Well done and great video work to document this. I fought a leaky pond for years. Never could get it sealed so I dug a sump behind the pond, set a float switch and pumped the water back up and over the dam. Pond boss is full of smart folks!
Thanks! Appreciate the encouragement. That’s an interesting solution with the sump. Did you know it was going under the dam? How deep did you have to dig the sump? I have not seen any water on the back side of our dam. Our leak might be tunneling under the dam a ways and somewhere I can’t see. Bit it might also just be going straight back into the groundwater system however many feet down. Wish I would have found some of those smart folks earlier in our project. Would have saved us some time and money. Oh well…lessons learned.
Water was "flowing" behind the dam in three or four spots. I dug the sump about 3 ft deep and set a tsurumi sump style pump. It would cycle about once an hour to pump the sump pit dry. Fall was tough with all of the leaves and debris to clean out. Note: prior to the pump I drained the pond, layed plastic liner on the dam, then hauled in 20 loads of clay. Still didnt seal it. Poor soil here w/ sand and rock... @@newnatureadventures
That’s frustrating you went through all that effort with the liner and clay to still have the issues. I can relate. Oh the time and expense we will go through to create a water feature in our yards. We are fortunate to have good clay content here. Didn’t have to bring any in. We didn’t compact the basin however, which is likely why we are where we are right now. I think our dam is solid. I like your sump solution. We’re likely recycling our water in a similar way if our leak is just going into the groundwater. Our well pump right now can compensate for the loss and add an 1” in 24 hrs.
This is the one I got: www.aquavu.com/Aqua-Vu-HD7i-125 If I had it to do again, I’d get the pro version that shows depth and water temp on the screen of where the camera is at.
lowering a 12" diameter pipe over the hole and long enough to stick out of the water would suck all the water out of the pipe, giving you a semi dry area to create and directly poor a slury to plug that hole. Then, just remove the pipe. But i have never done this it was just a thought. I would also possibly consider creating a very large heavy footpring for that pipe idea.
Brilliant! We have discussed something similar. Thanks for the suggestion….as it validates the line of thinking. It would seem that the suction would empty the pipe….at least in theory.
Great, but the dye did not actually help find the hole, that was purely by chance. So dye does not really work to find leaks, cause I don't see much dye by that hole
I would say that the dye moved in the direction of the hole in the basin. The dye shifted my focus to an area of the pond I wasn’t looking at originally. The dye narrowed down my focus and attention….which did help me locate it. Was there some luck? Sure. You’re right, I got there too late to witness the original dye going out the hole on camera. It had all gone out the hole or dissipated by the time I drifted the camera over it. In other videos I tested dye tablets to show the stream of dye going out the hole. It was a process for me. I’m sure I would have been searching for a lot longer if I hadn’t of used the dye experiment.
Awesome! Proud to be involved with this project!
You're a bonafide genius sir. Your videos are the best!
Wow, thanks! 😂 Appreciate the compliments….I hope it’s helpful for viewers dealing with leaks. Thanks again for watching along with us.
Great job! Fish are looking good.
Thanks! I agree on the fish. It’s fun to see them growing.
Smart! The camera work is good too
Well done and great video work to document this. I fought a leaky pond for years. Never could get it sealed so I dug a sump behind the pond, set a float switch and pumped the water back up and over the dam. Pond boss is full of smart folks!
Thanks! Appreciate the encouragement. That’s an interesting solution with the sump. Did you know it was going under the dam? How deep did you have to dig the sump? I have not seen any water on the back side of our dam. Our leak might be tunneling under the dam a ways and somewhere I can’t see. Bit it might also just be going straight back into the groundwater system however many feet down. Wish I would have found some of those smart folks earlier in our project. Would have saved us some time and money. Oh well…lessons learned.
Water was "flowing" behind the dam in three or four spots. I dug the sump about 3 ft deep and set a tsurumi sump style pump. It would cycle about once an hour to pump the sump pit dry. Fall was tough with all of the leaves and debris to clean out. Note: prior to the pump I drained the pond, layed plastic liner on the dam, then hauled in 20 loads of clay. Still didnt seal it. Poor soil here w/ sand and rock... @@newnatureadventures
That’s frustrating you went through all that effort with the liner and clay to still have the issues. I can relate. Oh the time and expense we will go through to create a water feature in our yards. We are fortunate to have good clay content here. Didn’t have to bring any in. We didn’t compact the basin however, which is likely why we are where we are right now. I think our dam is solid. I like your sump solution. We’re likely recycling our water in a similar way if our leak is just going into the groundwater. Our well pump right now can compensate for the loss and add an 1” in 24 hrs.
Such impressive problem solving. What a bummer to have a problem like this but truly creative approach to figuring out what was going on and why.
nice find
Thanks…we were fortunate. It saved our pond.
Can you send link for underwater camera? Awesome set up
This is the one I got: www.aquavu.com/Aqua-Vu-HD7i-125
If I had it to do again, I’d get the pro version that shows depth and water temp on the screen of where the camera is at.
lowering a 12" diameter pipe over the hole and long enough to stick out of the water would suck all the water out of the pipe, giving you a semi dry area to create and directly poor a slury to plug that hole. Then, just remove the pipe. But i have never done this it was just a thought. I would also possibly consider creating a very large heavy footpring for that pipe idea.
Brilliant! We have discussed something similar. Thanks for the suggestion….as it validates the line of thinking. It would seem that the suction would empty the pipe….at least in theory.
yayyyy
Great, but the dye did not actually help find the hole, that was purely by chance. So dye does not really work to find leaks, cause I don't see much dye by that hole
I would say that the dye moved in the direction of the hole in the basin. The dye shifted my focus to an area of the pond I wasn’t looking at originally. The dye narrowed down my focus and attention….which did help me locate it. Was there some luck? Sure. You’re right, I got there too late to witness the original dye going out the hole on camera. It had all gone out the hole or dissipated by the time I drifted the camera over it. In other videos I tested dye tablets to show the stream of dye going out the hole. It was a process for me. I’m sure I would have been searching for a lot longer if I hadn’t of used the dye experiment.
yayyyy