Losing water every day

[BadgerJenny]

Hello all,
I inherited a small pond with a waterfall when I purchased my home last year. The house sat empty for a year before we bought it, which also meant the pond and equipment sat for a year without running, and the pond was just green sludge, for the most part, but it still supported its several goldfish. I just invested money in a pump and pressure filter and cleaned the pond and my fish and I are very happy! However, everyday when I get home from work, the water level has dropped significantly. When the pond was sitting stagnant, it never lost water. I have checked for leaks in the hoses connecting my equipment, and I sealed up one tiny leak, but the water still drops. Is it possible that the length of the waterfall is the problem? It is about 15 feet long (maybe more), so there is plenty of opportunity for splashing on rocks and evaporation, I suppose. Any thoughts if this sounds reasonable? If so, I will have to figure out a way to use the waterfall but closer to the bottom of it to minimize the water loss. Having to refill it each day is getting expensive and I worry about my fish everyday when I am at work! One blessing is that our water is not chlorinated, and my fish are able to tolerate constant refilling of their pond.
Any thoughts are much appreciated!

 

[sissy]

only wat to tell is to stop water from going down the waterfall and see if water drops if not then it could be a leak there or evaporation or just splash out .it also dep[ends on how much water you are loosing

 

[Lisak1]

When you say "significant" can you give an estimate? What's the area of the pond? It's not unusual to lose water to splashing and evaporation, but determining exactly how much you are losing will help you determine if it's normal or if you have a leak.

 

[snoozer]

Sissy is right on how to see if it is the falls. Two years ago when I opened the pond I was losing water too. I have a header pond that feeds a waterfall and a stream. I narrowed the leak down to the stream. The stream has two small falls. Afterpulling all the river rock out of 20 foot of stream, I finally flipped the blue stone at the falls and found where some little critter chewed the fold in the liner. Maybe you have hungry critters too.

 

[sissy]

yep they chewed a hole in my liner this past winter so anything is possible.I beat you snoozer mine was bigger

 

[snoozer]

I made sure when I redid the liner that there wasn't a tempting edge to eat.

 

[sissy]

mine was chewed through almost 2 feet down on the side of the pond .No contest I ever want to win again .When i pulled liner it had 2 more smaller holes also .I think it could have been a mole after grubs so i put down milky spore all around ,I found his tunnel also after i pulled the liner .I put 30 lb roofing felt all around the pond and put on the sides a couple of pieces of 60 lb felt that i had in the basement and then 2 layers of the pond liner .I put holes all around the lawn then with more milky spore .I did not treat that part of the yard when i put it down 4 years ago (stupid mistake ) .Milky spore spreads and does not harm worms because I have plenty of them .

 

[snoozer]

I keep hoping the dogs will get the chipmunks. They run them into the downspouts and wait for them to come out. You see two butts with wagging tails staring and waiting. Dogs are so goofy.

 

[adavisus]

When all is frozen above ground, mice, moles etc will tunnel up to a pond liner and peck through to get water.

Usually in places where plants overhang and cover their usual hidey holes

Regards, andy
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/media/albums/adavisus.438/

 

[j.w]

Yep like said above I would turn off the waterfall and see what happens to the water level w/ it just sitting there. If it still leaks then the muck that was in there before was prolly plugging up the hole/holes stopping the water from getting out. If it is in the pond itself then see how far down the level drops and there you will find the lowest holes. Could be some holes above that lower point too tho. If it's on the bottom then time to transfer the fish somewhere till you patch it or get a new liner. Let's hope it's in your waterfall as that would be the easiest to fix.

I sure don't like hearing about these little creatures being able to bite holes through my liner. So far so good w/ that not happening to my pond but then we don't get too much freeze here if that's why they would really do that to get to water. I would really be upset if it did happen and maybe next time would go w/ a 60mil liner or thicker no matter how much cost or harder to get the folds out.

 

[sissy]

no matter what they will chew through it jw .They say they will chew through an actual tire if there was something there they want .Moles are meat eaters and voles are root eaters or vegetarians .No matter what they are pains for yardens .Except that the moles eat the grubs and stuff that can harm plants so milky spore gets rid of the grubs and moles go visit the neighbors

 

[j.w]

I guess then here we have so much for them to eat in the yard that perhaps they take the easier route and leave my liner alone....................one can only hope

 

[addy1]

My pond is in the middle of a bunch of rocky soil, the moles voles all enjoy the nicer dug up yard. I have not seen a single track near the pond, but out in the yard we have tunnels everywhere after this winter.

 

[j.w]

Speaking of moles. I went into the garage last evening to look for something and heard a scratching sound coming from a bin where we keep a bunch of rope. Stood there listening and it kept on so went and got hubby and told him something is in the rope bin making scratching noises. He came in and heard it too and we were thinking oh no it's a rat! So we both get our combat leather gloves on and I get a bucket and a long stick. We started moving things and all of a sudden a big fat mole runs out from the rope bin to under the freezer. Man those things can really flatten themselves down to a pancake! We needed to take that bottom grill off the bottom of the freezer to see w/ a flashlight. We saw nothing but thick dust, then all of a sudden out shoots the mole heading back to the rope bin but HAH I had already thought of that and had stuck boards there so he couldn't get back in there. He still was shrinking himself into a slim and trim vine like creature tho trying to get through the tiniest spot. So I react w/ lightning speed and just reach out and grabbed him up w/ my glove. He was screaming in terror and I plopped him in the bucket where he still was screaming like mad. It was a dry bucket w/ no water so don't worry he was not hurt. We figure that our one cat brought it into the garage to play and torture it but it got away unscathed and was trying to figure out how to get back to dirt. Who knows how long it's been in there. Anyways it got a long walk to a vacant property where I let it go and watched it drill down lickety split into the earth below. Happy ending

 

[sissy]

here they are cutting so many trees down that they are driving every thing our way .I worry about my chihuahua's getting hurt more now than ever before