Pond Problem

[Canny Grower]

I'm hoping that someone with more experience of garden ponds can help solve a puzzle for me. We have a small pond, 1.5 by 2.5 metres, with an artificial rill. It's been a great success in attracting bird life as well as frogs and we are delighted with it. However, the water level has been dropping and requires constant topping up. We can't find any sign of damage to the liner. Is it normal for the water level to drop or do we have a problem?

[zazen999]

Houston - I think you have a leak.

[rustylady]

How long have you had your pond, and how deep is it?

[Two_Sheds]

Do you have any plants in it?

(our pond liner's been punctured by reed roots)

[dogsbody]

Is it dropping fast or just slowly - evaporation?

Mine needs topping up every so often because of this.

[Bigmallly]

I agree, at this time of year probably a leak. In the heat of summer, more likely evaporation.

[veggiechicken]

Here's my six-pennorth! The water that is constantly running through a rill that is, presumably, stone lined, would evaporate more quickly when the stone was hot from the sun - like a couple of weeks ago.
Is it still happening now that the weather has turned colder?
A friend has this problem as the water runs from a small top feeder pond, over rocks into the larger pond.

[lottie dolly]

we have two ponds the preformed type,1 home,1 lottie,they both drop down in water levels defo not due to leak's,the most common cause is evaperation,plus,when pumps going wind,any pipe work check for disconections{twice the home 1 has almost emptied it'self}birds splashing about preaning the feathers, maybe the fish in it are very thirsty,

[Canny Grower]

Thanks everybody for your interest. In resonse to some of your questions and comments:

The pond is a preformed one about 60cms deep and the rill is fibreglass. We put it in a couple of years ago. I damaged it by dropping an edging stone in (oops!) and we had to haul it out and repair it using the recommended repair kit. After this we still seemed to be losing water at a rate that seemed too fast to be explained by evaporation so, after some months, we emptied it out again (saving water in every container we could find, including the wheelie bin) and covered it with pond liner before refilling. This was a year ago.

We still seem to be losing a good 5cms a week. We're about to start measuring to check that. We've emptied the water again - we're getting quite good at it - and checked the liner for damage. I had wondered about roots penetrating it, Two Sheds, but I could find no evidence of that. The only plant in the bottom is a water lilly in a basket. There are other baskets on the shelves but I can't find any damage there either and the water level had dropped below the shelves anyway before the latest emptying.

I don't know how much evaporation is to be expected and whether we're giving ourselves a lot of work for nothing. Lottie Dolly, when you say "twice the home 1 has almost emptied itself" had something come disconnected or did the water just evaporate?

Should we simply resign ourselves to topping up weekly?

[mothhawk]

Can you leave it for a couple of days without the rill running? To see if the water level still drops? Then you'll know if the leak is in the pond itself, or in the rill and/or pipework.

ETA: If the level is stable with the pump off, then try connecting the pump to hose instead of direct onto the rill - if the level drops, it's your pipework, if it's stable, it's the rill.

[Canny Grower]

Thanks, Mothhawk. We'll try that.

[rustylady]

5cm per week doesn't seem excessive to me. You may just have to keep topping it up. Have you had much rain recently?

[mothhawk]

5cm per week doesn't seem excessive to me. You may just have to keep topping it up. Have you had much rain recently?

Seems a lot to me. Doesn't that work out at about 41 gallons (or 187 litres in new money) a week?

[rustylady]

Don't know about the gallonage Mothawk, but it is a fairly shallow pond with a rill and if it's in an exposed position this water loss could simply be evaporation.

[lottie dolly]

Thanks everybody . Lottie Dolly, when you say "twice the home 1 has almost emptied itself" had something come disconnected or did the water just evaporate?

Should we simply resign ourselves to topping up weekly?

just asked other half for details,all he can recall was something to do with the pipework came apart,and it syhponed the water out,our set up is,to one part of the pond we built it up put a waterfall in,and next to that we got a water wizard thing,not much good now,this is sited behind the back garage out the way,the pond pump sits on a plynth of breez blocks and slab,the pipe problem was found around the waterfall part,it somehow caused the water to syphone out via the overflow pipe on the pond wizard,the water level inside the pond only empted the the depth of the pump,so the poor fish was saved,apart from what i just said,i cannot help any more as it's not my field of brains,but hopefully it might point you in the right direction,just ask around you,and have a google,hope you get it sorted soon