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#1
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pond leak - does this make sense?
I have a 2500 gallon pond, cement with liner, and woke up the other morning
to find that half the water was gone! I found a small hairline crack along the smaller waterfall - perhaps a foot long. The water flows over the crack; the crack is not submerged. I patched it and everything seems fine. Does this make sense that this was the problem? 1200 gallons down in 12 hours? It was raining hard that night so I could not tell if it was wet in one area or another. I had this problem before but I would lose maybe 2 inches a day, not a foot and a half of water in a night. Also, now that I am paranoid, I had this idea for how to stop the pump if the water drops. I have a 1/5" intake tube that goes to the bottom of the pond. If I put a T coupling on it a couple of feet from the bottom, if the pond ever dropped lower than that would I not lose prime and suction - hence, causing the pump to stop pumping the pond dry? Gary |
#2
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On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 09:23:23 -0800, "gng"
wrote: I have a 2500 gallon pond, cement with liner, and woke up the other morning to find that half the water was gone! I found a small hairline crack along the smaller waterfall - perhaps a foot long. The water flows over the crack; the crack is not submerged. I patched it and everything seems fine. Does this make sense that this was the problem? 1200 gallons down in 12 hours? It was raining hard that night so I could not tell if it was wet in one area or another. I had this problem before but I would lose maybe 2 inches a day, not a foot and a half of water in a night. Also, now that I am paranoid, I had this idea for how to stop the pump if the water drops. I have a 1/5" intake tube that goes to the bottom of the pond. If I put a T coupling on it a couple of feet from the bottom, if the pond ever dropped lower than that would I not lose prime and suction - hence, causing the pump to stop pumping the pond dry? 1200 gallons in 12 hours = 100 gallons/hr = 1.67 gallons/minute = a leak noticable even in a rain storm. Especially since the "heavy rainstorm" added water to the pond which means that the leak was greater than 1.67 gallons/minute. Yet, the patch solved it. Are you sure that your fish are not spitting water out when you are not looking just to mess with you? John |
#3
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On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 09:23:23 -0800, "gng"
wrote: I have a 2500 gallon pond, cement with liner, and woke up the other morning to find that half the water was gone! I found a small hairline crack along the smaller waterfall - perhaps a foot long. The water flows over the crack; the crack is not submerged. I patched it and everything seems fine. Does this make sense that this was the problem? 1200 gallons down in 12 hours? It was raining hard that night so I could not tell if it was wet in one area or another. I had this problem before but I would lose maybe 2 inches a day, not a foot and a half of water in a night. Also, now that I am paranoid, I had this idea for how to stop the pump if the water drops. I have a 1/5" intake tube that goes to the bottom of the pond. If I put a T coupling on it a couple of feet from the bottom, if the pond ever dropped lower than that would I not lose prime and suction - hence, causing the pump to stop pumping the pond dry? 1200 gallons in 12 hours = 100 gallons/hr = 1.67 gallons/minute = a leak noticable even in a rain storm. Especially since the "heavy rainstorm" added water to the pond which means that the leak was greater than 1.67 gallons/minute. Yet, the patch solved it. Are you sure that your fish are not spitting water out when you are not looking just to mess with you? John |
#4
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Gary wrote:
I have a 2500 gallon pond, cement with liner, and woke up the other morning to find that half the water was gone! I found a small hairline crack along the smaller waterfall - perhaps a foot long. The water flows over the crack; the crack is not submerged. I patched it and everything seems fine. Does this make sense that this was the problem? 1200 gallons down in 12 hours? Amazingly it is possible. Small holes can cause drops in inches, whereas your hole was a foot long. Also, now that I am paranoid, I had this idea for how to stop the pump if the water drops. I have a 1/5" intake tube that goes to the bottom of the pond. If I put a T coupling on it a couple of feet from the bottom, if the pond ever dropped lower than that would I not lose prime and suction - hence, causing the pump to stop pumping the pond dry? It would, and you'd burn out your pump. Better to get an automatic shut off. www.aquaticeco.com type in *mercury float switch* if the URL below doesn't get you the http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/...11432/cid/2965 ~ jan See my ponds and filter design: http://users.owt.com/jjspond/ ~Keep 'em Wet!~ Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a To e-mail see website |
#5
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Thanks - Jan, which device should I buy? I looked at the website and there
are lots of options. I have a Sequence 7100 pump. How does it work? Do I plug the pump into this gizmo? Gary "~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote in message ... Gary wrote: I have a 2500 gallon pond, cement with liner, and woke up the other morning to find that half the water was gone! I found a small hairline crack along the smaller waterfall - perhaps a foot long. The water flows over the crack; the crack is not submerged. I patched it and everything seems fine. Does this make sense that this was the problem? 1200 gallons down in 12 hours? Amazingly it is possible. Small holes can cause drops in inches, whereas your hole was a foot long. Also, now that I am paranoid, I had this idea for how to stop the pump if the water drops. I have a 1/5" intake tube that goes to the bottom of the pond. If I put a T coupling on it a couple of feet from the bottom, if the pond ever dropped lower than that would I not lose prime and suction - hence, causing the pump to stop pumping the pond dry? It would, and you'd burn out your pump. Better to get an automatic shut off. www.aquaticeco.com type in *mercury float switch* if the URL below doesn't get you the http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/...11432/cid/2965 ~ jan See my ponds and filter design: http://users.owt.com/jjspond/ ~Keep 'em Wet!~ Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a To e-mail see website |
#6
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Thanks - Jan, which device should I buy? I looked at the website and there
are lots of options. I have a Sequence 7100 pump. How does it work? Do I plug the pump into this gizmo? Gary "~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote in message ... Gary wrote: I have a 2500 gallon pond, cement with liner, and woke up the other morning to find that half the water was gone! I found a small hairline crack along the smaller waterfall - perhaps a foot long. The water flows over the crack; the crack is not submerged. I patched it and everything seems fine. Does this make sense that this was the problem? 1200 gallons down in 12 hours? Amazingly it is possible. Small holes can cause drops in inches, whereas your hole was a foot long. Also, now that I am paranoid, I had this idea for how to stop the pump if the water drops. I have a 1/5" intake tube that goes to the bottom of the pond. If I put a T coupling on it a couple of feet from the bottom, if the pond ever dropped lower than that would I not lose prime and suction - hence, causing the pump to stop pumping the pond dry? It would, and you'd burn out your pump. Better to get an automatic shut off. www.aquaticeco.com type in *mercury float switch* if the URL below doesn't get you the http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/...11432/cid/2965 ~ jan See my ponds and filter design: http://users.owt.com/jjspond/ ~Keep 'em Wet!~ Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a To e-mail see website |
#7
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*mercury float switch*
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/...11432/cid/2965 ~ jan Thanks - Jan, which device should I buy? I looked at the website and there are lots of options. I have a Sequence 7100 pump. How does it work? Do I plug the pump into this gizmo? Gary It plugs into the outlet and you plug your pump in behind its plug. The float switch needs to be in the water. I use the one that when the water level drops so far it cuts the power to the pump. In your case, with a pump that is out-of-the-water, you may have to use an extension cord depending on where your pump is in relation to pond and plug-in. ~ jan ~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~ |
#8
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*mercury float switch*
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/...11432/cid/2965 ~ jan Thanks - Jan, which device should I buy? I looked at the website and there are lots of options. I have a Sequence 7100 pump. How does it work? Do I plug the pump into this gizmo? Gary It plugs into the outlet and you plug your pump in behind its plug. The float switch needs to be in the water. I use the one that when the water level drops so far it cuts the power to the pump. In your case, with a pump that is out-of-the-water, you may have to use an extension cord depending on where your pump is in relation to pond and plug-in. ~ jan ~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~ |
#9
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On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 12:32:21 -0600, "Pam" wrote:
For the first few months after we built our pond it lost water every time it rained. Sometimes it lost more than half its volume. It turned out that the outlet from the kiddy pool veggie filter back into the pond was too small. It could keep up with the pump (external ), but it couldn't keep up with both pump and rain. If it rained long enough the veggie filter would continue to overflow until the water level in the pond dropped low enough to stop the pump. We put a much larger outlet in the veggie filter, and will double the size of the veggie filter this summer. I'm having a bit of trouble with adding more water causes one to lose water. If the return pipe is adequate for pump flow that should remain constant rain or shine. Do you have a waterfall? Regards, Hal |
#10
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No waterfall. Water goes out of the veggie filter through a pipe back into
the pond. As long as the veggie filter does not overflow everything is fine, but once it starts overflowing I guess the water follows the path of least resistance. "Hal" wrote in message ... On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 12:32:21 -0600, "Pam" wrote: For the first few months after we built our pond it lost water every time it rained. Sometimes it lost more than half its volume. It turned out that the outlet from the kiddy pool veggie filter back into the pond was too small. It could keep up with the pump (external ), but it couldn't keep up with both pump and rain. If it rained long enough the veggie filter would continue to overflow until the water level in the pond dropped low enough to stop the pump. We put a much larger outlet in the veggie filter, and will double the size of the veggie filter this summer. I'm having a bit of trouble with adding more water causes one to lose water. If the return pipe is adequate for pump flow that should remain constant rain or shine. Do you have a waterfall? Regards, Hal |
#11
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Hal wrote:
On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 12:32:21 -0600, "Pam" wrote: For the first few months after we built our pond it lost water every time it rained. Sometimes it lost more than half its volume. It turned out that the outlet from the kiddy pool veggie filter back into the pond was too small. It could keep up with the pump (external ), but it couldn't keep up with both pump and rain. If it rained long enough the veggie filter would continue to overflow until the water level in the pond dropped low enough to stop the pump. We put a much larger outlet in the veggie filter, and will double the size of the veggie filter this summer. I'm having a bit of trouble with adding more water causes one to lose water. If the return pipe is adequate for pump flow that should remain constant rain or shine. I agree. You may have found the problem, but it was a problem before it started raining. When the veggie filter pool gets full, it has more pressure at the outlet and more water flows out into the pond unless there is an obstruction. In other words, you had an obstruction out of the veggie filter that caused less water to flow into the pond. Otherwise the pond would have more water because it would have at least the same amount flowing into it, plus it has the rain water coming into it plus it has additional flow from the veggie filter pool due to the increase height of the water in the veggie filter pool. This all assumes that the pump flow was constant. It may have changed for some reason. -- Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman |
#12
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On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 10:09:32 -0600, "Pam" wrote:
No waterfall. Water goes out of the veggie filter through a pipe back into the pond. As long as the veggie filter does not overflow everything is fine, but once it starts overflowing I guess the water follows the path of least resistance. I suspect Stephen may be right about the obstruction. I don't see the pump output changing drastically. When it rains could the rain beat down foliage in the veggie filter that would block or partially block the return pipe? Regards, Hal |
#13
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Best guess would be rain water ran under the liner and lifted it then the
rain stops and the water under the liner is absorbed into the ground before you saw it floating up. This will cause the pond to lose (over flow) an equal amount of water to what was under the liner. You should find look for areas where run off and/or overflow can get under the liner. Dave -/- Try to beat the DragonKoi at Poker Champs... https://secure.pokerchamps.com/poker...code=DRAGONKOI For more information on Poker Champs go he http://www.pokerchamps.com/ Remember to enter referer code DRAGONKOI when you join! "gng" wrote in message ... |I have a 2500 gallon pond, cement with liner, and woke up the other morning | to find that half the water was gone! I found a small hairline crack along | the smaller waterfall - perhaps a foot long. The water flows over the | crack; the crack is not submerged. I patched it and everything seems fine. | Does this make sense that this was the problem? 1200 gallons down in 12 | hours? It was raining hard that night so I could not tell if it was wet in | one area or another. I had this problem before but I would lose maybe 2 | inches a day, not a foot and a half of water in a night. | | Also, now that I am paranoid, I had this idea for how to stop the pump if | the water drops. I have a 1/5" intake tube that goes to the bottom of the | pond. If I put a T coupling on it a couple of feet from the bottom, if the | pond ever dropped lower than that would I not lose prime and suction - | hence, causing the pump to stop pumping the pond dry? | | Gary | | |
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