box actually is. An alternative to the emergency pond would be to visit your lfs/local fish stores and see if any of them can hold onto your fish in their tanks for a small fee until your pond is fixed.
You are right though that you shouldn't mess with the sediment at the bottom of the pond until the fish are removed as stirring up the sediment will release a lot of gas (and probably ammonia and nitrites) from anerobic bacteria living in the sediment thats built up at the bottom of the pond, making the water quality very bad.
One thing i would definately check though is whether any tree roots have punctured the liner as this can happen- if underlay and sand also wasn't used in the ponds construction, stones can also puncture the liner over time too. Also make sure they aren't any objects like rocks actually in the pond itselft that could have punctured the liner. How deep is the pond in its deepest area's?

 

[ClaireS]

Thanks for your reply. I've had a better look at the pond, and took some measurements of it (hadn't done this until now ). The pond is 2m x 1.1m and 0.5m deep. The level has dropped to 35 cm so isn't quite half empty. I went to the garden center this morning and got some pond sealant, I'm going to see if I can find the tear and repair it rather than move the fish at this point. They all look happy at the moment, and the guy in the shop said that the rainwater in the roof box would probably be too acidic for them.

I had a look at their rigid ponds, and one idea will be to sink one of those straight into my pond if I can get one the right size, but not until later in the year when I can disturb the bottom of the pond without too many problems. Obviously if the leaks get worse I'll have to do it sooner rather than later! As far as I've been able to count, there are 3 koi, 2 golden orfe and 2 blue orfe, one goldfish and 2 tench. They are all about 5-7 inches, apart from the tench which are smaller. The previous owner of the house said he had put a channel catfish in there after it outgrew its tank but we've never seen it.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The pond is really too shallow either way for such fish, you'd be much better off taking the old dodgey liner out and deepening the pond-a minimum of 3ft deep pond is advised for goldfish, while 4ft deep for koi.
These are large growing fish, but unless you get a deeper pond for them, they won't grow to their normal/natural size, will be easily picked off by predators as they grow larger, are unlikely to live out their maximum life expectancy, and are at threat from being killed off from icey cold winters as they grow.
How old are the fish currently do you know?

 

[fishnterrapins]

I agree with you Tokis-Phoenix but with those fish I would say go down even deeper t 6 ft.

Instead of a rigid liner have you considered the (admitedly more expensive) alternative of taking the whole thing out and putting concrete blocks round the edge and using fibre glass?

I have found when building ponds for people these tend to last longer.

Just a though

Dan

 

[ClaireS]

Thanks for your replies, you've pretty much confirmed what I thought - that the pond isn't really suitable for the fish. I've lived here for 4 years so they have been in it for longer than that, but I don't know when they were originally stocked. The rigid pond I looked at was at least 4 food deep, so it will be a case of excavating the base of the pond to drop one in. Not sure if it was a rigid liner or fiber glass - it was black and looked rubbery I'll have to ask about it in more detail.

What time of year would you say is the best time to do a major over haul of a pond? During the warmer spring weather, summer or autumn?
thanks
Claire

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks for your replies, you've pretty much confirmed what I thought - that the pond isn't really suitable for the fish. I've lived here for 4 years so they have been in it for longer than that, but I don't know when they were originally stocked. The rigid pond I looked at was at least 4 food deep, so it will be a case of excavating the base of the pond to drop one in. Not sure if it was a rigid liner or fiber glass - it was black and looked rubbery I'll have to ask about it in more detail.

What time of year would you say is the best time to do a major over haul of a pond? During the warmer spring weather, summer or autumn?
thanks
Claire

The warmer months will probably be better, but it doesn't matter a great deal either way as its basically up to you when you want to build it- when i dug/built my pond i did it from summer to autum and it all went pretty smoothly. Rain is not good though, especially while you are digging, it can fill up your newly dug hole pretty fast before you've even got the liner in, so digging in drier weather is much easier. How many gallons is the new pond tub you are looking at going to be roughly? 4ft deep sounds like a good depth though .

 

[fishnterrapins]

Yeah the waremer mon ths will definitely be better. I always founf the middle of spring / start of summer to be a good time but like Tokis said beware rain. Don't forget as well (like a lot of people I advise on ponds at work) that it will take time if you do a fibre glass pond and its always worth re-checking your dimensions.

 

[ClaireS]

Well the good news is that after the snow we had last week, the pond has filled back up again and hasn't leaked again! The pump is running fine so I'm keeping an eye on it, hopefully whatever is blocking the leak will stay put for now - fingers crossed!

Not sure of the dimensions of the replacement tank, I'll have to ask them what sizes they do. I'm hoping I can get one to fit my 2m x 1.10m dimension so the only digging I need to do is down!

 

[dereklawler]

Leaks in pond dikes are best repaired from inside the pond. To do this, drain the pond down one to two feet below the site of the leak. Then using shovel or back hoe dig out the area surrounding the leak for several feet back into the dike. The resulting trench is filled with clay and compacted every 8-10 inches as it is filled.

 

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