My Worst Nightmare!!!

[mrteach3]

We have had some good rain around here during the last couple of weeks. Even with that, I couldn't figure out why my yard was so wet. I had put in a retention basin last year to help with keep that area of my yard drier.

Well, to fast forward to today, I was draining my pond since I knew I had gotten a lot of leaves in there from the fall and just wanted to start over. Unfortunately, I found out why my yard has been so wet. Once I got to the bottom of the pond, there was a big bubble of air. I obviously have a tear in my liner somewhere!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!

What do I do now??? I am so disappointed right now.

 

[addy1]

Was your pond losing water? did you have to fill it all the time? The liner might be bubbled due to water under the liner. Or do you see a tear?

 

[mrteach3]

I had noticed that I was losing some water. Not really that fast, but thought it was strange to be losing some water at this point of the year. But then it rained so much it was almost too full. I then lost some water, but thought that was due to the runoff from being to high. With that bubble, I think I must have a tear somewhere. You think??? Not really sure.

 

[addy1]

The best way to tell is not put water in it watch how fast it goes down, when it stops dropping or slow down (always have some evaporation) you will have found the tear if there is one.

The bubble could easily be water under the liner, from runoff or a tear, I doubt it would be air as even if the liner had a tear there would not be air to get through the tear.

Is the edge of your pond higher than the land around? or does it allow rain runoff to get into the pond or under the liner?

 

[mrteach3]

My pond is on a hill. There certainly could be runoff since we have gotten a lot of rain lately. And there is more rain to come. The bubble goes about half way up the pond and then stops since there are rocks there to stop it from going any higher. I put in two pictures so you can see the pond. The pictures are from standing on my deck. Thanks for your help. I am sick to my stomach right now.

 

[addy1]

If it was me, I would go out during a rain look and see if you can find water running that heads to the edge of the pond, possibly going under the pond. It almost sounds like you have water collecting under the pond from rain, that is why the liner is bubbling. The one time I had a leak the pond just lowered itself until the leak was reached, but no liner bubble. If you find a path of water heading towards the pond see if you can divert it.

We are real wet here also, so it is hard to tell if the water is from the pond or from the rain. To have your land that wet you would have lost a lot of water from the pond and would have been filling it daily.

Nice looking pond btw, love the rocks

 

[mrteach3]

Thanks a million addy. My friend feels the same way, but as you can imagine when you put that much time and effort, let along money, into making it the best it can be, this was an unwanted surprise. I just hope that is what it is. Do you think the bubble will go away once we don't get a lot of rain???

Thanks for the compliment. It is always a work in progress, but I think I am about to the point where I want it to be. Hopefully this will be the last time I have to drain it for a while. I had taken a lot of the rocks out of the bottom of the pond, but kept them up top since I really like the look.

 

[mrteach3]

Well, I started to fill it back up and there is a spot where there is now a bubble that didn't have a bubble after I drained it. I am hoping that is just from the weight of the water pushing the water under the liner to other places. Please please please!!!

 

[addy1]

I would speculate that the weight of the added water is moving the water under the liner. I assume more of a bulge vs a round type bubble, have you pushed on the bubble, if water when you push and release it will wiggle like waves (how we tested people for ascites........fat vs water) also a dull sound if you tap on it.

Once you are drier and it quits raining the water will soak into the soil, but you really need to be out during rain and see where it is coming from.

Rocks out of the bottom is good. My big pond in arizona on city water (14k gallons) leaked, my other hubby put the stream liner into the pond and taped 4 feet under water, well water pressure etc it leaked. We had to drain redo the stream, and fill with city water again! lol

 

[mrteach3]

You are really making me feel better right now. It is a very large bulge. That is a better description than bubble. It does exactly as you stated. I push on it and it returns like a wave. It is also a dull sound as well.

I pushed on some places without the bulge and you can tell the ground is very soft under places that water from the pond does not touch.

Funny part for me is why I would have thought it was air under there. That made me laugh once I went back and reread my original post.

I will be sure to get out and see where the rain could run to and get under the pond. Part of me thinks that since we have had so much rain and more to come this week is a lot of what happened to cause the bulge. I appreciate your help. Cross my fingers that is what it is.

14k gallons??? Wow!!! And then to have to refill it again. Oh my!!!

 

[Rbritt]

We live on a mountain and our property is on a rock bed and the back yard slopes down from a field behind out house. We always have alot of ground water heading down through our back yard during the Spring thaw or with heavy rains. When we set the pond up in late 2009, we filled it with water but no fish - in Spring of last year my whole liner was floating from all the underground water pushing the liner and pond water up and I was beginning to think the pond was a goner! After the ground water subsided, we drained the pond and put the liner back into place, put some larger rocks in the bottom and strategically placed to add weight, put stone on the bottom (not recommended but we were desperate) and refilled it. Stocked a few goldfish as guinea pigs (I swore I wouldn't get attached to them in case the same thing happened this winter and they didn't make it but of course I did!) and plants and my liner didn't float this year! The rocks and stone make for a lot of extra cleaning and I'm anal about vacuuming and water testing but it means my pond stays in place and doesn't get displaced by the underground water constantly flowing around here. Good luck with yours - it looks great and I hope the bubble goes away and stays away and it's not a tear in the liner!
Beth

 

[addy1]

My tired gut, lol, been carrying rocks and digging..............says it is runoff getting under the liner. Once you fill it again, pay attention to the water level, it will drop a little, not much this time of year.

Get a nice umbrella, with no thunder, no lightening go outside and walk around the pond, after it has been raining for a while look for trickles, tiny streams, major water flow that is heading for your pond. You may need to put french type drains on the uphill side of your pond. I don't know if you saw the construction thread on my pond here in maryland, but it is on a slope, major slope, I did french drains (my version) on all the up hill sides of the pond and stream. I also sloped the uphill side of the streams and ponds using dirt to make a back flow away from the stream and ponds. Only one to two inch slope up, but it sure worked.
We had one rain fall of 17 inches an hour, no failures in the stream or pond i.e. water under the liner. But when building it every time it rained I either used the binocs to look at the water flow, or went out with an umbrella and walked the edge of the pond, stream and small ponds, looking for problem areas ie water flowing where I did not want it.
The worse thing i had was some mud splash from a dirt bank I had not managed to finish.

 

[marla]

I'm so with addy. If you have a leak at all it will most likely be high...moles are great at chewing threw the liners. We thought we had a leak once as we kept loosing water...then we realized that our biofalls box had settled and water was flowing out over the back of the box.. we had to empty it, dig it out and re level it...now all is good.
Find where the water is getting in solve that and move on.

 

[addy1]

When we finally got the right pump hooked up we had a leak, part of the downhill side of the bog wall had settled, now have the liner nailed to a fence post edging, making it so the wall can not settle. Raised it 2 inches higher than the water. With the slope I had the back wall a little to low, so darn hard even with a laser level to get it right. So the water was nicely do a water change by flowing over one small area of the wall.

It is so easy to have something like that happen mrteach, but I still think yours is water from rain flowing under your liner. Rule out each possibility until you find the problem. Then all will be fine again lol.

If it was a leak bad enough to wet your yard, your pond would have been getting pretty empty.

 

[mrteach3]

Thanks again everyone. It really has made me think differently. I truly believe that it is water under the liner. I was out in the rain today, but couldn't really find somewhere where I the water would be getting in, but I am going to keep watching.

It stopped raining this afternoon and I didn't get home until about 8pm. I looked and the water level hasn't dropped at all. I really think the excess wetness is from the large amount of rain we have gotten, the overflow from the pond, and the fact there is no where for that water to go.

I have a small retention basin that has helped in one part of my yard. I think I am going to try and dig a small french drain from the edge of the overflow valve from the pond, down the side of the deck, down to the retention basin. Hopefully that will help as well.

Thanks again!!!