Barrel Pond help
 

Hi, we are setting up a barrel pond on our porch and could use a little advice.
In our last house we had a small inground pond that we experimented with, so
we know a little about how to take care of it. However, where we are having
trouble seems to be the liner.
The half-whiskey barrel we bought was quite a bit bigger than the hard plastic
liners so we decided to go with a plastic liner. We couldn't find a 5 x 5
liner pre-cut so we're trying black extra heavy duty plastic sheeting (its 6
ml). After getting the pond up and running late last night we discovered this
morning that it seems to be leaking through some of the staves. I really
didn't think we had a hole in our liner so we're not sure where the water is
coming from.
After reading all of the barrel info on the net that I could find it seems to
me that our mistake was not to soak the barrel beforehand.
Does this sound right? Should we drain the pond and soak the barrel? Or is
the liner we bought not going to hold water? We do have 3 goldfish to add once
we solve the leak. Plus we have a small pump, filter, gravel and lily in the
pond now.
Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
Nicole