The sight of a sudden drop in water level is one that fills the average pond keeper with dread. There are a number of alternative reasons that could be the cause, however a leak is the immediate worry.
The sight of a sudden drop in water level is one that fills the average pond keeper with dread. There are a number of reasons that could be the cause, however a leak is the immediate worry.
Eliminate alternatives
First of all it is important to eliminate any possible alternatives that could have caused the drop in water level. These could include; the bedding down of a new liner, leaking pipe work, a blocked filter overflowing, evaporation (on an average sunny day this can be as much as 10mm [1cm], and will on average be around 600-100mm [60cm – 1m] per year, with the majority taking place over the summer) splashing fountains and waterfalls.
Find the Leak
Once all possible alternatives have been eliminated then it is time to face up to the fact the liner is damaged. Fortunately in many instances this is not as disastrous as it may first seem. There are now many different types of glue, patches and repair kits that work much better than they did in the past. The first job is now to find the leak, in most cases there is not as big a need to panic move the fish and drain the whole pond. The easiest way to find a leak is to allow the pond to continue to lose water. Wait until the water levels out, and you will have found the rough location of the leak without having to do anything. It is now time to very carefully inspect the liner around the entire circumference of the pond at this height for any small punctures or damage.
Fix the Leak
Once the leak has been found it is now time to apply the repair. These repair kits can usually be bought from the retailer you originally bought the liner from. To repair a flexible liner it is usual to apply a special adhesive tape across the hole of split, or to cover the damage with another piece of the flexible liner fixed into place by another specialist adhesive. With regards to pre formed ponds, these are also pretty straight forward to repair and special resin repair kits can be bought for the appropriate material the pre formed pond is made from.
The only bad news comes for those people who have a concrete pond, as realistically the only way to make sure you have a newly watertight lining is to remove everything from the pond, re render and paint with sealant again to ensure the whole pond is watertight. Many people in this instance decide to cut their losses and re-line the concrete with a flexible liner, which can be easily done so long as it is underlayed appropriately.
Prevention
The best way of course to fix a leak is to avoid one in the first place. Most leaks could probably have been avoided by a more careful approach to the installation. It is important to get a good layer of cushioning material between the liner and the ground. This can be; sand, synthetic carpet, or specialist pond liner underlay. Although these add to the initial cost of the installation, it can often be false economy to try and skimp on these essential materials only to have to re-install the whole liner in the future.