Help: My pond is leaking after I power washed it.

[EAC]

Thanks for the reply.

So, my pond is pretty dirty. I wouldn't be suprised if I have a inch of soot at the bottom..... not to mention a built up of grime on my plants and rocks inside. How can I clean all of that out without physically doing it?

I use peroxide in a pump sprayer that is used only for that reason my pond .Spray it and hose it after 20 minutes and all done .geeze these people with draining and cleaning ,never drain and clean the good stuff ,you will be starting over with the pond that way ..I have seen it time and time again on you tube and cring when i see it .A pool net and a filter is all you need .It is up to you what type filter you want to build .Pond vacs can suck up fish also .Easy to build a filter you tube has your pick of builds and there are many on here also .I used you tube and I love my lava rock ,sorry guys out there but it is cheap and has worked for me for almost 10 years .My dad used it also .Many types of filter media to use .I built a new filter I went bigger plus I have had 2 filters for 5 years now

 

[sissy]

thing is freeze and thaw will just make more and more leaks appear

 

[sissy]

bite the bullet and do it and you will be happier in the end same with water fall .Do it when the weather is cool and you will have a great pond next year and be glad you did it .Muck is a good thing but if you noticed on here most of us have no rocks in the bottom.They just trap bad stuff and make it harder to clean .Always sad when you move in and find the other owner did the pond the wrong way and you have to repair all the mistakes .Do it your way .

 

[EAC]

The Waterfall is alread clean. Very clean. The picture I posted was a before picture. The rocks are now a bright white.

I didn't get around to touching the actual pond though. So, you think I should just drain and scrub to get it over with?

So, no rocks on the bottom? Done.

About the filter, is there a filter I can make that will sit inside of my pond?

bite the bullet and do it and you will be happier in the end same with water fall .Do it when the weather is cool and you will have a great pond next year and be glad you did it .Muck is a good thing but if you noticed on here most of us have no rocks in the bottom.They just trap bad stuff and make it harder to clean .Always sad when you move in and find the other owner did the pond the wrong way and you have to repair all the mistakes .Do it your way .

 

[sissy]

I would never drain as i said ponds are supposed to have muck on them and so are waterfall rocks .They keep the water healthy for fish .A sparkling clean pond would never be healthy for fish .No filter ever really works inside the pond they would get dirty to fast .I know both my pumps I took the prefilter foam off and just put the cage back on .Those foam things get clogged in a week .I would just net the bootom with a pool net or some type of net .If you completely empty the pond you will have to wait for it to cycle before you put your fish back in and winter could be here by then .A basket to catch all the stuff you disturb and you will have to do it real slow no counting how much bad stuff is down there since you have no filter .I wonder how he did it .When I rebuilt my waterfall and put in bigger filter I used baskets of quilt batting to catch all the bad suff I disturbed .Well not baskets crates .In the winter I have a 5 gallon bucket I drilled holes in and set my pump in the bottom no prefilter and put lava rock on top of the pump .The lava rock has to be washed well though before use
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[sissy]

[sharedmedia=core:attachments:58369]I do this in my stock tanks of plants 5 gallon bucket pump lava rock and hose goes up the center into the crate filled with quilt batting and a furnace filter and a bag of activated charcoal
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[EAC]

Interesting setup you have there. Based off the picture in my original post, where would you recommend I place a filter at?

 

[Jason]

That NSX

 

[Waterbug]

Offtopic question. I don't have any sort of Filter on my system. There is just a pump sitting at the bottom that pumps water to the top of the waterfall. My pond needs a cleaning pretty bad, there is lots of junk floating around in there (Lots of build up). The previous owner of the house said that I need to rent a vac from the pond store and clean it that way. Is that correct or do I need to drain and refill? Also, should I go ahead and setup a filter system? I want my Fish to be happy

Are you sure your pond is 180 gal and not 1800 gal?

So, I have a waterfall/stream that's about 25-30 feet long that travels to my koi pond. ... I think it's a 180 gallon pond.

A 25-30' foot stream would draw down a 180 gal pond a lot, even empty it. Depends on the pump size, shape of the stream, pools, rocks, etc.

Here's how...

1. Starting with a full 180 gal pond, pump off, stream empty.

2. Turn pump on. Water enters stream at the top. But it takes a while for water to make it down the stream and into the pond. In the mean time the level in the pond is sinking fast. How fast depends on pump size.

3. By the time water starts entering the pond from the stream the pond level can be much lower. But at this point there's the same amount of water entering the pond as is being pumped. So the water level now stays the same. This is called "draw down". There is still 180 gals of water, put say 80 gals is in the stream and only 100 gals in the pond.

4. You can now add water to the pond to bring it back up to full. So now the total amount of water is say 180 gals in the pond + 80 gals in the stream, 260 gals total.

5. Some time later you turn off the pump. With the pump off the stream continues running for a time, draining into the already full pond. You may not notice, but the pond will overflow. When you look the pond will just appear to be full, as before, but you've lost 80 gals. That's the leak, but there appears to be no leak.

6. Turn the pump back on and OMG the pond is way low! There must be a leak, the pond is 80 gals lower. Let's see, I was just power washing, must be the power washer. Plenty of posts to support your suspicion but really you're just back at step 1 and there isn't actually any leak.

Are you sure the pond is 180 gal? What's the width, length and depth? Ball park is fine.

Does the pond have an auto fill? Meaning do you have to keep filling it with a hose or does it just seem to stay full?

Anyways, the cleaning question... How a pond is cleaned is directly related to it's size. Draining and shop vacuuming a 180 gal pond is super fast and easy. A 10,000 gal pond not so much. Here's my web page that describes some ways to clean different size ponds.

 

[sissy]

If the pond is that small this would be a good chance to go a little deeper and bigger .I use those in my stock tanks as filters for my plants .You could put that in the middle but may be hard to look at but a tank built into the top of your waterfall is easy to do .I used concrete block and a liner under the tank if it leaks it goes back in the pond .not in order I'm afraid but gives you an idea how to hide a filter
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[EAC]

Umm, yeah. I think you're right. The previous owner left measurements and the estimated gallons (180 gallons). My guess would be 6.5 feet long / 3.5 width and 3.5 deep.

That's 600 gallons plus however much is in my waterfall. I guess I better add more dechlorinator, anti bacteria and anti algae.

Here is what I did over the weekend.

I put my fish in a bucket. Drained my pond, as it got lower and I actually saw what was at the bottom, I had no choice but to completely drain it, shop vac it (YUK!), scrub it, then refill. Now, it's crystal clear. I also picked up a neat little plant and got rid of my lilly pads.

Do you recommend me doing anything else?

Are you sure your pond is 180 gal and not 1800 gal?


A 25-30' foot stream would draw down a 180 gal pond a lot, even empty it. Depends on the pump size, shape of the stream, pools, rocks, etc.

Here's how...

1. Starting with a full 180 gal pond, pump off, stream empty.

2. Turn pump on. Water enters stream at the top. But it takes a while for water to make it down the stream and into the pond. In the mean time the level in the pond is sinking fast. How fast depends on pump size.

3. By the time water starts entering the pond from the stream the pond level can be much lower. But at this point there's the same amount of water entering the pond as is being pumped. So the water level now stays the same. This is called "draw down". There is still 180 gals of water, put say 80 gals is in the stream and only 100 gals in the pond.

4. You can now add water to the pond to bring it back up to full. So now the total amount of water is say 180 gals in the pond + 80 gals in the stream, 260 gals total.

5. Some time later you turn off the pump. With the pump off the stream continues running for a time, draining into the already full pond. You may not notice, but the pond will overflow. When you look the pond will just appear to be full, as before, but you've lost 80 gals. That's the leak, but there appears to be no leak.

6. Turn the pump back on and OMG the pond is way low! There must be a leak, the pond is 80 gals lower. Let's see, I was just power washing, must be the power washer. Plenty of posts to support your suspicion but really you're just back at step 1 and there isn't actually any leak.

Are you sure the pond is 180 gal? What's the width, length and depth? Ball park is fine.

Does the pond have an auto fill? Meaning do you have to keep filling it with a hose or does it just seem to stay full?

Anyways, the cleaning question... How a pond is cleaned is directly related to it's size. Draining and shop vacuuming a 180 gal pond is super fast and easy. A 10,000 gal pond not so much. Here's my web page that describes some ways to clean different size ponds.

 

[EAC]

Can you guys tell what type of fish I have? Are they Gold Fish or Koi? There is 3 of them there.

 

[Jason]

Looking at the Pic, the Bottom one is definitely a Koi, the middle one could be but I don't see whiskers but the shape and broad snout make me think it is, maybe an adult Sarassa/Comet Goldfish? The Top one (smallest) looks like a Shubunkin Goldfish, But I would let the experts here tell you for sure

 

[EAC]

Thanks! Here is another one. I want to get a bunch more fish. I just need to figure out which ones are the cool ones. Ha. I attached one more picture.

Looking at the Pic, the Bottom one is definitely a Koi, the middle one could be but I don't see whiskers but the shape and broad snout make me think it is, maybe an adult Sarassa/Comet Goldfish? The Top one (smallest) looks like a Shubunkin Goldfish, But I would let the experts here tell you for sure

 

[Jason]

Both of the larger Gold/Orange ones are indeed Koi, which are carp (Same as Goldfish, just fancier) Here is a List of Koi Carp breeds, there are also Butterfly Koi which have long flowing fins.
These are Two Koi I have, the White Marble looking one has Blue tint to it now.
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The List: