Water loss

[poconojoe]

If it's possible, can you take the plumbing out of the equation?
Disconnect at the pump, connect a temporary hose to the pump, run it up to the spillway/stream. If it's still losing water, it's your spillway or stream.

 

[combatwombat]

@poconojoe: Good idea.

 

[brokensword]

you could also run a hose from the pump and place it at the river's beginning, thus eliminating the plumbing and waterfall/weir. If you still lose water, then you know it's the stream. If not, then you know it's either the plumbing or waterfall/weir. Then do the hose to waterfall/weir bypassing the plumbing, as PJ suggests.

 

[Iceviper]

I would bet that it's somewhere in the spillway, river or the plumbing connection at the spillway.
How did you transition between the plumbing to the spillway? Is it just an open pipe flowing into the river or is there a box or weir that the plumbing connects to?

What type of pipes or hoses are you using?
The common corregated "pond hose" they sell is horrible. It doesn't last very long. Its prone to cracking and pin holes. It won't last very long, maybe one season, two if you're lucky.
Any pipes that are buried should be standard ridgid or flexible PVC properly primed and glued.

I only use regular ridgid PVC and flex PVC now. I wish I knew about flex PVC earlier. I would have saved money and work in the long run. It's totally compatible with regular ridgid PVC. It uses the same primer and glue and uses the same fittings.

All my plumbing is within the pond and bog. If something ever did spring a leak, the water cannot escape the system. I guess that would be hard for you to do with the river, but I thought I'd mention that.

1. I use flex PVC hose to the river, which go directly to a shallow basin inside the river. the basin edges are pretty high so the water doesn't manage to accumulate before spilling into the river, so no water lose from the basin.
2. in the spillway I use regular, simple garden hose

I do suspect the connectors has some contribution to the problem. I am thinking about changing the setup a bit, maybe decreasing the river flow power.

Poconojoe, brokensword: thanks for the idea. As I wrote, in the past I tried turning off each of the pumps to eliminate problems but never tried to isolate the plumbing. I'll try that.

 

[moby]

Just a thought...is the artificial turf touching the water at any point...not sure if it can do this but could that be wicking water from somewhere in your system? ‍

 

[Corgi Mom]

Hello everyone.

Too bad I didn't think about consulting a forum before spending huge amounts of money and time on my pond. I am happy with the current one, though, after literally years of trial & error, but I have one problem that is really frustrating and I hope someone here could help me with it.

I have a plastic pond of about 1000 L, to which I connected a 4000 L/H pump which goes to a small stream (~3M long), and another pump which goes to a plastic spillway. the stream is made of black liner.

My problem is this: every time i run the system, I lose a considerable amount of water. The water level in the pond immediately is lowered due to the water that now fill the tubes, the stream and the spillway - I get it. What I don't get is why after an hour of run, another amount of water (seems like the same amount but not sure about it), is lost. After another hour, there is another lowering, this time the pumps are getting exposed so I turn the system off.

No matter how much I searched, I couldn't find a tear in the liner or any other spills. I even took out the pebbles I put in the stream in the first place, assuming that maybe the lost water are trapped between them, but without effect. the loss of water occur both during day and night.

so, if someone could offer a solution to this problem, it will be very appreciated.

Thank you.

It's been a while ... did you find your leaK?