Ok ... I have been doing ponds for several years and have never had such a
hard time with a leak. I have made a smaller one and now I have a bigger
one that is two ponds connected by stream (40+ ft in length). My upper pond
(6 - 7' in diameter) was not very deep due to a mistake I made where the
spillway rock was too low (spill way to the connecting stream). As soon as
the water got to the spill way rock, it obviously drained out and went down
the stream which left the upper pond only about 8" deep. A month or so ago,
I picked up that big flat rock (100+ lbs) and filled under it with dirt
(under the liner) so now the spill way rock is about 6" higher up. I had to
take out about half of the rocks in the upper pond to do this and I also had
to redo the seam (there is a seam between the upper pond and the streams).
Now the thing leaks. When I have the pump off, I can see that the upper
pond leaks about 1/4" every couple hours. The good thing is that it gets
to a specific level and stops. Seems easy. That is where the hole is. I
can't find the hole though. To make it difficult, it is about the level of
about an inch or 2 below the spillway rock. So it could possibly be the
seam under the rock. I foamed that area around the rock (with the pond foam
that really expands) in hopes that would seal it.

Couple questions:
1) Does that pond foam really seal it or is it partially seal? I have used
it before to send the water over spill way rocks and that works good. Maybe
there is still water going through \ around the foam and going under the
rock though.
2) any trick on finding a small puncture? I tried putting small dirt in the
water in hopes of seeing if it would "migrate" to where the hole is. Not
enough "current" to do that. I have spent probably an hour looking in a
small area right along the water line where the water stops going down and
just can't find it.
3) I searched the whole area where I moved rocks last time and looked under
the liner and it wasn't any wetter than if I felt in the dirt in the lawn.
Does the water "run down" the liner until it is directly under the pond
instead of being absorbed in the dirt right next to the hole?

I am baffled. My next thing I am going to try is to basically redo the
spill way rock again. Redo the seam, put the rock back and refoam around
it.

Thanks
Darren

2) any trick on finding a small puncture? I tried putting small dirt in the
water in hopes of seeing if it would "migrate" to where the hole is. Not
enough "current" to do that. I have spent probably an hour looking in a
small area right along the water line where the water stops going down and
just can't find it.


Darren use milk

Steve E.

I actually found it. I had a small puncture (fixed a while ago) near the
bottom - well below the water line where the leak stopped. I pulled back
the liner (after removing rocks and most of water from inside) to look for
punctures. When I had it rolled back (looking at the underside), I was
cleaning it and everything to inspect it etc. I noticed that when I got to
the old patch, it wasn't leaking until I put more pressure on it. Hard to
explain ... when I rolled the liner back so the under side was showing, it
was laying on top of the water in the inside of the pool (not a lot of water
because I pumped most of it out). I was wiping it down with a towel and
that is when it put more pressure on the patch which was on the water ...
and it started leaking. I don't think that was very clear ... maybe it
was.

My conclusions ... the water only would leak out if there was enough
pressure (water weight etc) from above. When it leaked down an inch or two,
the patch would not leak even though it was several inches below the water
line because there wasn't enough pressure to force the leak. I redid the
patch (used silicone caulk and duct tape this time too) and the leakage has
gone from 1/4" every hour or two to about 1/4" in 24hrs. That could just be
splashing over the liner or something like that ...

Thanks for you help.

Darren

Darren
"RichToyBox" wrote in message
news:yW0pa.561576$L1.164009@sccrnsc02...
Darren,

From my experience it is fairly easy to tell where the water has been
leaking out. It will move clay out of the sand and leave an eroded look
to
the soil. The problem is trying to find the spot. Some have suggested
using milk, poured slowly in small areas of the pond. If the leak is
large
enough, then the milk will migrate to the leak. If after you reseam, and
refoam, you still have a leak, look at the top edge of the liner around
the
other parts of the pond. A fold will often provide a low spot that you
can't see.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"Darren" wrote in message
...
Ok ... I have been doing ponds for several years and have never had such
a
hard time with a leak. I have made a smaller one and now I have a
bigger
one that is two ponds connected by stream (40+ ft in length). My upper
pond
(6 - 7' in diameter) was not very deep due to a mistake I made where the
spillway rock was too low (spill way to the connecting stream). As soon
as
the water got to the spill way rock, it obviously drained out and went
down
the stream which left the upper pond only about 8" deep. A month or so
ago,
I picked up that big flat rock (100+ lbs) and filled under it with dirt
(under the liner) so now the spill way rock is about 6" higher up. I
had
to
take out about half of the rocks in the upper pond to do this and I also
had
to redo the seam (there is a seam between the upper pond and the
streams).
Now the thing leaks. When I have the pump off, I can see that the upper
pond leaks about 1/4" every couple hours. The good thing is that it
gets
to a specific level and stops. Seems easy. That is where the hole is.
I
can't find the hole though. To make it difficult, it is about the level
of
about an inch or 2 below the spillway rock. So it could possibly be the
seam under the rock. I foamed that area around the rock (with the pond
foam
that really expands) in hopes that would seal it.

Couple questions:
1) Does that pond foam really seal it or is it partially seal? I have
used
it before to send the water over spill way rocks and that works good.
Maybe
there is still water going through \ around the foam and going under the
rock though.
2) any trick on finding a small puncture? I tried putting small dirt in
the
water in hopes of seeing if it would "migrate" to where the hole is.
Not
enough "current" to do that. I have spent probably an hour looking in
a
small area right along the water line where the water stops going down
and
just can't find it.
3) I searched the whole area where I moved rocks last time and looked
under
the liner and it wasn't any wetter than if I felt in the dirt in the
lawn.
Does the water "run down" the liner until it is directly under the pond
instead of being absorbed in the dirt right next to the hole?

I am baffled. My next thing I am going to try is to basically redo the
spill way rock again. Redo the seam, put the rock back and refoam
around
it.

Thanks
Darren