4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Yorkshire Pudding]

Our garden has an old pond in it. The previous owners had filled it with gravel and installed a 'pebble pool' fountain as they had a toddler.

 

Anyway today OH, who must've been bored and in need of a bank Holiday project , did a bit of investigating and discovered the original rigid plastic lining still in place under the pebble pool. There was no separate reservoir for the fountain, just the pump in a perforated basket, so the pond lining still held in the water.

 

After shifting about a ton (no exaggerating, he's shattered!) of gravel, we filled the pond... and the level promptly dropped by about 6" .

 

Presumably there's a leak somewhere near the top of the pond - can anyone please tell me how to find and fix the leak? Or would it be simpler just to empty it again and use a flexible liner?

[Egluntyne]

No idea sorry, but if you do restore it, a word of caution, a couple of Omleteers have had chickens drown in garden ponds.

[Yorkshire Pudding]

 

Thanks for the warning Egluntine.

 

We had planned to fence them out of the pond area - they were in their run today, having yesterday staged a 'Great Escape' through a previously undetected gap in the hedge... I had to dash out and round them up. Still, I got to meet another neighbour!

 

The poor dears must've felt a bit lost as the moment they saw me they came running across to me, clucking loudly. The little girls who'd been watching them were entranced at the friendly chickens who recognised their Chicken Mum. More converts!

[xScrunchee]

It might be a good idea to go for a new pond liner.

That way you can also change the size or shape of the pond to whatever you like.

I recently replaced my leaking pond liner with one from http://www.aquatics-warehouse.co.uk/acatalog/STANDARD.html

 

They have a 25 year guarantee, super fast delivery and the site is really good for getting info about making ponds, fish health etc.

[MedusA]

Thanks for the link, xScrunchee. I am just about to start building a wildlife pond at my allotment and this website looks perfect.

[Yorkshire Pudding]

Thanks for the link Jay, that looks like a good site. Their prices are a lot better than the garden centre too!

 

The water level hasn't dropped any more, but it has been raining a LOT in the night... we'll keep an eye and decide what to do. I think we were hoping to find a leak and patch it, but we can't see anything obvious.

 

This was one of those projects that OH started on a whim and will turn into a saga!

[Tessa the Duchess]

We had a leak in our pond liner for years, we just put up with it and topped it up when necessary. Changing the liner would have been a real project because the pond has loads of water lillies, frogs etc., Then 2 years ago the pond became infested with blanket weed and duck weed and the only way to get rid of it was to start from scratch, not a pleasant or easy job. I would say keep the liner and top up if the level falls.

 

Tessa

[Yorkshire Pudding]

Well, we topped up the pond today and waited. And waited. No leak!

 

We suspect that the problem isn't the liner but the little waterfall which we ran for a few hours yesterday to test it. It seems that it pumps water out of the pond very well, but then leaks it into the surrounding soil rather than waterfalling it backinto the pond. So we've disconnected the pump from the feeder pipe and all the water has stayed in.

 

So we'll give it a week to settle, then take a trip up the road to Garforth where there is a water plant nursery.

 

Looks like a wildlife pond will be ours... now all we have to do is keep the chickens out of it!

[Lewis]

We used a metal grid which the neighbour got for us from a building site. They use it to strengthening concrete.

 

Its a like that picture:

http://www.installingrebar.com/All-About-Rebar-Detector-big.jpg

 

So if you know a builder maybe thy can help