Pond Keeps Loosing Water.. Sealant Ideas?

[Deleted member 107737]

Hi All.
 
My dad built a pond but didnt do things properly. Now the pond has to be topped up every day.
 
Ive decided to sort the pond out this week ( week off from work) in time for the frogs return. we love the natural frog scene.
 
Plese look a the pics. He used carpet and pod liner, then finished off with a stone wall with cement
 
He wanted to fill the pond right up to the top, but as ive already seen there are cracks in the cement joints already!! this is where the water is draining through
 
 
 
 
Could anyone suggest what the best method is??
 
1) use a new liner and go over the stone wall, then just put one layer of stone to hide the liner ends??
 
or
 
2) use something thick and black like bitumen to paint the insides of the wall??
 
Thanks,
 
Dave

 

[BerryAttack]

what i would do is drain the pond, remove the plants and put it in water so they don't die. then you'll be able to see what is what, but i would remove the liner carefully and inspect it, have it hanging on something and then you can see the tears, holes etc. 
or you can remove the liner, what a how to video, or get someone professional to do it for you, place a new liner in it allow for around 2 feet over where the top of the pond wall is, two feet over the grass area. then fill the pond up, place rocks around the edging, and boom you can now set up the pond after a few days. then cut the extra as a just in case.
 
also look at your filtration, could it be leaking anywhere there?

 

[Deleted member 107737]

thankyou

 

[Ch4rlie]

This does sound like a similar situation I had a few years ago when I had a pond at my previous house.
The pond was already there when I moved to that house at the time.
 
Pond was leaking, had to top up every weekend, had a few issues etc
 
Like you, decided to do everything properly.
 
Be warned, this post is gonna have a few pics to help you illustrate what i did to get things done. 
 
Bear with me  

 
Drained the pond with a pond pump, took out all the sludge and debris from bottom of pond, be warned, it stinks like nothing else!
BTW, found no treasures just muck! 

 

            

 
 
Found the main cause of the leaking problems was due to tree and plant roots going through the pond liner as well as the liner was in bad condition, been there for quite a few years so liner deteriorated over the years. So trimmed roots off and took out sharp stones and rocks. Then put down about just over an inch of sand on base before putting new liner down. Get the thickest and best quality liner you can get, not cheap but will be worth it.

           

 
Make sure pond liner overps edge by at least 2 feet, the start filling in the pond with water, the liner will sort itself out it as fills up.
 

 
Pond filled up, placed a few rocks around the edges, trimmed off the excess liner, leaving about 18" - 24" of liner all around edges.
 
 

            

   
 
Added pond plants and smooth gravel into pond as substrate. Left for a week.
  

   
 
Then embedded carefully chosen rocks all around pond in concrete.
 
Finished results.
 

  
 
A lot of effort, took me two full weekends to do all this, but was well worth it. Only had the pond for frogs, did not want fish despite everyone asking when am going to put fish in!! 

 
I enjoyed having the pond immensely over the years while i lived there, had loads of wildlife, dragonfly and damselflies, water boatmen, all sorts of things, always something to watch and enjoy if you were patient enough. Also had loads of frogs and tadpoles, life cycle from spawn to fully grown frogs was truly rewarding, until unfortunately the toads took over! 

 
Anyway, hope this help you to have an idea of what sort of thing you'll need to do in mind. I did not have a pond filter/pump at the time as Berryattack suggests, might be worth doing this if you considering having fish.
 
Good luck! and do post your progress, with pics of course, would like to see how you get on 

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

If i was a frog, i'd sure wanna live in that lol