Unsolved mystery leak! Help!

[weathergirl]

Hi! It seems the only time I post on here is about our pond leaking. But, it’s leaking again, big time. We can’t seem to figure out how or why or from where.

Pond is about 7x10 feet and 2.5 feet deep in the center. We are losing roughly 2 to 3 inches of water in a 24 hour period. We have a hose timer set to refill it for 30 minutes a day. We noticed that the ground behind our fence/where the bio falls are has a suspiciously wet area.

The pond does not lose water when the bio falls and pump are off. The bio falls box also does not lose water when it is not running. This lead me to believe that there is water escaping around the falls when it is on. We bit the bullet and re-rocked the waterfall and inspected to see if there was a hole or the liner had fallen down, but it looked okay.

It’s still leaking. A local pond pro suggested that we need to rebuild the entire thing from the ground up, and we just don’t have the $$ for that.

Please, please help. Any advice would be appreciated. I’ve attached some photos. You can see the biofalls, the mystery water behind the fence, the water loss, and what the pond used to look like when it was full!

 

[mrsclem]

I had the weir on my filter get clogged with algae and the filter overflowed. Luckily caught it when we had lost only half the water.
Check your weird and the media in the biofilter.

 

[brokensword]

well, I think you answered your own question! If you re-built (and by this I mean you put a liner in a concave fashion around the whole falls area, creating a bowl so any water CAN'T get out if it tried) then it is probably in your plumbing/pipes. Take a spare piece of hose, connect to the pump (I'm assuming submersible, here), attach it to the waterfall (filter, I'm assuming again) and turn it on. If it doesn't leak, you know it's in your pipe/supply.

 

[brokensword]

I had the weir on my filter get clogged with algae and the filter overflowed. Luckily caught it when we had lost only half the water.
Check your weird and the media in the biofilter.

@mrsclem ; I don't think her media is that weird at all...jus' sayin'!

 

[mrsclem]

Gotta love spell check. Caught it first time-
Check the weir

 

[weathergirl]

well, I think you answered your own question! If you re-built (and by this I mean you put a liner in a concave fashion around the whole falls area, creating a bowl so any water CAN'T get out if it tried) then it is probably in your plumbing/pipes. Take a spare piece of hose, connect to the pump (I'm assuming submersible, here), attach it to the waterfall (filter, I'm assuming again) and turn it on. If it doesn't leak, you know it's in your pipe/supply.

This is an awesome idea. I have no idea how to attempt this though. My pump hookup diameter is a lot larger than a hose, so I’d have to do some engineering…

Yes, when we rebuilt the falls, we laid an extra piece of liner around just to be safe. There is a slight possibility water is escaping somehow, but it’s definitely not obvious on the surface.

 

[weathergirl]

I had the weir on my filter get clogged with algae and the filter overflowed. Luckily caught it when we had lost only half the water.
Check your weird and the media in the biofilter.

Wouldn’t that being clogged send water over the top of the soil? If so, I don’t think this is my problem unfortunately . I don’t have any obvious signs of wet ground directly around the filter….

 

[Jhn]

Following up on @brokensword idea, most likely your pump is plumbed into 2”or3” flex pvc. Can get fern o fittings to reduce it down or most pumps with The box they come in come with some type of fittings that fit various size hose/pipe.

After checking that to Make sure it isn’t the waterfall discharge that is leakin, would then dig down behind your waterfall filter, if that is where your input pipe from your pump is attached, going with the pond of water behind your fence there is a good chance the input pipe connection into the filter has failed/developed a leak.