Hello it's been a while since I posted an update on the pond. I have mixed emotions and lots of different things going on right now. My pond was losing water about an inch in two days maybe and so I shut off my bog and that seemed to fix it or so I thought then I checked my waterfall and it had a small low spot so I pulled up some of the extra liner there and that solved that spot. Nothing else looks like it leaks but I did figure out that the bog is the main leak. I shut off the bog and attempted several fixes but to no avail. The issue is that instead of spending $400 on a new liner for my bog I took the good 10x10 liner I had in that corner for my fountain and tried to maximize it and it was just short of overlapping the stream liner. I guess I have to buy a bigger liner and redo the bog at least I found a good price on a slightly bigger liner 10 x 12 so i can have a proper overlap. Hopefully I can cut out my plumbing grid and reattach when I get the new liner in. The bad part is I had some plants in my stream already and so I have a previous pump and hose bringing water to the stream but the plants 2 dwarf bamboo are fine the 4 leaf clovers died or so I thought because now they are starting to come back with new pads. One I placed in my waterfall and it died right away because it must not like fast moving water. To top it off my second order of plants arrived some for my bog a mojito taro and lemon bocopoco and parrots feather, and some for my stream and waterfall parrots feather, blue juncus rush, Golden swords and a marlaicea albida water lily for the pond. I was expecting them to ship later in the month and we had some light freezing temps since. Most of bog plants are still in the part shade side of my yard in pond water and all of my plants look like they are doing well but my Taro is not First I did not realize that its a zone 8 plant and I'm zone 6 also when it arrived it did not look happy and the seller said it looks like that when it arrives It now looks dead and I lost money on it but oh well I've moved on Ill have to find another alternative for a tall plant in the back of the bog. Now with the bog off I still lose water buts its not much very fast maybe 1/2 an inch in two days so I don't know what's happening there but once I get my auto fill hooked up I will not worry about it. Also exciting news I bought some gold fish from a local pet store 3 comet gold fish 2 orange and one white and one black shubkin and one orange and white goldfish not sure what it was called. They are really small around 2" I figured I was ready to test my pond and the cost was not much so if anything happens oh well. I hope that doesn't sound bad but I did test my water and it mostly looked good i added beneficial bacteria a few times since I started. The fish look happy but they are hiding since i put them in last night I will go out tonight and see if they will eat they did not come out this morning just noticed one of them swimming in front of the cave. Thanks for reading my long post I'll try to post more often and shorter post if I can.
New Koi Pond Build apox 8'x12'
- Thread starter Landman
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It’s epdm it’s just short going under my bog waterfall and my stream liner is short coming up so it’s losing water there I pull back the liner and looked. I thought how I had done it would work but nope should have known better.
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Bummer.
Instead of replacing your whole liner, I wonder if you can use a piece of scrap EPDM by slipping it under the higher liner and laying it over the lower liner? If you have enough overlap you might solve the problem.
Hope that makes sense.
My bog liner just overlaps my pond liner without any leakage. No sealant. Just a good overlap.
You could run a bead of PL-S30 between them for extra assurance. PL-S30 comes in a tube for your caulking gun. It's polyurethane based and many here use it.
Thanks I'll look into doing this, I really hate the idea of a total liner replacement.
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Try to make the transition area slightly concave or at least have the sides higher to keep the water from spilling over the sides.
Yeah, total liner replacement is a big hassle. Everything has to come out. Not fun.
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I'd bet the issue is more to do with the elevation change between the liners than the length of the overlap. 6" of elevation change between liners is about the minimum you can safely do without risking wicking leaks.
No need to replace the liners, though. Especially since it's unlikely to solve the problem. You just need to seam them. That can be done in 10 min with a tube PL-S30 like @poconojoe mentioned, and you'll probably get a few years out of it. Maybe a decade if you're lucky. Or you can learn how to make a proper seam and it'll last the lifetime of the liners.
No need to replace the liners, though. Especially since it's unlikely to solve the problem. You just need to seam them. That can be done in 10 min with a tube PL-S30 like @poconojoe mentioned, and you'll probably get a few years out of it. Maybe a decade if you're lucky. Or you can learn how to make a proper seam and it'll last the lifetime of the liners.
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PL 530 I use it a lot, works great. Have the surface dry, I rough up the liner a tiny bit with some sand paper.
Push together, let it sit for awhile, done.
Fixed a hole in my 1000 gallon tub years ago, still holding.
Push together, let it sit for awhile, done.
Fixed a hole in my 1000 gallon tub years ago, still holding.
Here is an update on my goldfish, I put them in Wednesday night so about 7 days ago. I have some goldfish and koi food little balls and I tried to feed them on several days after they were introduced to my pond and they just were hanging out at the bottom in my cave they finally came out a little but they never come to the top that I see and they don't eat the food I broke up some and it fell to the bottom I saw one fish go at it and the spit it out so I don't think they like that food. I finally got some goldfish flake food and tried that and they seemed happier about that one fish started toward the top but then saw me an went back down. The food floats to the skimmer pretty quick so I was hoping the fish would come up when I feed them. One night they seemed more active and were just above the cave didn't seem to mind me never came to the top though but mostly they just peak out of the cave and then go back to hiding. I have no predators here so I'm not worried about that. The fish have been swimming out into the pond a little and I don't notice any strange patterns or signs of being sick so I'm not sure if it's just going to take longer or what. My water temp is between 50 and 60 degrees. I figure they will come up sooner or later when they are starving so we will see what happens.
It is a great big new world to them compared to the pet shop tank. A little more time and they will eventually relax and get used to you and the surroundings. Often happens with smaller fish or not very many in a new pond. As the water temp increases they will become hungrier also which will motivate them as you mentioned. Standing off to the side at a distance so they do not see you looming over them can help also initially.
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also, 50-60 degrees is about the minimum temperature of when goldfish are hungry. When it's a little warmer, start with moistened Cheerios, and don't feed unless they are really interested. I look forward to hearing how the pond fixes go.
HOW OLD is the pond . gold fish can survive on next to nothing as we see it. i have two medium gold fish and one never comes up to feed EVER. the bio film on the rocks is all it seems to eat and seeing as every piece has a carpet of it i guess i shouldn't be surprised.
The pond has been running since October 2022 I do think they are eating algae off the rocks so that’s a good sign
It's been about 5 weeks since I got my goldfish I have been watching them swim around but they still haven't wanted any food. 2 weeks ago I was visiting a city 4 hours away and they had a pond place so I got another plant a rush seen below and I got two koi. I'm pretty sure the koi did not travel well, after acclimating and placing them in the pond one of them had labored breathing and died a day later. 
I think my water quality is not great compared to what they had. It looked like my other koi was gone also as I had not seen it in a few weeks but I decided to get some pond salt and add just bellow the amount that goldfish can tolerate and after that the koi came out and is active but when I come around it runs into hiding. The goldfish some, more than others also go to hide or just go lower down and around some rocks. I talked to my pond lady at pond digger about my water quality (at the time no nitrates no nitrites minimal or no chlorine but I have very hard water and very high alkaline) and she said that its hard to adjust alkaline and not good on the koi, they should have similar water, but I don't think so for being 4 hours away. I haven't seen any problems with any of them and just yesterday a friend gave me two more small fish, I was not expecting that and I was going to wait a while because I wanted to make sure my water was good. Those two fish are happy swimming with the rest of my fish. More about the salt as my water is tea stained from falling apple tree flowers (I will get a net over the pond waterfall this fall to spring) and just not as clear as I would like and the salt helped but now I am having an small algae bloom starting some of which is around my plants the 4 leaf clover and the parrots feather and if I try to remove it it takes plant with it. At the moment the bog is off but I hope to have it back up this week and need to get even more plants but probably something like water lettuce just wish I could by one I don't really want my water covered by many plants and they are not cheap with shipping. I have a tight budget right now but when I can I want another different style rush plant for the other side of the pond. Thanks for listening to my update and thanks for any advice you may have. I'm ok with the fish eating algae just was hoping to hand feed once in a while and side note I have a cool huge 4" frog he doesn't stay in the pond, I've placed him in twice but he is around I just hope my two small dogs leave him alone. Also some pictures of some of my finished work more work to do but at least we had some friends over for dinner and got to sit around the fire pit finally.
I think my water quality is not great compared to what they had. It looked like my other koi was gone also as I had not seen it in a few weeks but I decided to get some pond salt and add just bellow the amount that goldfish can tolerate and after that the koi came out and is active but when I come around it runs into hiding. The goldfish some, more than others also go to hide or just go lower down and around some rocks. I talked to my pond lady at pond digger about my water quality (at the time no nitrates no nitrites minimal or no chlorine but I have very hard water and very high alkaline) and she said that its hard to adjust alkaline and not good on the koi, they should have similar water, but I don't think so for being 4 hours away. I haven't seen any problems with any of them and just yesterday a friend gave me two more small fish, I was not expecting that and I was going to wait a while because I wanted to make sure my water was good. Those two fish are happy swimming with the rest of my fish. More about the salt as my water is tea stained from falling apple tree flowers (I will get a net over the pond waterfall this fall to spring) and just not as clear as I would like and the salt helped but now I am having an small algae bloom starting some of which is around my plants the 4 leaf clover and the parrots feather and if I try to remove it it takes plant with it. At the moment the bog is off but I hope to have it back up this week and need to get even more plants but probably something like water lettuce just wish I could by one I don't really want my water covered by many plants and they are not cheap with shipping. I have a tight budget right now but when I can I want another different style rush plant for the other side of the pond. Thanks for listening to my update and thanks for any advice you may have. I'm ok with the fish eating algae just was hoping to hand feed once in a while and side note I have a cool huge 4" frog he doesn't stay in the pond, I've placed him in twice but he is around I just hope my two small dogs leave him alone. Also some pictures of some of my finished work more work to do but at least we had some friends over for dinner and got to sit around the fire pit finally.
