"colin s" wrote:

I have a 1700g pond which seems to have sprung a leak for no obvious reason
.It is a liner with underlay which has been ok for a year now there is a
waterfall running which have checked for leakage.I don't want to let the
pond go too low as I have nowhere to put the fish, is there any way of
locating the leak without draining the pond?
Thanks for your help.


Having just gone through the same issue...

Check for damp earth all around the pond and any stream you might have.
Examine anywhere that the liner is connected to things such as a skimmer or
waterfall.

The last two times I was losing water, once it was water bubbling over in my
waterfall box because I had too many water hyacinth in it. This last time I
thought I had located an issue where my liner connected to the skimmer box,
so I went and bought some 3M marine grade caulk and recaulked it. It still
leaked. So, I dug around the skimmer and recaulked the connection. Same
problem. I finally removed the skimmer, thinking it would be easier to find
a leak without it. My wife say's to me, "why don't you pour some water into
the skimmer to make sure it's not the problem?" Just to appease her (I mean
the skimmer is pretty tough stuff) I took the hose to it. Within 30 seconds
there was water coming out of a crack in the bottom. Go figure.

Good luck.

San Diego Joe
4,000 - 5,000 Gallons.
Koi, Goldfish, and RES named Colombo.