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Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fish
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Posted by
kklady z5ny (
My Page) on
Sun, Jun 10, 12 at 13:15
| I have a 5000 gal pond, and have a leak. Water has gone down to the level where the leak it, but cannot find it. I was thinking of raising the level, mixing some blue food coloring in water and placing drops around the edge of the pond, thinking I will hopefully be able to see where its leakinig - but don't know if the food coloring will hurt the fish. Hope someone can help. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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| Doubt would hurt fish but doubt would find leak either. 5000 gal is big. There have been many threads on leaks that you might try to search on. IF the leak is really at a point at the current level, movement of some grass clipings or perhaps milk splots in the raised pond could direct you. It would be useful to know more about how your pond is lined, how far down it has fallen and how fast, and your general plumbing set up. |
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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Finding leaks can be a problem. So let me ask you a few questions. Am I correct in thinking that the pond is going down with the waterfall off? How fast does the water go down? What kind of skimmer is on the pond? How old is the pond? How far down does the pond go down before it stops? Is there rock and gravel in the pond?
Mike |
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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Thanks for your answers. Pond is lined, about 8 years old, no skimmer, about 15' x 15', has a 4 inch wide ledge about a foot down to hold plants, a 2 ft wide ledge about 2 ft down to hold water lillies, then about 4-1/2 feet deep. Homemade filter system, and a waterfall. The leak has to be somewhere about a foot down. Have removed the large stones and plants from the ledge, and cannot find anything. Takes about 2-3 days for the water to go down - and being on a well, and summer time, hate using all that water to refill.
My grandson is here, tried the food coloring, but with all pumps off, the food coloring just blended in before doing anything.
Thanks for any tips |
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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Does it stop going down after 2 to 3 days? How far is it dropping in that 2 to 3 days? Does it still drop with the pumps off?
Mike |
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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| Sounds like a good bet to be a loose or broken fitting or pipe in the pump line. If you can get to them, I would look at your connections. |
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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| Hi all, Got back yesterday from my vacation (7 days)to see that my new cycled pond (2300 G) is half way empty. Could it be because of evaporation? or I got a leak in 7days?
Finally my new pond((3 months old) was ready for fish and now a potential leak !@#!@# |
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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| 1/2 empty in 7 days would be a leak even here in Phoenix. |
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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| Dont know what to say... I check the pond again this morning and the water level is back up to where I left 8 days ago!! I am baffled |
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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Checked all connections. Have a submersible pump, hose going to filter. No leaks anywhere I can find - first thing I checked. Pond goes down to a certain level, about a foot down, then stops.
Filled the pond, waterfall off, and it still goes down.
One thing, glad it is not farther down. If I can't find, will get the energy next spring when it is cooler and lower the level, and pull back the liner and hopefully find it then.
Thanks for all your help |
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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| Kklady, Is there rocks covering the liner where the water stops going down? Are there fish in the pond? Are any fish missing?
Mike |
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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| Took all the large stones off the ledge, even moved the plants out, and no rocks in the bottom. Have about 200 goldfish in the pond, so really can't tell if any fish are missing. The leak cannot be very big as the water is not draining, just leaking out. |
RE: Leak in pond, help needed quickly will food coloring hurt fi
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| Kklady, Based on what you wrote I am assuming that a foot down there is no rock on the side walls. The reason I asked if you are missing any fish is that when you get a leak a foot down one likely cause can be a green heron. These birds are a smaller bird and will usually stand on the side of the pond and stab at a fish when it swims by. If they miss they hit the liner usually about a foot down. They will put a round hole in the liner about the size of a pencil. A lot of times there will be more than one all about the same distance down from the edging around the pond.
Mike |
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