Adding stream + another pond to existing pond

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Hi!

Reading this forum helped quite a bit last year when I build my little pond. But, now I've a question that I can't really find a specific answer for.

I want to expand my pond a bit by adding a short stream and another pond at the end of the stream. I'm using rubber liners, and all of the information I've found regarding the splicing of these sorts of liners involves splicing ones that aren't part of an existing pond. So, I've been sitting in my office trying to figure out what to do...

I know that if I elevate the stream above the old pond and the second pond above the stream then I won't need to splice the liners. I'm willing to go this route if need be, however I'd prefer it if the stream were to act as a passage-way for the fish. Is it possible, without potentially harming the integrity of, or the life inside, the pond, to splice the existing liner to another? Or, is there another way I can create enough of a seal so as to prevent significant water leakage (or soil seeping into the water)?
 
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What a surprise that someone wants to go bigger! LOL! That's why we always say go twice as big as you initially plan.

You can splice the liners and use seaming tape to put them back together. Lots of people do it successfully and there are those that regret it because of leaking. You buy pond seam tape, you buy the liner primer and do the task and then slather P&L Roofing and Flashing Sealant all over that seam on the outside. You just have to decide if the potential for leaks is worth taking the risk.

This task is quite different than putting in a bottom drain, for example. Though people panic about a small hole in the pond, a BD has a compression plate and is screwed on tightly with lots of sealant in between and under. Unfortunately, with splicing two liners together, you have no such compression point. Get the picture? Personally, I can't stand cutting liner in that manner due to the huge possibility for leaks, and I have bottom drains. I'm more than willing to cut through the liner for the right reasons, and seaming two ponds together never felt like a good idea to me. But if you have the balls to do it, by all means go for it.

I would do one raised pond on top of the other. You do sacrifice the passage way you'd like, but that isn't entirely a bad thing, because that shallow spot that is the passage will be a great spot for predators to sit and wait while the fish travel through it.

You have two options with two ponds where one is raised about the other. You can have the top one waterfall into the lower one, or you can have them as two totally separate entities. The benefit to the second option, is that they ARE separate. If you have an illness or something affect the one pond, your second pond is safe. Of course, you need two distinct filtration systems if you go that route--but you would need to beef up your existing filtration anyway to account for the larger pond anyway if you they circulate into eachother.
 
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I'm new here, but I tried to connect two ponds - one above the other - I used seamed tape, I used construction adhesive, I tried everything and it leaked like crazy. As you stated, you HAVE a pond there - so there is dirt on that liner - water, it just won't bond.

I finally gave up and threw away my new $200 liner, bought a new one and my two ponds are seperated by a footbridge - I have a pump/lline under the footbridge pumping water out giving the impression the upper pond is rushing into the bottom, but it isn't. I'm happy with it though - the other thing you will have to keep in mind, if you do connect them - what if you lose electricity? The top pond with empty into the bottom, so make sure you have some sort of safety amount of water that won't drain down.

I'd recommend emptying the upper pond, putting in ONE big liner - you'll be more successful that way, from my experience. I may do that one day myself, but the older/upper pond is 4 years old and has plenty of life left to it.
 
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To prevent the upper pond from emptying fully into the lower pond and creating an overflow of the bottom pond as koikiller describes, you would need to put a swing check valve (flapper style) in between the two ponds and that will not happen.
 

DrDave

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I have an upper and a lower pond using 2 liners and no bond between them. The trick is to overlap them correctly and make sure you have a drop to the 2nd pond. I do not have a leak problem. It is like shingeling a house. I have a PVC pipe at the point where they overlap. The lower liner laps over it by 12" and the upper one by the same. By placing rocks on both sides it keeps this union tight and gravity plus flow keeps the lower pond water from leaching into the seam.
I never turn off the pump in the lower pond that feeds the upper pond. Since I use submersible pumps and flexlines, when I do clean the pump, I simply raise it above the level of the upper pond so the water does not drain back.
 

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