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My pond is roughly 5 year's old. I haven't had fish since the first year. Finally added fish last week. I'm out of town right now, and I just got a frantic call from home saying "the pond is half empty". Those dang fish put a hex on me.

I had my brother go over there, and he said the ground wasn't wet anywhere. So I susspect it's a previous leak I had about 3" from the top. This is on a plastic pre-formed by the way. I patched it with something the pond store sold me. It's just a rubber patch with some real sticky goo. It's held for 2-3 year's.

So to the point. What would you guy's recomend for patching the leak. I won't know for sure where it is until I get home. But I'm guessing it's on the platic part. Thank's.

There are patches for the pre-formed ponds and I am guessing that is what they sold you. And they do work pretty good. I suspect though it could need to be replaced.

But if most of the water is missing, I am guessing you have another hold closer to the bottom.

Rocks will work there way up from under the dirt so that is why it is recommended that you lay an underlayment under the pond/liner.

We always used carpet remnants or many layer of of old newspaper.

We had to pull our pond out when we sold our store in Michigan because the new owner did not want the responsibility. Amazing that after 5 years, the stacks of newspaper were still intact and still readable!

Bonnie



Bonnie

They "half empty" part was a over reaction on my 70 year old mother's behalf. It's about half way down on the flower pot's on the upper shelf. Wich would make it about 6"-8" low. I had them pull the water hyasant out. The long root's got sucked into the pump, and had it almost stopped. Will they be ok in a tub for a week??

If you don't have city water, just have her re-fill the pond slowly with tap water from a hose. If you have city water she will need to add de-chlorinator.

You will end up with an ammonia and or nitrite spike if you add them to another container for a week and that is likely to cause the fish to die.

Bonnie

I’m not aware of of a long term solution to patching a preformed pond. Not aware of any reliable solvent type adhesives that works on it, epoxies are ok up to a certain point and they will eventually flake or spawl off the preform, and silicone, for what its worth is prone to puilling away. Most preforms are made of polyethelene or PVC plastic (polyvinylchloride) and they just do not lend themselves to bonding agents very well.

If the surface is rough what you may try is to scrape a layer or so of the original surface off with a scraper (get rid of any surface oxidation) pass a neutral flame (from hand held propane torch) along and around the surface you intend to bond to, scuff with sandpaper....then apply your adhesive of choice.

These plastics oxidize fairly quickly in normal atmosphere environments, so ts important to remove oxidation before glueing. By passing a flame over a preforms surface prior to bonding, it changes the surface of the materials molecular structure which may aid in making a good bond.

If you got 2-3 years using a rubber patch, then maybe just replace it and keep an eye on it. Eventually it will want to seperate, but from your experience its 2-3 years down the road. Just watch the the crack doesn't expand.
Steve

An even better solution might be to go to a roofing supplier and pick up a piece of 45ml rubber.

Then you could make the pond deeper too because it really needs to be 3' deep.

Bonnie

I agree, 3 feet is a good depth at a minimum. Deeper ponds benefit fish not only in the winter months but also in other ways. Some examples include:

- In the summer the provide a cooler place for the fish to hangout (fish do get sunburn).
- The fish get additional exercise by swimming up and down.
- Deeper ponds provide a place of "security" for when they feel threatened.
- The deeper the pond the harder for algae to grow on the bottom since less light will reach the bottom.

Steve

I would have liked to put in a deeper pond. But this was a gift from my brother to my mother. Although I wanted to,,,,it wouldn't have been very nice to tell him take it back and get a better one.

I think the leak may not even be on my patch. My brother said the ground was finally wet wet up above by the waterfall. It was wet there last week, and I found a piece of tree bark in the flow of the water. It seemed to be making it go over the side. But I'm probly wrong about that, and that is indeed my leak. If that's the case, it will be rubber liner that need's fixed. Is ther a repair kit for that.

Assuming your liner is a EPDM rubber liner there are plenty of patch kits available.
Steve

Steve wrote:Assuming your liner is a EPDM rubber liner there are plenty of patch kits available.
Steve

It's not rubber,,,it's hard plastic. They say you can still use the tape though. That's what it's been patched with for several year's. I re-did it twice thinking that was the leak. That wasn't it though,, but it was so close, ( water level )I kept thinking it was. Turn's out I had a 3" crack. I used the tape to fix it. All seem's well,,,for now.

The fish must think they're inspector's or something. The patch I used has a white spot on it. I assume that's supposed to be center or something. Anyway,The fish are constantly stopped there looking at the white spot, or maybe the patch. Everyone's a critic.