Q: How do I know if it’s a leak or evaporation loss?
Dena – Albrightsville, PA
A: A little water loss in your water garden is normal – but when it disappears by the inches, you’ve got a mystery to solve. These step-by-step sleuthing tips, below, can help you deduce whether it’s summertime evaporation or a liner leak.
Step 1 – Look for Evaporation Clues
During the heat of the summertime, you can expect some all-natural water loss. Thanks to evaporation, up to an inch (give or take) of water will naturally disappear from the pond, and if you have a long stream bed with a lot of surface area or a large pond with few floating plants, even more water could transform from liquid to vapor. If you suspect evaporation, fill the pond back up and keep an eye on the water level.
Step 2 – Check for Dampness Around the Pond
If more than an inch of water is disappearing every day, you could be dealing with a leak. Walk around the pond and waterfall or stream, and carefully inspect the soil for signs of unexplained moisture. If you find some, take a closer look at that spot’s liner and construction. Leaking water has to go somewhere, and a patch of wet ground is clear indicator of a problem.
Step 3 – Finding Liner Rips
If you suspect a rip or hole in your liner, keep a close eye on the pond’s water level until it stops falling. When it does, that’s when you should look for the leak. Because the water level will stabilize once it lowers past the hole, you should be able to find the problem at or below the water level and fix it.
To repair the leak, you have two options: repair the hole with a patch found in the EPDM Pond Liner Patch Kit, or close it up with some underwater sealer, like Gold Label Pond and Aquarium Sealer. The patch kit comes with everything you need to fix minor tears in your pond liner, including an EPDM patch, solvent wipe, scrub sponge, seam roller and pair of disposable gloves. The underwater sealer, which works on wet or dry surfaces, instantly repairs leaks in rubber and vinyl liners.
Step 4 – Shore Up Your Stream
If you found moisture outside of your stream or waterfall, turn off your pump and inspect the rocks and liner around the wet spot. Is there a hole in the liner? Repair the leak with your liner patch kit. Is water pooling under rocks or splashing outside the stream? Redirect it back down to the pond with Black Waterfall Foam. Once you apply it, it’ll look like shadows between the rocks.
Step 5 – Inspect Your Fittings
Finally, if you’ve ruled out evaporation and there are no damp areas around the circumference of your pond to be found, the culprit could be your pressurized filter, tubing or connections. Inspect the plumbing on the pump or waterfall where pipe splits or loose fittings could be leaking, and repair it as necessary.
Good luck finding the cause of your pond’s water loss!
Pond Talk: How much water evaporates from your pond per day in the summertime?
